More British tourists arrive

Tourists arriving from Britain have increased following UK Government’s decision to lift the restrictions against travel to Sri Lanka. There are no travel restrictions to any part of Sri Lanka now.

The British High Commission said that from January to November 95,320 British tourists visited Sri Lanka in 2010. It is a 30.8% percent increase over the 72,868 visited in the same period last year. The British tourist arrivals this year accounted for 17% of the total visitors to the country. In 2009 too, 19% of total tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka were from the UK. British tourists were the second highest number to visit Sri Lanka in 2010 next to India. A total of 111,129 tourists from India visited Sri Lanka in the year. The High Commission expects the arrivals from the UK to pass 125,000 by the end of this year. Sri Lanka has seen a significant increase in tourist arrivals in the country this year compared to last year. Up to November this year 569,849 tourist arrivals have been recorded. This is an increase off 47% over 2009. Last Week the tourism officials welcomed the 600,000th tourist, a British national, to Sri Lanka during 2010.