Tourism board data showed on Thursday that arrivals have risen for 11 straight months since the end of the war in May last year and were up 23.4 percent during the June 2009 to April 2010 period compared to a year earlier.
The hotel and travel index on the Colombo Stock Exchange has almost tripled since the war’s end, outpacing the rise in the overall index, which has doubled since then.
Tourism is one of the main foreign exchange earners of the $42 billion economy along with remittances, garments, and tea. Tourism revenue was $350 million in 2009.