Category: Tourism

Nov 25, 2011 (LBO) – Thailand’s Minor International is to build a 160-room beach hotel on Sri Lanka’s south-west coast in a partnership with the island’s Hemas Holdings group at a cost of 25 million US dollars. Abbas Esufally, group director of Hemas Holdings, said Minor group which operates hotels under the Avani and Anantara […]

Nov 24, 2011 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have been growing faster than expected and the island expects to achieve its original target of attracting 750,000 tourists for the 2011 year later on Thursday. In the nine months to September 2011, total arrivals rose 34.3 percent to 598,006, official data showed. Tourist arrivals […]

Nov 23, 2011 (LBO) – Lankem Ceylon said it bought control of Galle Fort Hotel, a boutique hotel in Sri Lankan’s southern port town of Galle, for 772 million rupees. Sri Lanka is experiencing a boom in tourism with the end of the island’s 30-year ethnic war in 2009. The acquisition of 100 percent of […]

Nov 22, 2011 (LBO) – China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) a firm active in several Chinese financed project in Sri Lanka is looking to build a hotel in Hambatota in the south of the island, a media report said. Sri Lanka’s Ceylon Today newspaper said CHEC had also looked at lakefront land in Colombo. “They […]

Nov 21, 2011 (LBO) – Buses imported for tourism will be freed from value added tax and duties on vehicles imported for airport taxi services will be halved, President Mahinda Rajapaksa told parliament. Tourism is one of the most profitable sectors after a war ended in May 2009. Presenting the 2012 budget, Rajapaksa said airport […]

Nov 14, 2011 (LBO) – Galadari Hotels, a firm which owns and operates a five star hotel in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo lost 45 million rupees in the September 2011 quarter, from a profit of 78 million a year earlier, interim accounts showed. The firm reported losses of 25 cents a share for the quarter. […]

Nov 09, 2011 (LBO) – The global travel and tourism industry has identified Sri Lanka as part of a group of emerging countries with potential as attractive holiday destinations behind the so-called BRICS nations. The World Travel Market 2011 Industry Report said the island was ‘re-emerging’ after the 30-year ethnic war and noted it for […]

Nov 09, 2011 (LBO) – Global hotel chain Sheraton is looking to acquire a plot of prime property in the Sri Lankan capital whose sale without tender to a Chinese defence contractor was cancelled by government last month. “The government valuer is now valuing the land.” CATIC had been offered and had looked at different […]

Nov 01, 2011 (LBO) – Hotel Developers (Lanka), owners of Hilton Colombo Hotel in the Sri Lankan capital, has paid about 33 percent of gross operating profit as management fees and other charges to the international hotel chain which runs the property. The total amount paid to Hilton Worldwide, formerly Hilton International USA, was 1,371 […]

Oct 31, 2011 (LBO) – Lower profit from share trading owing to a fall in the Sri Lankan stock market has halved Renuka City Hotels’ September 2011 quarter profit, a stock exchange filing showed. Net profit fell 58 percent to 52 million rupees in the September 2011 quarter from a year ago although sales more […]

Oct 31, 2011 (LBO) – An investment fund connected to the Dubai government has bought a 16.1 percent stake in Sri Lanka’s Galadari Hotel, in a deal valued at 1. 18 billion rupees. The broking firm TKS Securities said 29.5 million shares were bought at 40 rupees each. Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals have been up […]

Oct 31, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lankans should avoid all but ‘extremely essential’ travel to Thailand’s capital Bangkok as floods worsened, the island’s foreign ministry said. “[U]unless it is extremely essential, Sri Lankans are advised to temporarily postpone their travel to Bangkok until such time the situation improves,” a foreign ministry statement said. Parts of […]