Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka witness 6.2 pct growth in October

Over 21,000 Chinese tourists arrived in Sri Lanka last month, resulting in a 6.2 percent growth when compared to the same period last year, statistics from Sri Lanka Tourism Bureau showed here Thursday.

So far this year, over 230,000 Chinese tourists have visited the island country, with the government recently stating that they were expecting higher numbers during the peak months starting October.

Sri Lanka has become a famous tourist destination among Chinese travelers and the government hopes to attract at least 1 million Chinese tourists per year by 2020.

Sri Lanka's tourism industry has witnessed a boom since the end of the country's three-decade long civil war which ended in May 2009.

Over 1.5 million tourists have arrived in the country so far this year and the government is expecting to achieve a 2.5 million arrival target by the end of 2017 and a 5 million arrival target by 2020.

According to the central bank, Sri Lanka has earned over 2 billion U.S. dollars from tourism so far this year.