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A Chinese tourist flying in from Beijing late on Sunday was chosen as the one-millionth tourist arriving in Sri Lanka. This is the first time that Sri Lanka is crossing the million-mark in tourist arrivals. Jiang Ying was accorded a traditional Sri Lankan welcome and she later posed for pictures in a saree , draped in Kandyan style.
Going by statistics made available by Sri Lanka Tourism, December 2012 topped all other months so far in tourist arrivals – a record 1.16 lakh tourists arrived this month (till Sunday). The earlier record was in November this year when 1.09 lakh tourists arrived.
November was the first month that Sri Lanka hit the one lakh mark in tourist arrivals.
The Chinese tourist arrived on UL 889 at 10 p.m. Chinese tourists numbered 22,176 (January-November) this year, compared to 1.57 lakh Indian tourists during the same period.
On either side of the UL 889 landing, were three flights from India – a Jet from Chennai landed at 8:20 p.m., and two Sri Lankan flights from Chennai and Bangalore landed at 10:15 p.m.
Tourist arrivals have picked up steadily since Sri Lanka obliterated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009. The target for this year, 9.5 lakh, was achieved earlier this month. Sri Lanka has a target of 1.3 million tourist arrivals for 2013.
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