COLOMBO: Escalating violence in Sri Lanka’s 25-year civil war hit tourism in February, largely because Europeans stayed away, officials said on Wednesday.

Figures from the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority showed that the number of tourists visiting the Indian Ocean island fell in February by 5.8 per cent from a year earlier.

Arrivals dropped to 40,551 from 43,551 in the same month of 2007, the authority said.

“The fall was mainly from countries like Belgium, Netherlands, and Norway after they issued adverse travel advisories,” said Renton de Alwis, chairman of the state-run authority.

Industry officials said the fall was mainly the result of increased violence between the military and Tamil Tiger rebels after the government formally scrapped a six-year truce with the guerrillas in January.

The country’s popular tourist areas are not in the conflict zone, but sporadic bomb blasts in and around the capital Colombo pose a major threat to tourism, officials say.The data showed arrivals from the Netherlands and Belgium dropped 26.7 per cent and 26.3 per cent respectively compared with year-earlier levels. Arrivals from Norway fell 45.1 per cent.

That means arrivals in the first two months of the year were 2.1 per cent lower at 97,467 than a year earlier.

The tourism authority wants to attract 600,000 foreign visitors in 2008, and hopes to boost tourism receipts by 43 per cent to $550 million.—Reuters