Saturday, 12 April 2014 00:00
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Tourist arrivals in March rose by 17.5% compared to the same period in 2013, data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed.
The month recorded 133,048 tourists arriving in the country compared to 113,208 who arrived in March 2013.
In the first three months of this year a total of 421,501 tourists arrived in the island, recording a 24.8% increase from the 337,719 during the corresponding period in 2013.
Arrivals from North America rose by 10.7% with 18,440 visitors for the first three months in the year while 143,760 tourist arrivals were recorded from Western Europe rising 12.6%.
Arrivals from Eastern Europe increased 56.5% with the arrival of 66,421 tourists for the year while arrivals from Russia increased by 89.8% to 29,371.
Tourist arrivals from the Middle East rose in March by 18.8% to 6,629.
The first three months of the year recorded 72,639 East Asians arriving in the island, an increase of 53.0%. China recorded a 127.8% increase with the arrival of 28,798 in the first three months of the year.
Arrivals from South Asia increased by 15.9% in March 2014 with 71,710 tourists visiting the island, while arrivals from India increased 22.6% to 18,734 in March.
In the first three months of the year, 12,467 Australians arrived in the country, a 3.1% increase from the previous year.
Sri Lanka met its tourist arrival target of 1.2 million for 2013 with the numbers rising by 26.7% from the 1,005,605 who arrived in 2012 and earned $ 1.23 billion in the first 11 months of 2013.
