Tourist arrivals cross 50,000 mark in first 9 days of April

PIC BY NISAL BADUGE

•  Cumulative arrivals reach 686,321
•  Daily average improves to 5615
•  India tops list, followed by UK and Russia 

Extending the growth momentum, the international tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka crossed the 50,000 mark during the first nine days of April.
The provisional data from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority showed that for the first nine days of April, the island nation welcomed a total of 50,537. This brings the cumulative arrivals for the January 1 to March 9 period to 686,321. 

When compared with the same period, last year, the inflow of international visitors has expanded by above 45 percent in the nine-day period.
The daily average improved to around 5615 in the month, from around 3844 from a year ago. Sri Lanka is targeting between 168,539 and 182,724 tourist arrivals for April, which requires a daily average between 5617 and 6090, to achieve this target. The current arrival trend shows that Sri Lanka could reach the lower bound of the arrival target for the month.
Meanwhile, India topped the list as the largest tourist traffic generator, accounting for 19 percent of the total arrivals in the month.
The UK overtook Russia as the second largest tourist traffic generator in the month, contributing to 13 percent of the tourist arrivals.  With the recent update to travel advisory on Sri Lanka by the UK authorities, Sri Lanka expects a higher number of tourist arrivals from the UK.
Russia was the close third, bringing in 10 percent of the total number of international visitors.
Germany, France, Australia and China occupied the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh positions in the rankings.