"As the booming economy of China has led to a creation of a rich middle class and extensive per capita spending, targeting the Chinese travel market would be an ideal opportunity for Sri Lanka," Rumy Jauffer, managing director of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau has said.

The tourist arrivals to the island already surpassed this year's goal with the 750,000th tourist arriving in the country last week.

The tourism official has said that opening a public page on the Chinese social networking site was a key aspect in promoting a destination via social media and creating awareness.

"We have implemented a number of programmes targeting the broad tourist base in China with the support of Chinese tour agencies," Jauffer has said.

According to the latest statistics from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority in the first 10 months of 2011, tourist arrivals from China grew by 71.6 percent to 13,889 in October from 8,092 in January.