COLOMBO, April 19 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government will target a revenue of 4.4 billion U.S. dollars through its tourism sector this year, Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said Thursday.

Sri Lankan Tourism earned a revenue of 3.9 billion dollars in 2017 and this year, the minister said earnings had already grown by 17 percent year on year to 1,312.9 million dollars in the first quarter.

Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka had till March this year already shown a growth of 24 percent and will move from the current third position to be the top foreign exchange earner for Sri Lanka, the minister added.

Over 230,000 tourists have visited Sri Lanka till March this year, with the government expecting 2.5 million arrivals by the end of 2018.

India, China and Britain have been the leading markets with the most amount of tourist arrivals.