April 17, 2012
Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals in March jumped 21.3 percent from a year earlier, government data showed on Tuesday.
Visitor numbers for March were 91,102, up from 75,130 in 2011. Numbers have been rising every month since a 25-year civil war ended in May 2009.
The island nation's tourism board expects 950,000 tourists in 2012 with revenue of more than USD$1 billion, 20 percent higher than last year's USD$830.3 million.
Tourism is one of the main foreign exchange earners for Sri Lanka's USD$59 billion economy along with remittances from expatriate workers, garments and tea.
