Mar 10, Colombo: In a bid to attract more Chinese tourists to the country, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Authority plans to display advertisements that promote tourism in the island on buses in China.

The advertisements are to be displayed on 100 buses including double-deckers covering several major cities of China.

Accordingly, advertisements will be displayed on 50 double-deck buses in Beijing and 50 single deck buses in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu cities.

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Authority has allocated to spend Rs. 500 million for the project. A private advertising company has been selected to handle the project.

The tourism authority, expecting to increase the number of arrivals from China to 60,000 by 2013, has launched several promotional campaigns last year to create awareness about Sri Lanka's tourist attractions among the Chinese travelers.

According to Sri Lanka Tourism figures, 25,781tourists arrived from China during 2012, an increase of 58 percent from a year ago.

Sri Lanka aims to attract 275,000 tourists from China by 2016.