(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals rose 12.6 percent in April this year compared to the same period last year, the data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) showed.
The month recorded 180,429 tourists arriving in the country compared to the 160,249 arrived in April 2017.
As at 30th April 2018, 888,353 tourists had visited Sri Lanka for this year. It is a 16.1 percent growth over last year when 765,202 tourists had visited the country during the same period.
Asia & Pacific was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 46 percent of the total traffic received in April 2018. Europe accounted for 42 percent of the total traffic, Americas 9 percent, Middle East 2 percent and Africa 1 percent.
India, United Kingdom, China, Australia and Germany were Sri Lanka�s top five international tourist generating markets in the month of April this year. India was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 17 percent of the total traffic received in April 2018. United Kingdom accounted for 14 percent of the total traffic, while China, Australia and Germany accounted for 10 percent, 8 percent and 6 percent respectively.
India, United Kingdom, Germany, China and France were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist generating markets in the month of April this year. India was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 13 percent of the total traffic received in April 2018. United Kingdom accounted for 13 percent of the total traffic, while Germany, China and France accounted for 11 percent, 9 percent and 6 percent respectively.
Arrivals from North America rose 88 percent to 14,147 in April and the arrivals from US rose 102.3 percent to 4,291 during the month.
Tourist arrivals from Europe increased by 9.7 percent with the arrival of 76,366 tourists. Most of the tourists came from UK (26,063), followed by Germany (10,803), and France (7,411).
Tourist arrivals from Middle East declined 26.1 percent with the arrival of 3,736 visitors.
Tourist arrivals from Asia & Pacific increased by 8.5 percent with 82,976 arriving in the island. Of those arrived from Asia, 29,860 were from India corresponding to an increase of 13.4 percent. Australia accounted for 107.6 percent increase in arrivals with 14,023 visitors while arrivals from china declined by 11.9 percent with 17,462 visitors.
Over 2.1 million tourists arrived in Sri Lanka last year contributing US$ 3.9 billion of earnings to the government revenues.
