Tourist arrivals hit a record high in December with 97,517, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) said.

The month has recorded a 15.2 percent increase in arrivals compared to December 2010 while the number of arrivals in 2011 increased by 30.8 percent over the previous year.

SLTDA statistics have recorded 855,975 tourist arrivals in 2011 compared to the 654,476 arrived in 2010.


A record 315,210 tourists arrived from the Western Europe accounting for a 36.8 percent of total arrivals. Most of the European visitors were from Britain.

Another 237,647 or 27.8 percent arrived from South Asia, mostly from India.

Arrivals from Western Europe increased 22.7 percent while arrivals from South Asia increased 35.3 percent in 2011 from 2010.

Sri Lanka 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 annual revenue of US$ 2.75 billion by 2016.

Recently both National Geographic and Conde Nast named Sri Lanka among its top destinations for 2012.


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The "Tourist arrivals in December hit a record high" Press Release has been published and distributed by IEWY