Sri Lanka\'s tourist arrivals increase by 16 pct in 2012

Sri Lanka\'s tourism arrivals continues to grow with numbers increasing by 16 percent to 693,772 from 598,006 compared to the same period last year, government data showed here on Thursday. In the first nine months of this year, the cumulative figure was 693,772, up by 16 percent over the corresponding period of 2011. Arrivals from North America increased 18.7 percent to 42,737 from 36,016 last year with travelers from Canada leading the way. Numbers from Latin America and the Caribbean also increased in line with recent trends. \"Arrivals from neighboring India continued to lead the charge with overall numbers from South Asia hitting 169,927 from 164,771, which is a 3.1 percent rise,\" the data showed. Visitors from East Asia increased 30.6 percent to 89,510 from 68,518 with Japan leading. Earlier this week Lonely Planet named Sri Lanka as the top destination for 2013 boosting the country\'s profile and paving the way to high profits. The number of visitors has risen year-on-year in the past 41 months since the civil war ended in May 2009. The Tourism Board expects over one million tourists in 2012, yielding revenue of more than 1 billion U.S. dollars, up from last year\'s record 830.3 million U.S. dollars. Revenue from tourism rose 24.2 percent to 641.8 million U.S. dollars in the first eight months of 2012 from the same period last year.