Sri Lanka tourist arrivals up 14-pct in June

July 03, 2014 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals rose 14.3 percent to 103,195 in June 2014 from a year earlier, driven by China and India, data from the state tourism promotion office showed.





In the first half of 2014 arrivals were up 24.

6 percent to 727,353.

South Asian visitors were up 13.

3 percent to 30,950 with arrivals from India, Sri Lanka top market, up 30.2 percent to 19,911. Visitors from Maldives were down 14.



5 percent to 7,528 and Pakistan was down 7.5 percent to 2,212.

East Asian visitors were up 42.

9 percent to 22,000 with arrivals from China up 125 percent to 8,345.

China with Hong Kong is now the second largest market for monthly inbound visitors, taking over from Britain last month.

In the six months to June, visitors from China were up 137 percent to 52,230 compared to 66,123 from Britain up 7.

7 percent.

Malaysian visitors were up 29.4 percent to 2,807, Japanese were up 42.

9 percent to 2,666 and Indonesia was u 13.9 percent to 2,674.

Visitors from Western Europe were up 8.9 percent 23,205 in the month with UK up 1.

9 percent to 7,790 and Germany up 27 percent to 4,328.

Western European visitors are strong in the northern hemisphere winter seas