The tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka during the first two months of 2006 were 104,918 as against 74,832 in 2005 and 93,534 in 2004, said the official Daily News on Tuesday.

India continued to be the highest prime generating market of tourists accounting for 21 percent of tourist traffic, said the newspaper.

The second and third highest are Britain and Germany. These three countries together accounted for nearly 46 percent of the tourist traffic.

The new emerging markets to Sri Lanka are China, Russia and the Middle East.

Tourist arrivals from China during the first two months were 3,251 as against 765 in 2005.

The paper attributed the drastic increase in arrivals from China to the direct airline connections by Sri Lankan Airlines and the promotional campaign by the Sri Lanka Tourist Board.

There was a drop in tourist arrivals in 2005 due to the tsunami compared with 2004.

The Indian Ocean island country's tourism target is to receive 600,000 tourists in 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2006)