COLOMBO, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tourists to sun dappled Sri Lanka has increased by 58 percent in 2012, official data released here showed on Tuesday, sparking fresh promotions aimed at increasing arrivals from the world's fastest growing economy.
Chinese arrivals ended the year up by 58.1 percent at 25,781 with December alone seeing 3,605 arrivals, which is an impressive 213.8 percent rise from December 2011. The data was released by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA).
In 2011 the total number was 16,308.
Overall East Asia provided the third largest cache of tourists with 132,730 people. Despite the comparatively smaller number the region still had one of the best performance rates increasing by 38 percent from last year.
Buoyed by the increase in numbers, the Economic Development Ministry headed by the President's brother Basil Rajapaksa has focused on promoting Sri Lanka in China.
During December SLTDA sponsored a dozen journalists and TV crews from China to visit the scenic island and increase its exposure to Chinese audiences.
Despite its high value, Sri Lanka is consistently overshadowed by neighbor Maldives that gets almost a quarter of its tourists from China. In 2012 Maldives received 229,551 Chinese tourists, which was a 15.6 percent increase from 2011.
This is the most real, most helpless and most motivate life expense of Beijing!
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