Sri Lanka recorded a 16.5% Yearon-Year growth in tourist arrivals for the period from January to November 2012 attracting 883,353 tourists, outstripping Maldives, a key tourist attraction in the South Asian region.

Maldives only managed to attract 866,310 tourists during the JanuaryNovember period with a mere 2.4% growth, monthly bulletins released by relevant tourism authorities showed. With regard to Maldivian tourist arrivals, China accounted for almost a quarter of total cumulative arrivals, more than double the size of next largest market Germany.

During the same period last year, Sri Lanka and Maldives recorded tourist arrivals of 758,458 and 845,732, respectively.

In November 2012 alone, Sri Lanka attracted 109, 202 tourists with a YoY 20.1% increase, up from 90,889 arrivals in November 2011.

All markets demonstrated positive growth both during the first eleven months up to November and November except Middle East (ME) where arrivals dropped by 4.8% and 22.4% respectively to record 6,151.

According to the arrival data released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) for January-November 2012, one quarter of the tourist arrivals represented South Asian region with 220,114 arrivals while India leading the pack with 157,399. Nevertheless the region recorded the lowest YoY growth of 3.9%.

Despite the sovereign debt crisis and the highest unemployment in the Western Europe, 35, 892 tourists travelled to Sri Lanka in November recording a 17.2% YoY growth.

The region accounted for 329,364 arrivals in the first eleven months, the highest number of tourists to the country with an approximately 37% share.

However, it is expected that the 17% YoY growth for the first eleven months to come under pressure in the months to come due to the negative economic conditions prevailing in the Eurozone.

With regard to Western Europe, the highest number of visitors were from the UK amounting 101, 357 with a YoY growth of 5.6%. Visitors from China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan led the East Asian pack to attract 115,672 arrivals for the first eleven months, recording a YoY growth of 34.6%.

It is expected that the global tourism industry which has a total of one billion outbound tourists and a US $ 3.4 billion daily revenue, will be driven predominantly by Asia in the years to come.

On December 18, Sri Lanka welcomed her 950,000 visitor accomplishing the annual target for 2012. The SLTDA is optimistic about the one million tourist arrivals target in 2012, that would yield a revenue exceeding $1 billion, up from last year’s record $830.3 million.

Meanwhile revenue from tourism rose 22.1 percent to $790.1 million in the first 10 months of 2012, over the same period last year.