Tourist arrivals up by 44%

by Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Tourist arrivals increased by 44 percent upto September.

Up to end of last month a total of 445,228 tourists visited Sri Lanka. This clearly indicates that Sri Lanka is heading for a record year of arrivals by the end of this year.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has announced 2011 as 'Visit Sri Lanka Year' and with intensified marketing campaign involving all foreign missions.

This is also a clear indication that Sri Lanka can achieve 2.5 million tourist arrivals by 2016.

One of the notable features of the arrival pattern of September was the increase of British tourists. For the first time this year UK tourist arrivals (8,904) exceeded the Indian arrivals (8,864) which were the leading market for a long period.

"This is a very healthy development as British tourists are high spending and also long stayers," said Director General Sri Lanka Tourism, S. Kaleselvam.

The overall European arrivals increased from 13,027 to 18,599 in September as against the previous year and became the number one destination for Sri Lanka.

With the promotions made by the USA High Commission there is also a 32 percent increase in arrivals from USA which is also a very healthy development.

"There had been also a very positive response from both foreign and local investors to set up luxury resorts in the Kalpitiya Integrated Tourism Project. Two properties have already commenced construction and negotiations are under way to finalise the lease of the other islands," Kaleselvam said.

In addition, more up market properties are being built in Arugambay, Trincomalee and in Jaffna.