Tourist arrivals up 14% in June

Thursday, 3 July 2014 03:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka rose by 14.3% to 103,175 in June, bringing the first half haul to 727,353, up by 25% from a year earlier. Most of the tourist arrivals were from Western Europe with 223,810 tourists visiting in the first six months of this year recording a 17% increase over corresponding 2013 figures. Arrivals from North America rose by 12.2% with 35,588 visitors for the first six months in the year while arrivals from Eastern Europe increased 44.8% with the arrival of 86,580 tourists. Most of the arrivals from Eastern Europe were from Russia with 38,732 arrivals representing a 74.8% increase.

Tourist arrivals from Middle East fell in June by 12% to 9,895 but for the year arrivals increased by 9.5% to 38,603. In the first six months of the year 30,867 East Asians arrived in the island, an increase of 50.3%. Number of Chinese tourists arriving rose by an impressive 137.2% to reach 52,230. Arrivals from South Asia, the other region from where most of the tourists come, increased by 18.3% in the year with 176,323 tourists visiting the island while, arrivals from India increased 23.6% to 114,238 in the first six months of 2014. In the first six months of the year, 24,969 Australians arrived in the country, a 10.7% increase from the previous year. Sri Lanka has earned $ 771.7 million from tourism in the first four months of this year, an increase of 37.0% compared to last year.