Cricket plays up tourist arrivals in July, sets record for the month

The Tourist Board says July’s arrivals are the best ever recorded for the month, with 50,525 visitors, run up by Indian cricket enthusiast following their team here.



The Tourist Board says July’s arrivals are the best ever recorded for the month, with 50,525 visitors, run up by Indian cricket enthusiast following their team here. “The good news is, this July we had the best arrivals recorded for the month of July,” said Director Research and International Affairs, Malraj Kiriella.

Arrivals were lead by India, Western Europe and Eastern Europe.

The influx was credited to a mid year mini-peak driven by the marathon of cricket matches and the traditional national events like the Esala Perahera that graced July.

Indian arrivals went up by almost half compared to July 2003 to record 10,415 visitors.

Western European arrivals grew by 9.

7 percent compared to last July and recorded 25,163 tourists to Sri Lanka.

Tourists from all of Sri Lanka’s traditional markets like UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands also increased.

Arrivals from Eastern Europe went up by 114 percent but from a low base and mostly from Russia to record 873 visitors.