Tourist arrivals in Lanka up 19.8% in 2014, exceeds 1.5 mn

Sri Lanka met its tourist arrival target of 1.5 million for 2014 as data today showed a 19.8 per cent increase, with as many as 242,734 Indians visiting the picturesque country.
A total 1,527,153 tourists arrived in Lanka in 2014, recording a 19.8 per cent increase from the 1,274,593, who visited the country during 2013, according to data released by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).
Arrivals from neighbour India increased 16.3 per cent to 242,734 in 2014.
Sri Lanka earned a whopping USD 1.775 billion from tourism in the first ten months of 2014, an increase of 30.4 per cent compared to same period in 2013, the Colombo Page reported.

The statistics showed the country had met its tourist arrival target of 1.5 million for the year 2014, it said.
Most of the tourist arrivals were from Western Europe, with 479,007 tourists visiting in 2014, recording a 13.8 per cent increase over corresponding 2013 figures. For the month of December, 55,877 tourists arrived in the island, 13.9 per cent more than in December, 2013.

Arrivals from North America rose by 10.7 per cent with 72,653 visitors last year while arrivals from Eastern Europe increased 22.6 per cent with the arrival of 154,153 tourists. Arrivals from Eastern Europe rose 6.3 per cent for the last month, the report said.

Tourist arrivals from Middle East declined in December by 24.3 per cent, but for the year arrivals increased by 10.5 per cent to 88,991.
Last year, 280,511 East Asians arrived in the island, an increase of 53.2 per cent. Number of Chinese tourists arriving in Sri Lanka rose by an impressive 136.1 per cent to reach 128,166. In December alone, tourists arrivals from China increased by 120.4 per cent with 10,400 Chinese tourists visiting the island.
Arrivals from South Asia, the other region from where most of the tourists come, increased by 13.4 per cent to record 370,299.
In 2014, 57,940 Australians arrived in the country, a 6.8 per cent increase from the previous year, it said.