Tourism earnings top US $ 900 m in first five months

Earnings from tourism recorded a growth of 35.8 percent to US $ 901.8 million during the first five months this year, a Central Bank report said.

The number of tourist arrivals up to May increased by 26.5 percent to 624,178. Arrivals in June grew at 14.3 percent, year-on-year, to 103,175, while earnings from tourism increased 22.7 percent to US $ 149.1 million. The top five sources of tourist arrivals in June were India, China, UK, the Maldives and Australia accounting for around 47 percent of arrivals during the month.The tourism industry, a key foreign exchange earner contributes a major share to economic growth.

According to the Central Bank, the gross official reserves amounted to US $ 8.8 billion by end of May, while total foreign assets, which include foreign assets of the banking sector amounted to US $ 10.2 billion.

In terms of months of imports, gross official reserves were equivalent to 5.9 months of imports at end of May 2014, while total foreign assets were equivalent to 6.9 months of imports. A healthy level of reserves has been maintained, despite outflows on account of foreign debt service payments of US $ 987.4 million and IMF-SBA payments of US $ 264.7 million. The tourism industry targets around 1.2 million arrivals by the end of this year focusing on promotions in new markets to drive growth. The high room rates and inadequate number of hotel rooms have been impediments to accelerate growth.