A sharp rise in the number of Chinese visitors to Sri Lanka is driving the growth of the island nation’s tourism industry, new data has revealed.
According to figures released this week by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), total arrivals to Sri Lanka jumped 18.4% to 846,229 in January-May 2016. But the number of Chinese visitors to the island surged 42.7% to 112,890 in the five-month period, making China the country’s second largest source market after India.
Visitor arrivals from India also rose sharply, up 21.9% to 145,773, and combined, China and India now contribute more than 30% of Sri Lanka’s total visitor numbers.
Other major sources markets such as the UK (+20.8% to 77,295), Germany (+15.0% to 59,106) and France (+11.2% to 46,454) also saw double-digit growth, but arrivals from Russia fell 14.6% to 27,069.
Sri Lanka welcomed a total of 1.8 million international visitors in 2015, which marked an increase of 17.8% compared to the previous year. The country has targeted three million visitors in 2016 and four million by 2020.
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