While the government continues wide programmes to develop the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, large scale luxury and semi-luxury hotels too are being constructed speedily.

The data on tourist arrivals for September 2014 released by the government indicate that the most number of tourist choosing Sri Lanka as their destination has been from China.

In 2013, during the nine months till September there had been 39,354 Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka. However, within the nine months up to September this year the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Sri Lanka has been 94,994. This is an increased of 141 percent over the last year and the highest increase has also been shown by China.

Apart from India and the UK the third highest number of tourists from China has been to Sri Lanka.

Last year China was not in third place but well below countries like Germany, France and the Maldives. But this year, tourist arrivals from China to Sri Lanka have been more than to countries like Germany, France and the Maldives.

During September this year 105,535 tourists have arrived in Sri Lanka, which compared to the same period of last year is an increase of 16.8 percent.

Meanwhile, tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka this year within nine months till September is over 1.1 million. This is an increase of 22.4 percent.