Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals recorded a growth of 20.3 % in May 2014 compared to the same period in year 2013. During the month of May, 2014 recorded 90,046 tourists arrivals in the country compared to the 74,838 arrived in May 2013 which is highest in foreign tourist history for month of May.
The cumulative total of foreign tourist arrival for first five months of 2014 is 624,178 giving record of a 26.5 percent increase from the 493,294 came during the corresponding period in 2013.
Most of the tourists arrived from Western Europe with 200,605 tourist arrivals in the first five months of this year recording an 18 % increase over corresponding 2013 figures. France recording 31.2%, Germany 22.6% followed by UK topped the list of Western Europe. Arrivals from South Asia, the other region from where most of the tourists come, increased by 19.4 percent in the year with 145,373 tourists visiting the island while, arrivals from India increased 22.3 percent to 64,327 in May.
In the first five months of the year 108,867 East Asians arrived in the island, an increase of 51.9 percent. Number of Chinese tourists arriving in the island jumped by an impressive 139.6 percent and recorded 43,885.
Arrivals from Eastern Europe increased 46.6 percent with the arrival of 82,271 tourists. Most of the arrivals from Eastern Europe were from Russia with 36,655 arrivals increasing by 77.4 percent.
Arrivals from North America rose by 12.3 percent with 28,699 visitors for the first five months in the year while Tourist arrivals from Middle East rose in May by 34.8 percent to 5,016 and for the year 28,708 tourists arrived from the region.
In the first five months of the year, 20,539 Australians arrived in the country, an 11.1 percent increase from the previous year.
Sri Lanka has earned US$ 814.9 million from tourism in the first five months of this year, an increase of 34 percent compared to last year.
Sri Lanka met its tourist arrival target of 1.2 million for the year 2013 with the numbers up by 26.7 percent from the 1,005,605 arrived in 2012 and earning US$ 1.718 billion in 2013.
The Tourism authorities have rolled out a global mega promotional campaign during this year in order to keep the momentum going to achieve 2.5 million tourist arrivals target by 2016, making Sri Lanka, the emerging Wonder of Asia.
Special Reporter
