COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is targeting at least 300,000 Chinese tourist arrivals by year end, as China has now become the top market accounting for the largest number of tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka, a statement from the Tourism Ministry said here on Friday.
The statement said that already 132,842 Chinese Tourists had arrived in the island country during the first two quarters in 2016 and the numbers are expected to increase. China has outstripped India though India is still a close second.
Sri Lanka has become a popular tourist destination in the Indian Ocean region after the end of its conflict against Tamil Tiger rebels in May 2009. By year end, Si Lanka hopes to get 2 million visitors.
The country has received recognition from international travel agents .Forbes had recommend Sri Lanka as one of their top 10 ‘coolest places’ to visit for Wildlife in 2015.
The Tourism Ministry said that in the recently held Xian Silk Road International Tourism Expo in China Sri Lankan Tourism secured the “Most Popular Destination” award.
“China is the second largest outbound travel market for Sri Lanka and Xian is one of the top sourcing cities in China,” the Ministry said.
Sri Lanka Tourism attended the Beijing International Tourism Expo (BITE) in May with over 40 travel companies and the Guangzhou International Travel Fair (GITF) 2016 in February with another 40 companies.
Sri Lanka Tourism is expected to attend CITM in Shanghai and CITE in Chengdu, China later this year.