Tourist arrival up 2.5-pct in August amid cricket series

Sept 11, 2017 (LBO) - Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka rose 2.5 percent from a year earlier to 190,924 in August with Indian arrivals up due to the recently concluded cricket series, data showed. Arrivals up to August rose 3.5 percent to 1.406 million, data from the state tourism office said. Indian arrivals rose 27 percent to 31,220, while the rest of the region showed dips with arrivals from Maldives down 5 percent to 6,405, and Pakistan down 1.

2 percent to 3,133. China arrivals were down 3.7 percent to 26,507 in August, while in the first eight months it was down 0.

7 percent to 189,696. Considering other East Asian countries, Malaysian visitors were up 27 percent to 2,311 while Indonesia and Singapore were up 120 percent, and 14 percent respectively. UK in Western Europe was up 7 percent to 21,903, while German arrivals were down 10 percent and France was down 7 percent. Russia arrivals kept on the downward trend, down 49 percent to 1,272 with Ukraine arrivals up 20 percent to 1,399. The overall Middle East market was also down 12.9 percent to 16,339.