Tourist arrivals up 16.8%

Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals rose 16.8 percent to 105,535 in September 2014 compared to the corresponding period last year, according to official statistics. The growth was driven by India and China.

In the nine months of 2014, arrivals were up 22.4 percent to 1,107,178. Visitors from South Asian countries were up 9.7 percent to 28,561 compared to the same month last year with arrivals from India, Sri Lanka's top market, surged 4.6 percent to 19,244.

Visitors from the Maldives were up 40.7 percent to 6,276 and Pakistan was down 17.7 percent to 1,772. East Asian visitors were up 57.8 percent to 23,516 with arrivals from China up 129.4 percent to 13,312.

In the nine months up to September, visitors from China were up 52.1 percent to 207,214 compared to 107,330 from Britain up 4.5 percent.