COLOMBO, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's tourism sector earned 4.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, surpassing the government target of 4 billion U.S. dollars, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said in a statement here Thursday.

However, Sri Lanka attracted 2.3 million tourists last year, falling short of its expected arrival number of 2.5 million tourists.

India, China and Britain remained the leading markets throughout the year.

Sri Lankan Tourism Minister John Amaratunga said last week that mega publicity campaigns had been organized to be carried out in many major cities including those in India and China this year, and the country was expecting at least 3 million tourists by the end of December 2019.

Amaratunga said he was also expecting a revenue of 5 billion U.S. dollars from tourism in 2019.

In addition to the campaigns, a full comprehensive destination promotion program is also expected to take off, including promotions with the "Lonely Planet" magazine.