COLOMBO,
October
26, 2012 | The Hindu
The Hindu A cultural extravaganza by Sri Lanka Tourism
campaign in Hyderabad. A file photo: Mohammed Yousuf.
The next largest group is from United Kingdom
Indian tourists far outnumber people from the rest of
the countries visiting Sri Lanka. This has again been confirmed after the
September 2012 numbers were compiled and put out by the Sri Lanka Tourism.
In September this year, a total of 71,111 tourists
visited Sri Lanka. Of this, 13,888 (19.5 per cent) were Indians. The next
largest group, country-wise, was from the United Kingdom, 8586. While the
overall number of tourist arrivals from India didn’t change significantly
compared to September 2011, (just an increase of 4.2 per cent), the numbers are
increasing from the rest of the globe, as word spreads on the newer properties,
and the reign of peace by the Sri Lankan government.
The statistics from January to September of this year,
too, reveal that Indians are the largest group. The number of tourists from
India was 1,20,530 from January to September 2011. This has marginally gone up
to 122,120. Again, this constitutes the largest chunk of tourists. The next
largest group was from the United Kingdom — 81,762, followed by Germany
(49,037) and France (42,396). Though the percentage of Chinese tourists has
increased hugely (30 per cent) compared to the previous year, their numbers are
still relatively small (16,623 from January to September this year).
Sri Lanka aims to attract 1 million tourists this
year. Last year, 8.55 lakh visited the country. This year, till September, as
many as seven lakh have walked through the only gateway, the Bandaranaike
International Airport in Colombo.
That is 16 per cent more than the numbers that walked
through the airport last year.
