Buoyed by higher tourist arrivals from India and China, Sri Lanka’s total tourist arrivals during the month of June rose 19 percent year-on-year (YoY) to 146,828, the data released by the country’s tourism office showed.

Asia and the Pacific continued to be the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka, with 58 percent of the total traffic received in June 2018.   

Europe accounted for 28 percent of the total traffic, America 7 percent, the Middle East 6 percent and Africa one percent.

India was the biggest single source of tourists to Sri Lanka during the month of June, while China was the second. Arrivals from India rose 18.4 percent YoY to 32,971.

Total South Asian arrivals rose 15.5 percent YoY to 41,678.

Arrivals from China, the second largest tourist source market during June, rose 18.7 percent to 20,424.

European arrivals, led by the UK and Germany, rose 10.3 percent YoY to 41,533.

Over a 100 percent YoY jump in tourist arrivals to 8,433 was seen from the Middle East during June, most likely due to the Ramadan holidays. Arrivals from Saudi Arabia alone rose over 200 percent to 5,422.

Arrivals from Oceania—which mainly consists of Australia and New Zealand—rose 64.3 percent YoY to 11,639. Meanwhile, for the first six months of the year, the total tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka increase 15.3 percent YoY to 1.16 million. 

Sri Lanka achieved 2.1 million tourists in 2017 despite the partial closure of the country’s main airport for about three months. The floods and dengue epidemic also contributed to the lower than expected arrivals.  

The government aims to attract three million tourists this year.