The tourist season for Sri Lanka’s east coast is fast approaching with Arugam Bay being the center of attraction for surfers. It’s a very popular surfing destination among European and Australian travellers. With SriLankan launching direct flights to Australia.

The total number of international tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka during April 2018 was 180,429. In comparison with April last year, there is a growth of 12.6% when the arrivals were 160,249, according to the statistics released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) yesterday.

In April, the largest source market for tourists was India, followed by United Kingdom and China. Almost 94% of tourists travelled to the island by air.

SLTDA said, 888,353 tourists had visited Sri Lanka during the first four months of the year. It is a 16.1% growth over last year when 765,202 tourists had visited the country during the same period. Asia and Pacific was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 46% of the total traffic received in April 2018. Europe accounted for 42% of the total traffic, Americas 9%, Middle East 2% and Africa 1%. India, United Kingdom, China, Australia and Germany were Sri Lanka’s top five international tourist generating markets in the month of April this year. India was the largest source of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with 17% of the total traffic received in April 2018. United Kingdom accounted for 14% of the total traffic, while China, Australia and Germany accounted for 10%, 8% and 6% respectively.