News, Picks
Tourist arrivals for 2018 falls short of target following political crisis
03 Jan, 2019
Tourist arrivals for the year 2018 fell short of the target as a result of the political crisis, the?Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) said today.
According to official data released by the SLTDA, Sri Lanka?s tourist arrivals during the year 2018 has registered a healthy growth of 10.3% reaching to 2,333,796 million tourists compared to 2,116,407 million tourist arrivals in 2017.
In terms of arrivals, the months of March, February, June, and November recorded the highest growth rates while the month of December recorded the highest number of arrivals of 253,169 for the year 2018.
?Although the tourist arrivals for the year 2018 was fallen slightly short due to the political instability we saw post 26th October, I think in terms of earnings we have reached the 3.5 billion target, Minister of Tourism Development, John Amaratunga said.
He also added that with Lonely Planet ranking Sri Lanka as the No. 1 destination to travel in 2019 and the new promotional plans, he is optimistic Sri Lanka will receive 4 million tourists and generate an income over $5 billion by the end of 2019.
According to the Authority India, China, the United Kingdom, and Germany continued to dominate as the top source markets to Sri Lanka in 2018 and significant growth of arrivals was seen from Australia. (Colombo Gazette)
Recommended For You
