Tourist arrivals up in February

The number of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka went up 16.7 % to 165,541 in the month of February 2015, compared to February 2014 which was only 141,878, according to the latest figures released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA). In the first two months of this year 321,787 tourists visited the island, an increase of 11.6 percent compared to the same period in 2014. Arrivals from North America rose 23.0 percent to 6,750 in February and the arrivals form US rose 36.9 percent to 3,942 during the month. Tourist arrivals from Western Europe reached 60,777 during the month, a 15.5 percent increase from the 52,635 tourists arrived in the same month last year. Tourist arrivals from East Asia increased 67.2 percent as 41,907 visited the country compared to the 25,065 visited in February 2014. Arrivals from China compared to last year increased 165.8 percent with the arrival of 27,425 visitors. Arrivals from South Asia increased by 11.7 percent with 29,011 tourists visiting the island in February 2015. Of those arrived from South Asia, 19,999were from India corresponding to an increase of 14.1 percent. Sri Lanka exceeded its target of 1.5 million tourist arrivals last year and earned US$ 2.206 billion from tourism. The Tourism Authority has set a target of 2 million tourist arrivals this year and 2.5 million by 2016.