Sri Lanka will launch a campaign to woo Indian tourists to spend their summer vacation in the country, as the tropical island struggles to fill up hotel rooms that remain largely empty following the tsunami disaster.

Indians who pop into shops and savor the city lights have overtaken Sri Lanka's traditional Europe-heavy tourism market, emerging as biggest single group of foreigners to visit the country this year, the Tourist Board said.

The island is also looking to India to fill rooms that will fall vacant in case of an outbreak of fresh violence in the north east of the island where more than 83 people have been killed this month alone, officials said.

The tourism authorities are planning a fresh advertising blitz in India to better position some of the attractions which are not currently frequented by Indians.

"We want to expand our products on offer, like beaches for North Indians, the hillsides of Nuwara Eliya for South Indians, nature trails and so forth," Tourist Board Chief Udaya Nanayakkara said.

For the 10-months up to October, 92,163 Indian visitors helped the segment grow 12.4 percent year-on-year, over a 19.4 percent drop from Germany and a 7.2 percent drop from UK -- two of Sri Lanka's key tourism markets.

On average, Indians stay just under five days in city hotels, mainly to shop and visit restaurants, splurging about 100 dollars a day, higher than the average western tourist who spends about 84 dollars per day.

Sri Lanka welcomed some 566,000 tourists in 2004.

The industry was hoping to get 600,000 visitors in 2005, but then the tsunami struck on December 26, 2004, leaving some 31,000 people dead and over a million homeless.

(www.indiapost.com)