September tourist arrivals up 26%

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in the month of September rose 26.2 percent from a year ago to 89 761, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority statistics showed. During the first nine months of 2013, the arrivals rose 15.5 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) to 801, 210.

Indian visitors, Sri Lanka’s largest market, grew by as much as 30 percent YoY to 18,048 in September.

During the first nine months, India accounted for 131, 589 tourists or 16 percent of the total arrivals.

Tourist ar rivals from United Kingdom (UK) and Germany—two leading traditional markets accounted 11 percent and 7 percent of the total arrivals respectively, being among the top ten markets for Sri Lanka.

Visitors from Maldives rose 34.5 percent YoY to 4, 977 and arrivals from the South Asian region were up 31.8 percent YoY to195,195.

Although Chinese arrivals increased by as much as 81.2 percent YoY the 4,847 arrivals in September were very insignificant given the magnitude of the China’s outbound tourism market.

Meanwhile in September, 9,070 British nationals arrived in Sri Lanka recording a mild 5.6 percent increase YoY with 6,732 Germans arriving, an increase of 36.2 percent YoY.

Overall Western European arrivals were up 19.1 percent YoY to 26,598 with UK and Germany leading the pack.

Russian arrivals were up 71 percent YoY to 2,920 and visitors from Ukraine were up 38 percent YoY to 2,201 helping the total Eastern European visitors to increase by 42 percent YoY to 6,646. Total Russian and Ukraine arrivals up to September were 22,562 and 15,294, respectively.

Arrivals from North American market showed a growth of just above14 percent YoY to 3,831 in September with 46, 455 North Americans coming in the first nine months.

Although 4,772 Australians perceived Sri Lanka as their holiday destination of choice in September which grew by 7.3 percent YoY, the number of New Zealanders visiting Sri Lanka during September declined13 percent to 462.

Altogether the Australasian region accounted for 5,410 visitors in September with 40,375 visitors up to September.