With rapidly rising arrivals and revenues in 2014 and 2015, Sri Lanka is currently in the midst of a tourism growth spurt, which has the potential to turn the small South Asian island nation into one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations in the years to come. In 2015 some 1.8m tourists visited the country, according to data from the regulator, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA). This is up nearly 18% on the previous year. The nation’s newly elected government has made ambitious plans to attract 2.2m visitors in 2016 and 4m by 2020.