Tourist arrivals up

The number of tourists arriving in Sri Lanka in May rose 18.4 percent from a year earlier, despite security concerns stemming from the country's civil war, officials said on June 11.

Arrivals rose to 31,140 from 26,307 a year before, the island's state tourist authority said. Arrivals in the January-May period rose 1.2 percent to 196,403 from 193,981 a year earlier, reported Reuters.

"May was a low month, when we had night curfews in the airport," a top official at Sri Lankan Tourism Development Authority told Reuters asking not to be named

Tourist arrivals fell 40 percent in May 2007 due to the night closure of Sri Lanka's only international airport after Tamil Tiger air raids on fuel installations and the air force base adjacent to the airport.

The tourism industry expects arrivals in future to drop because of an upsurge in violence this year from the 25-year civil war between the state and separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

Renton de Alwis, chairman of the Sri Lankan Tourism Development Authority Sri Lanka, said: "I don't think these (bombings) would deter people from visiting Sri Lanka. No tourists have been involved in any of these incidences."

At least 32 people have been killed and over 100 wounded in a series of bomb blasts targeting civilians in two commuter buses and two trains in capital Colombo and central Sri Lanka during rush hours since May 26.

The Tourism Development Authority said arrivals from the Middle East rose 78.1 percent in the January to May period compared with a year earlier.

Tourist arrivals from north Canada, United States, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, and Australia have dropped during the first five months of the year, Authority data showed.

The number of visitors from Russia in January-May was 38.3 percent higher than a year earlier. French arrivals jumped 48.4 percent and those from Switzerland rose 47.9 percent.

The violence, since early this year, has claimed the lives of more than 4,500 people, mostly rebels, according to military figures.

Although the popular tourist destinations are not in the conflict zone, sporadic bomb blasts in and around the capital, Colombo, are a threat to the tourist industry.

This year, the tourist authority is aiming for 600,000 foreign visitors and a 43 percent increase in foreign earnings from tourism to $550 million, officials said.

Tourist arrivals fell 11.7 percent to 494,008 in 2007, with the renewed violence blamed for the failure to reach a target of 600,000 tourists. Earnings from tourism fell 6.1 percent to $385 million.

Tourism is one of Sri Lanka's main sources of foreign exchange, along with garments, remittances and tea.