August records third highest-ever tourist arrivals of 100,000+
Tuesday, 17 September 2013 01:01
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By Cheranka Mendis
Tourist arrivals in August crossed the 100,000 mark, recording the third highest-ever figure for any month.
Sri Lanka Tourism said yesterday that arrivals in August amounted to 100,224, up by 26% over a year earlier. The last two occasions when the country enjoyed over 100,000 arrivals were in 2012 November (109,202) and December (122,252).
Data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority yesterday showed arrivals topping 711,449 during the first eight months of the year, a 14.3% increase from the corresponding period of 2012.
The top 10 markets as at end of August shows India continuing its hold as Sri Lanka’s biggest tourist market with 113,541 tourists, followed by the traditional markets UK and Germany with 81,644 and 53,218 respectively.
Also in the top 10 are France (43,328), Middle East (35,931), Maldives (35,290), Australia (31,039), China (24,306), USA (22,552) and Japan (20,267).
The largest arrivals from a single country during the month also came from neighbouring India, which recording an arrival base of 14,528 in August, a 29.2% growth from a year earlier.
Recognised as a traditional market, UK, which has established itself as the second biggest tourist generator to Sri Lanka, recorded an increase of 6.9% with the numbers reading 12,353 tourists coming into the country during the month.
Following behind, taking up the third, fourth and fifth positions are France, Maldives and Japan, with arrivals reading 6,738 (23.1%), 4,668 (32.1%), and 4,407 (33.5%).
Regionally, Western Europe recorded the largest number of arrivals numbering 38,951 with 19.3% growth over the same month of the previous year. Arrivals from South Asia were 22,208 (35.9%), East Asia 15,544, Middle East 8,683 and North America 5,634. The number of travellers from Australasia was recorded at 4,358 and Eastern Europe 4,281 while Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean showed 463 and 98 arrivals respectively.
When assessing percentage wise growth for the month, the largest growth was seen from Indonesia, recording 124% despite the total arrivals number being 486. This was followed by Sweden, with an increase of 102.1%.
Negative growth was seen from Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and Ukraine of 23%, 11%, 27.8% and 10.7%.
