Sri Lanka’s attempts at attracting more visitors from the huge Chinese tourist market are providing dividends with a significant increase in Chinese tourist arrivals this year too.

According to official government statistics, compared to February 2013 the number of tourist arrivals from China and Hong Kong to Sri Lanka in February this year has been 10,319 which is an increase of 63.9 percent.

While the tourist arrival to Sri Lanka in February 2014 is 141,878, this is an increase of 24.5 compared to the same month last year.

The highest arrivals reported are from countries like India, Russia and China.

The number of tourist arrivals within the two months of this year has been 288,453 which is an increase of 28.5 percent.

The Sri Lankan government recently carried out a series of promotional campaigns in China to attract more tourists to the island.