A significant upsurge in British tourists visiting Sri Lanka

This year has seen an unprecedented upsurge in the arrivals of British tourists to Sri Lanka.  The number of British tourists visited Sri Lanka for the period from January to November this year amounted to 95,320 being 17% of the total visitors to Sri Lanka and second only to India.

The number 95,320 is an increase of over 30% compared to the British tourists’ arrivals for the same period last year, which amounted to 72,858.

The 600,000th tourist visited Sri Lanka sealing the target for the year was also a British tourist.  Sources from the British High Commission in Colombo said that it expects the arrivals from the UK to surpass 125,000 by the end of this year.  The sources said that the Consular Section of the High Commission has put forward several measures to guarantee a safe trip to Sri Lanka, including the SMS alert system introduced in April this year, which keep abreast the British tourists about contact details.

The High Commission also informed that its Consular Section promote the importance of cultural sensitivity among the British tourists and gets long term visitors to register themselves on the Consular Section database. (niz)