A total of 167,217 tourist arrived in Sri Lanka during November 2016, reveal the latest statistics of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. When compared against the tourist arrivals during November 2015, this is an increase of 144,147 or 16 per cent.
During the first 11 months of 2016 the tourist arrivals have numbered 1,826,041. This number has exceeded the total of 1,798,380 arrivals during 2015.
Furthermore, 14.7 per cent more tourists have arrived in Sri Lanka during the first 11 months of 2016 as against the 1,592,266 recorded during the first 11 months of 2015.
Some 2.2 million tourist arrivals are expected this year, while analysts point out that this target could be achieved easily with the expected arrivals in Sri Lanka during December.
As usual, the majority of the tourists during this period were Indians which number is recorded as being 318,784.
This is a growth of 13.5 per cent as against the corresponding period in 2015. A unique feature is a growth of 26.8 per cent arrivals during the first 11 months of 2016 as against the same period in 2015.
Meanwhile, this period has indicated a drop of 10.1 per cent in arrivals from Russia.