COLOMBO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals fell 20.4 per cent in September from a year ago, as intensified war between the government and Tamil Tiger insurgents kept visitors away, the tourism board said on Thursday.
Tourism is one of the country's top foreign exchange earners, along with tea, garments and remittances from Sri Lankans working abroad.
Arrivals in September fell to 29,529 and totalled 317,546 in the first nine months of 2008, down 9.5 per cent from a year ago, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said on Thursday.
"Until the security situation of the country improves, we will not have positive tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka," the state tourism body's director-General, S. Kalaiselvam, told Reuters.
Although most popular tourist destinations are far from the conflict zone, sporadic bomb blasts in and around the capital Colombo have dampened arrivals.
Intensified fighting, since the abrogation of a Norway brokered 6-year truce in January this year, has killed over 7,000 people, mostly Tamil Tiger separatists who are fighting for an independent land for ethnic Tamils.
Central bank data showed tourism brought the island US$224.65 million in revenue in the first eight months of the year, 8.1 per cent less than last year's US$244.67 million in the same period.
In August, the Tourism Authority's chairman said the country would miss its targets of US$550 million in revenue and 600,000 visitors this year, owing to fighting and travel warnings from foreign embassies.
Last month the arrivals dropped 31.4 per cent, highest fall in 15 months since May 2007, when they plunged 40 percent after a rebel air strike hit an air force camp next to Sri Lanka's only international airport.
Last month's fall was due to a change in how transit arrivals were counted, according to the island's hotel association.
(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Bryson Hull and Toby Chopra)
