Tourism has emerged as the second highest foreign exchange earner in Sri Lanka, beating the island country's lucrative garment industry which held this position for the past eight years since 2010, official data showed here Tuesday.

Tourism earnings in January this year amounted to 458 million U.S. dollars, up 12.7 percent year-on-year while garments grew 1.99 percent year-on-year to 434.8 million dollars in the same period.

In the first quarter of the year, income generated from tourism reached 1,312.91 million dollars, with industry experts predicting that the number will pass the 4 billion dollar mark by the end of 2018.

Sri Lanka's tourism industry, which was once heavily scarred by the 30-year civil conflict, has seen a rise in the number of tourist arrivals in recent years, with India, China and Britain emerged as the leading markets.