Category: Tourism

July 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotels has reopened its oldest hotel after refurbishment, converting it into an ayurveda health resort with solar power panels and plans for a biogas plan using kitchen waste. The 64-room beach front Neptune Hotel on the southern coast has been renamed Heritance Ayurveda Maha Gedara, a […]

July 21, 2011 (LBO) – Canada-based Four Seasons leisure group is in discussions to set up a resort in Sri Lanka following the end of a 30-year, deputy economic development minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene said. It is also building a resort in Hambantota in the South of the island. Abeywardene said the group was interested […]

July 13, 2011 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka rose 19.9 percent in June to 53,636 with the Middle East and Asia driving growth and Western Europe flattening, data from the tourism promotion office showed. Visitors from South Asia rose 22.1 percent to 18,431 with India rising 12,927 and Maldives rising 12. 8 percent […]

July 7, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will build a new ‘tourist city’ in the Western coastal city of Katana north of the capital Colombo, which may draw 1.5 billion US dollars in foreign investments in its first phase alone, a government minister said. Sri Lanka’s tourism development authority has also offered a series of […]

July 06, 2011 (LBO) – A new ferry service between India and Sri Lanka offers a cheaper alternative to airlines for tourists, traders and pilgrims and even the ability to drive across, the head of the company running the service said. “Our aim was to keep the price much less than that of airlines which […]

July 5, 2011 (LBO) – Hong Kong based Shangri La group’s two hotels in Sri Lanka which are now in the final design stage will cost as much 630 million US dollars to build, chief financial officer Madhu Rao said. The group bought a six acre block of state land in Colombo’s ‘Galle Face’ beach […]

July 5, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has lifted travel curbs on foreigners to the north of the island where a 30-year war ended in 2009, and foreign passport holders could travel without special approval, the government’s information office said. The government’s information office said foreign passport holders would no longer require documents of approval […]

July 04, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka plans to convert a colonial-era fort in the north that was also fought over during the recent ethnic war into a tourist attraction, the economic development ministry said in a statement. “Since the end of the war large numbers of local and foreign tourists flock to Jaffna daily. […]

July 3, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s diplomats will promote the country abroad in the future and the state tourism promotion office will gradually sever links with private public relations firms, deputy economic development minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene said. “The government has decided do slowly distance ourselves from private public relations firms,” Abeywardene told reporters. […]

June 30, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is searching for a buyer for a block of prime beach front land adjacent to two that are slated to be among the largest real-estate cum hotel developments to start in the country after the end of a 30-year war, officials said. “The land is still available,” deputy […]

June 30, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will permit eco-friendly hotels in buffer zones adjacent to nature reserves to cater to increased local and international interest in the island’s wildlife assets, a government minister said. Abeywardene said investors were also keen to protect nature now. “Investors now do not want to damage the environment,” he […]

June 29, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka may cancel deals of four investors who were given state land to build hotels in Pasikudah in the Eastern coast of the island, deputy economic development minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene said. He said four parties who got land had not used the land so far. “If they do […]