The month recorded 69,591 tourists arriving in the country compared to the 63,835 arrived in April 2011.

Tourist arrivals from Western Europe reached 139,692 during the first four months of this year rising 19.4 percent from same period of last year. However, year-on-year arrivals from the United Kingdom declined by 11.3 percent in April 2012.

Arrivals from South Asia increased 4.9 percent in April 2012 from the same month in 2011. Of the 20,532 arrived in April, a majority, 15,432 were from India.

Sri Lanka targets one million tourist arrivals this year. SLTDA statistics have recorded 855,975 tourist arrivals in 2011 compared to the 654,476 arrived in 2010.

Sri Lanka launched an ambitious five-year plan under the guidance of the Economic Development Minister to boost tourism in the country. Under the plan Sri Lanka expects to raise the number of arrivals to 2.5 million and to earn annual revenue of US$ 2.75 billion by 2016.