TOURIST ARRIVALS IN JANUARY INCREASE
The country’s tourist arrivals rose 15.7 percent in January this year compared to the same period last year.
85,874 tourists arrived in January this year compared to the 74,197 arrivals in the corresponding period last year.
Tourist arrivals from Western Europe reached 36,497 this year rising 11.9 percent from last year.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said arrivals from South Asia increased 7.3 percent in January 2012 from the same month in 2011. Of the 19,209 arrivals in January, a majority, 14,615 were from India. Sri Lanka targets one million tourist arrivals this year. Tourism Development Authority statistics have recorded 855,975 tourist arrivals in 2011 compared to the 654,476 arrivals in 2010.
The country has launched an ambitious five-year plan under the guidance of the Economic Development Minister to boost tourism in the country. Under the plan Sri Lanka expects to raise the number of arrivals to 2.5 million and to earn an annual revenue of 2.75 Billion US Dollars by 2016.