COLOMBO, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- More than 42,000 tourists entered Sri Lanka in October, making the total tally of tourist arrivals so far this year in the country over 568,000, statistics from the country's tourism authority showed Tuesday.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority has said that the South Asian country, which depends on tourism as one of its top foreign exchange earners, hopes to attract at least 1 million tourists by the year end.
If the number is achieved, the Sri Lankan government hopes to gain a revenue of 1.8 billion U.S. dollars from the tourism sector.
Tourism Minister Harin Fernando has initiated a program in attracting football fans who plan to travel to Qatar for the FIFA World Cup later this month, by promoting Colombo as a transit point. ■
