The month recorded 132,280 tourists arriving in the country compared to the 121,576 arrived in October 2014.

In the first ten months of this year 1,448,119 tourists visited the island, an increase of 17.9 percent compared to the 1,228,754 recorded for the same period in 2014.

Arrivals from North America increased marginally by 1.3 percent to 5,272 in October. Arrivals from US declined 8.5 percent to 2,996 while arrivals from Canada increased by 17.9 percent to 2,276 during the month.

Tourist arrivals from Western Europe increased 14.6 percent in October with the arrival of 36,749 tourists, compared to the 32,061 tourists arrived in the same month last year. Most of the tourist arrivals from Western Europe were from the UK, Germany and France.

Arrivals from Eastern Europe declined 3.2 percent with the arrival of 11,003 tourists in October 2015 compared to the 11,365 arrived in October 2014. Tourist arrivals from Eastern Europe declined this year by 5.3 percent due to the economic recession in Russia and the crisis in Ukraine.

Arrivals from Middle East declined 39.3 percent with 5,366 visitors arriving in October 2015.

Tourist arrivals from East Asia increased 21.5 percent as 27,516 visited the country compared to the 22,656 visited in October 2014. Arrivals from China compared to last year increased 44.4 percent with the arrival of 17,169 visitors while arrivals from Japan declined 3.6 percent.

Arrivals from South Asia increased by 14.0 percent as 40,714 tourists visited the island in October 2015. Of those arrived from South Asia, 30,574 were from India corresponding to an increase of 16.9 percent.

In the first eight months of this year Earnings from Tourism increased by 17.1 percent and Sri Lanka earned US$ 1.87 billion from tourism.

Sri Lanka exceeded its target of 1.5 million tourist arrivals last year and earned US$ 2.206 billion from tourism.

The Tourism Authority has set a target of 2 million tourist arrivals this year and 2.5 million by 2016.