It is no secret that China and India are showing keener interest on geo-strategically vital Sri Lanka. However, the arrival of Indian and Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka seems to be competitive.

When the latest tourist data is analysed it shows that India has become the country from where the highest number of tourists have arrived in Sri Lanka during the first three months of this year, the number being 64,781, China has been the country with the second largest number of tourist visiting the island.

The arrival of Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka during the first three months of this year has increased by 84 per cent with the number being 53,135.

While Sri Lanka has held several promotional activities to attract more Chinese tourists, India follows the ‘visa on arrival’ system in Sri Lanka to its tourists.

Meanwhile, according to the government’s latest tourist data the total number of tourists into Sri Lanka during March has increased by 18 percent as compared to the same month of last year, with the number being 157,051.

The total number of tourists into Sri Lanka during the first three months of 2015 has increased by 13.6 per cent with the total being 478,838.