China becoming Si Lanka's tourism lifeline

Sri Lanka government's economic lifeline tourism seems moving from lucrative European market, in which the country failed, to China as the government's tarnished international image hinders expansion into high end tourism markets.

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau says that the Chinese tourist market has improved immensely during the first six months of the year 2013.

Accordingly, the number of tourists that arrived in Sri Lanka during the first six months of the year 2013 increased to 16,582 from 9622 from the same period of the previous year.

The increase is a growth of 72.3 percent, the bureau says.

The Assistant Director of the Tourism Promotion Bureau Yuvaraj Athukorala said to media that the attempts of the country to tap the Chinese tourism market had gathered momentum.

512,281 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka in the first six months of the year 2013 and it is an increase of 13.1 percent compared to the same period of the previous year.