Tourists arrivals up 17.5 percent in 2012

The number of tourists arrivals rose 17.5 percent to 1,005,605 last year compared to 855,975 in the previous year, Sri Lanka Tourism statistics revealed.

Sri Lanka Tourism achieved its target of attracting one million visitors to the country in 2012 and has set a target of wooing 1.25 million visitors this year.

The number of arrivals rose 122,252 to 25.4 percent last December compared to 97,517 in the corresponding month of 2011. The highest number of visitors last year was recorded in December followed by 109, 202 in November and 91,102 in March.

The least number of visitors was recorded in May with 57,506 and the least growth percentage was 9.0 percent in April.

Sri Lanka had 883,353 tourists from January to November last year which was a 16.5 percent growth compared to 758,458 in the corresponding period of 2011. The number of tourist arrivals rose 20.1 percent to 109,202 in November 2012 compared to 90,889 in the corresponding month of 2011.

Sri Lanka Tourism has placed an ambitious target of attracting 2.5 million visitors by 2016. Tourism industry experts are optimistic that the country could reach this target due to the steady growth achieved last year. They also stressed the need for an adequate number of hotel rooms and a skilled work force to woo visitors.

The opening of hotels in the North and the East and refurbishing city hotels will help attract more visitors this year, industry experts said.

The number of foreign visitors increased 16 percent to 774,151 during the first 10 months of last year compared 667,569 in the previous year. Sri Lanka was recognised as one of the safest destinations by a globally renowned magazine last year.

Fifteen Sri Lanka chefs brought honour to the country by winning 14 gold medals at the Culinary Olympics in Germany last year.

The Latin American and Caribbean market has been a key contributor to the growth in tourist arrivals last year. The number of arrivals from the regions rose 56.9 percent to 1,626 from January to December last year compared to 1,036 during the corresponding period in 2011. Eastern Europe and Africa were the other contributors to tourism arrivals last year with 43.6 percent and 39.6 percent .

Arrivals from the traditional Western Europe market and South Asia which is a major market for MICE tourism in Sri Lanka were not impressive last year. The number of visitors from Western Europe rose 18.4 percent to 373,063 and South Asia 4.2 percent to 247,559.

Tourists from East Asia rose 38.0 percent to 132,730 last year. Visitors from the Middle East dropped 0.3 percent to 56,169 last year.

LF