Sri Lanka May tourist arrivals up 18.4 pct vs yr ago

COLOMBO, June 11 (Reuters) - The number of tourists arriving in Sri Lanka in May rose 18.4 percent from a year earlier, despite security concerns stemming from the country's civil war, officials said on Wednesday.

Arrivals rose to 31,140 from 26,307 a year before, the island's state tourist authority said.

Arrivals in the January-May period rose 1.2 percent to 196,403 from 193,981 a year earlier.

"May was a low month, when we had night curfews in the airport," a top official at Sri Lankan Tourism Development Authority told Reuters asking not to be named

Tourist arrivals fell 40 percent in May 2007 due to the night closure of Sri Lanka's only international airport after Tamil Tiger air raids on fuel installations and the air force base adjacent to the airport.

The tourism industry expects arrivals in future to drop because of an upsurge in violence this year from the 25-year civil war between the state and separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

Renton de Alwis, chairman of the Sri Lankan Tourism Development Authority Sri Lanka, said: "I don't think these (bombings) would deter people from visiting Sri Lanka. No tourists have been involved in any of these incidences."

At least 32 people have been killed and over 100 wounded in a series of bomb blasts targeting civilians in two commuter buses and two trains in capital Colombo and central Sri Lanka during rush hours since May 26.

The Tourism Development Authority said arrivals from the Middle East rose 78.1 percent in the January to May period compared with a year earlier.