Chinese tourists to Sri Lanka record growth in May

**By APD writer Jamila Husain **

COLOMBO, June 7 (APD) - Sri Lanka recorded a 15.6 percent growth in Chinese tourist arrivals in May, compared to the same period last year, although overall tourist arrivals fell by 2.5 percent, statistics from the Sri Lanka Tourism Ministry showed Wednesday.

18,494 Chinese tourists arrived in Sri Lanka in May while 117,539 Chinese tourists arrived from January to May, making it one of the countries which has continued to record a continuous growth.

India, the top generating market, fell 0.3 percent in May to 34,167 compared to the 34,259 which arrived in May 2016. Overall arrivals from India in the first five months were also down 0.5 percent to 145,058.

Markets such as the Maldives also fell by 27 percent to 5,364, Pakistan fell by 6.8 percent to 2,333 and Bangladesh fell by 12 percent to 1,104.

Sri Lanka suffered a devastating flood and landslides in the final week of May which killed over 220 people and affected over 700,000.

Weeks after the disaster Sri Lankan forces and rescue teams are still in some of the worst affected districts conducting cleaning operations while hundreds still remain in safe centers due to houses being totally damaged.

Sri Lankan Tourism Minister John Amaratunga however said last week that tourism had not been affected by the disaster as hotels and tourist sports had not been affected by the floods or landslides.

He said Sri Lanka had received some cancellations, but things were returning to normal now that the flood waters had receded.

Meanwhile Amaratunga said that the threat of a dengue crisis looming in the island country following the floods was also under control as the government had appointed a task force that would visit each village to ensure that there is no spread of dengue or any water borne diseases.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)