Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is seeing further growth with arrivals increasing by over 50 percent in the first quarter of 2010 compared to last year.
Tourist arrivals for the last three months have seen a 50.3 percent growth from 106,702 to 160,409 arrivals year-on-year.
February 2009 saw the largest growth for the last two years, increasing by 67.7 percent from 34,169 to 57,300 year-on-year.
The month of March saw an increase of 53.7 percent with 52,352 arrivals, according to Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority statistics.
Middle East arrivals for March have shown a significant growth, increasing by 138 percent from 1,230 to 2,928 with an increment of 106.1 percent from 3,553 in 2009 to 7,324 in 2010 year-on-year January to March.
North American arrivals grew 95 percent from 1,752 to 3,417. Visitors from Australasia grew by 76.3 percent with the arrival numbers increasing from 1,332 to 2,348. Australian tourists have risen by 80.1 percent.
African arrivals grew by 55.2 percent with the numbers increasing from 87 to 135.
South Asian arrivals increased by 51.7 percent with the numbers increasing from 8,439 to 12,801 and India showed the highest growth in the region with 72.1 percent growth from 5,001 to 8,607 year-on-year for March.
East Asia has also showed positive growth by 47.5 percent, Western Europe grew by 48.6 percent, Eastern Europe 21.8 percent.
Source: The Island Online
:: 
:: 
::