The month recorded 166,610 tourists arriving in the country compared to the 140,319 arrived in August 2014.

In the first eight months of this year 1,172,465 tourists visited the island, an increase of 17.1 percent compared to the 1,001,643 recorded for the same period in 2014.

Arrivals from North America increased 18.1 percent to 7,044 in August. Arrivals from US were up 23.8 percent to 3,278 while arrivals from Canada increased by 13.5 percent to 3,766 during the month.

Tourist arrivals from Western Europe increased 15.8 percent in August with the arrival of 55,868 tourists, compared to the 48,253 tourists arrived in the same month last year. Most of the tourist arrivals from Western Europe were from the UK and Germany.

Arrivals from Eastern Europe increased 19.4 percent with the arrival of 8,333 tourists in August 2015 compared to the 6,979 arrived in August 2014. However, tourist arrivals from Eastern Europe declined this year by 7.5 percent due to the economic recession in Russia and the crisis in Ukraine.

Arrivals from Middle East declined 17.5 percent with 15,523 visitors arriving in August 2015.

Tourist arrivals from East Asia increased 39.1 percent as 37,583 visited the country compared to the 27,021 visited in August 2014. Arrivals from China compared to last year increased 73.3 percent with the arrival of 24,734 visitors while arrivals from Japan declined 8.0 percent.

Arrivals from South Asia increased by 30.3 percent as 34,912 tourists visited the island in August 2015. Of those arrived from South Asia, 23,540 were from India corresponding to an increase of 31.4 percent.

In the first seven months of this year Earnings from Tourism increased by 16.8 percent and Sri Lanka earned US$ 1.6 billion from tourism.

Sri Lanka exceeded its target of 1.5 million tourist arrivals last year and earned US$ 2.206 billion from tourism.

The Tourism Authority has set a target of 2 million tourist arrivals this year and 2.5 million by 2016.