The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has recorded a 32.3 per cent increase in foreign tourist arrivals in July 2011 in comparison to the corresponding period last year. SLTDA statistics have recorded 83,786 tourist arrivals in July 2011 while the number of arrivals in July 2010 stood at 63,339. Overall, the arrivals in the first seven months of 2011 rose 36.1 per cent to 465,324, compared to the same period last year. According to the Authority's monthly statistics chart, during the first six months of the year, tourist arrivals from Western Europe dominated with 177,543 arrivals, an increase of 29.6 per cent compared to the same period last year, as per a report in the Colombo Page.
Tourist arrivals from South Asia followed with 130,213 arrivals, an increase of 45.4 per cent from same period in 2010. Nearly 47 per cent from South Asian travellers were from India. Tourists from Pakistan have considerably increased by 93.1 per cent, although the number arrived is only about 10 per cent of the visitors from India. The government predicts arrivals to grow by 20 per cent and hit a new record of over 780,000 this year. Sri Lanka expects to raise the number of arrivals to 2.5 million by 2016. The Sri Lankan tourism industry has recorded USD 370.1 million in revenues in the first half of 2011, a 50.9 per cent increase over last year, turning into one of the fastest growing industries in the country.