Tourist Arrivals in Sri Lanka up 2.1 pct in 2009. 2010 Arrivals to Exceed Previous High in 2004

09th January 2010, www.island.lk, By Devan Daniel

Tourist arrivals for 2009 recorded a positive growth, with arrivals increasing by 2.1 percent over 2008. Since the war against the LTTE ended last May arrivals, recording negative figures since then, began to recover.

Data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority showed that arrivals improved to 447,890 in 2009 from 438,475 in the previous year, with December recording the highest number of arrivals at 56,862, a 16.2 percent increase from December 2008.

The highest number of arrivals was recorded in 2004 with 566,000 tourists visiting the country.

According to the Central Bank the positive trend in tourist arrivals would continue this year and total arrivals are expected to surpass figures for 2004.

In December 2009, arrivals from Western Europe increased 15.6 percent to 19,962 with arrivals from the UK improving by 12.1 percent to 8,726, France by 31.6 percent to 1,833 and Germany by 13.2 percent to 3,614.

Arrivals from South Asia increased by 22.1 percent to 15,339 in December while the number of arrivals from India increased by 49.6 percent to 10,418.

For the entire year, India was the biggest source of tourist arrivals with 83,634 although slipping 1.9 percent from 2008. Arrivals from South Asia fell by 1.5 percent to 126,205 compared to 2008.

Arrivals from Western Europe increased 1.8 percent to 170,123 in 2009. Tourists from France doubled from 2008 levels to 15,886. Arrivals from the UK increased by a marginal 0.3 percent to 81,594 and arrivals from Germany fell 3.2 percent to 29,654.

Arrivals from the Middle East increased 41.5 percent to 23,741 and arrivals from East Asia increased by 7.5 percent to 48,329.

The number of visitors from Eastern Europe fell by 10.6 percent to 26,310 with arrivals from Russia dropping by 25.1 percent to 11,834.