Sri Lanka tourist arrivals up 8.5-pct in April 2015; India top gainer

May 08, 2015 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals rose 8.



5 percent to 122,217 in April 2015, from a year earlier driven by growth in the Indian and Chinese markets, official data shows. Top generating market for April, India rose 34 percent to 23,048 from a year earlier while recording a 23 percent rise in the first four months to 87,829. Arrivals from China rose 72.3 percent to 13,790 maintaining a blistering growth rate.



Total Chinese arrivals in the first four months rose 81.8 percent to 66,925 making it the second largest generating market.

In South Asian arrivals a 17.7 percent rise to 32,907 was recorded in April. Maldives was down 14.6 percent to 5,859, Pakistan down 0.2 percent to 2,759 and Bangladesh down one percent to 829. Western European arrival fell 6.

4 percent to 34,964. Tourist from UK fell 9.3 percent to 11,233 but arrivals in the first four months of the year was up 9.0 percent to 56,046. Tourists from Germany also fell 21.

1 percent to 6,423 while France rose 7 percent to 6,386 and visitors from Netherlands rose 22 percent to 1,764.

There was growth recorded from Russia with a 14.5 percent rise to 5,699 recorded. The Czech Republic was also up 7 percent to 1,167. Ukrainian visitors were down 31 percent to 1,328.