More tourist visits in December

Sri Lanka has welcomed 69,941 tourist arrivals from December 1-26 , this year and India, Russia, UK, Germany, Australia, US , France , the Maldives and Ukraine and Kazakhstan were the leading sources of tourist visits to Sri Lanka during this period, Minister of Tourism Prasanna Ranatunga said.

According to Minister Ranatunga, tourism promotions activities carried out by Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau; mainly focusing on tourists in these respective countries have garnered results in a big way. Sri Lanka has recorded a total number of 174,930 tourist arrivals up to now. During the months of October and November this year, Sri Lanka has recorded 22,771 and 44,294 tourist arrivals respectively.

During the period from December 1-26 , the total number of Russian, UK , German , France tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka were at 7,951, 6,819, 4,131 and 2,313 respectively. Moreover, some 2,054 holidaymakers from Ukraine visited Sri Lanka during the same period. The Minister said Air France, Russia’s Aeroflot and Kazakhstan’s Air Astana also launched direct flights to Sri Lanka this year.