The number of tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka during October this year has grown by 8.8 per cent while compared to October 2014, says the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority . The number of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka last month was 132,280 while in October 2014 this number had been 121,576.

The total number of tourist arrivals during the first 10 months of this year is 1,448,119, adds the Authority. When compared to the same period last year this is a growth of 17.9 per cent.

While the number of tourists to Sri Lanka from the North American region has increased by 1.3 per cent during last month, the number of tourists from the United States has dropped by 8.5 per cent. However, te number of tourist arrivals from Canada has grown by 17.9 per cent during last month.

Tourist arrivals from Western Europe have grown by 14.6 per cent during October 2015 with the most number being from the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

However, arrivals from Easter European countries have dropped by 3.2 per cent during last month, with the economic recession in Russia and the crisis situation in Ukraine being the main reasons.

While USD 1.87 billion has been recorded as the revenue earned by Sri Lanka during the first eight months of 2015, when compared to the same period of last year it is a growth of 17.0 per cent.

Sri Lanka was able to pass the 1.5 million tourists target planned in 2014 the total revenue earned is USD 2.206 billion.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority  plans to increase the number of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka this year to 02 million and further increase this number to 2.5 million in 2016.