May 12, 2011 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka rose 66.7 percent to 63,835 in April 2011 from a year ago with sharp increases in visitors from south Asia and the traditional Western European markets. Total arrivals were up 40.4 percent to 278,959 in the four months to April, data from the tourist promotion office showed.
The number of visitors from Western Europe, a key source of revenue to the island’s resort hotels, rose 70 percent to 23,226.
The number of arrivals from Germany, long a big market for Sri Lanka, rose 94 percent to 4,114 while those from the United Kingdom, another traditional market, rose 33.5 percent to 9,038.
Arrivals from Scandinavian countries, although small, more than doubled.
Tourists from south Asia also grew strongly mainly driven by Indians whose numbers rose 90 percent to 14,705 in March 2011 from a year ago.