Sri Lanka tourist arrivals up 12.6-pct in April 2018

May 08, 2018 (LBO) – Sri Lanka tourist arrivals increased 12.6 percent in April this year against last year with the largest source market for tourists becoming India, followed by United Kingdom and China. The total number of international tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka during April 2018 was 180,429. In comparison to April last year, there is a growth of 12.6% when the arrivals were 160,249. This month, the largest source market for tourists was India, followed by United Kingdom and China. Almost 94 percent of tourists traveled by air to Sri Lanka. As at 30th April 2018, 888,353 tourists had visited Sri Lanka for this year. It is a 16.1 percent growth over last year when 765,202 tourists had visited the country during the same period. Asia & Pacific was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 46 percent of the total traffic received in April 2018. Europe accounted for 42 percent of the total traffic, Americas 9 percent, Middle East 2 percent and Africa 1 percent. India, United Kingdom, China, Australia and Germany were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist generating markets in the month of April this year. India was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 17 percent of the total traffic received in April 2018. United Kingdom accounted for 14 percent of the total traffic, while China, Australia and Germany accounted for 10 percent, 8 percent and 6 percent respectively.