Tourist arrivals to reach 800,000 mark

by Lalin FERNANDOPULLE

The 'Visit Sri Lanka Campaign' and the five-year tourism development strategy has paid dividends to the tourism industry which is posed to achieve new highs with the number of visitors expecting to touch the 800,000 mark by the end of the year, said a top official of Sri Lanka Tourism.

He said 2011 has been a remarkable year for Sri Lanka Tourism which has recorded a month-on month growth in tourist arrivals compared to the previous years following aggressive marketing and promotional activities.

The number of tourist arrivals rose 27.2 percentto 60,219 in October this year, compared to October 2010 which was only 47,339, according to figures released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.

There is an increase in the number of arrivals from Western Europe, South Asia, East Asia, Middle East and North America. Tourists from Western Europe, the traditional tourist generating market, rose by 4.3 percent to 19,394 in October 2011.

The number of visitors from France went up to 46.1 percent to 2,848, those from Austria up 92.6 percent to 314 and from Netherlands up 20.3 percent to 1,505.

South Asian visitors rose to 51.4 percent to 18,422 with tourists from India up by 50.4 percent to 13,329, from Maldives up 46.8 percent to 3,497 and from Pakistan up 38.9 percent to 878.

Arrivals from Australasia went up 25.1 percent to 3,442 and from East Asia up by 64.8 percent to 8,841. Japanese visitors increased 72.9 percent to 2,439, visitors from Singapore rose 66.9 percent to 1,267.

Visitors from China rose by 147.2 percent to 1,607.

The growth in the tourism industry could be adversely affected due to lack of infrastructure facilities such as hotel rooms and transportation which are essential to boost tourism, officials said.

The move to acquire under performing entities and underutilised assets may send out wrong signals to foreign investors who are keen to set up business ventures in Sri Lanka, industry experts said.