Over 163,000 Chinese tourists visited Sri Lanka from Jan to July

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Over 163,000 Chinese tourists visited Sri Lanka from January to July this year, making China the second largest market for Sri Lanka tourism, statistics from the Tourism Ministry showed on Tuesday.

According to the figures, 27,460 Chinese tourists arrived during the month of July, out of which 27,418 arrived by air and 42 by sea.

Sri Lankan Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said last month that he had recently held talks with China's tourism and airline officials to encourage more Chinese visitors to the country.

In total, overall tourist arrivals last month exceeded 200,000, recording a six-percent growth when compared with the same period last year.

India, China and Britain remained the leading markets, with India generating 14 percent of the total traffic received in July, China generating 13 percent and Britain generating 12 percent.

The tourism ministry said in a statement that up until July, Sri Lanka had received 1,382,476 tourists, recording a 13.7-percent growth compared to the first seven months of last year.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency