Less Chinese, more Indian tourists arrive in Sri Lanka now

The number of tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka during February 2017 has been 197,517, says the Tourism Development Authority of Sri Lanka.   When compared to the tourist arrival during February 2016, this is a drop of 0.1 per cent. However, the number of arrivals during January 2017 had increased from 194,280 to 219,360 indicating a growth of 12.9 per cent.   A unique feature noted during February is a drop of 2.1 per cent in the Chinese tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka when compared against the corresponding period of 2016. While there had been 58,269 Chinese tourist arrivals during February 2016, during February 2017 this number has dropped to 57,050.   Meanwhile, the most number of tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka during February 2017 has been from neighbouring India. While the numbers are 57,493, when compared against the tourist arrivals from India during February 2016 which had been 55,454, this is a growth of 3.7 per cent.   Another notable feature during February 2016 was the tourist arrivals from the United Kingdom having increased by 12 per cent and arrivals from Russia having increased by 26.5 per cent.   The arrivals from the UK had increased from 35,447 to 39,686 and Russia, from 15,316 to 19,368.