Category: Tourism

Mar 23, 2011 (LBO) – International hotel chains Marriot and Hyatt have shown interest in Sri Lanka’s southern Hambantota city, which is bidding for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, an official said. Sri Lanka’s tourist development authority chief Nalaka Godahewa said Marriot and Hyatt have looked for land in Hambantota to build hotels, though no applications […]

Mar 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourism authority says another one thousand rooms will be added to the current tourist accommodation by the end of the year to cater to booming demand. “One thousand rooms will be added and they will be in different categories,” Nalaka Godahewa, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism said. “Our statistics […]

Mar 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will host a United Nations backed tourism conference covering Asia Pacific which will also debate the role of media in tourism, an official said. The sessions include a one day seminar on “Mainstreaming tourism in the media” which will see the participation of international media and marketing experts. […]

Mar 15, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings has increased its stake in Browns Beach Hotels, one of the island’s oldest beach resorts which is to be demolished to make way for a new hotel, a statement said. Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings bought 10,000 shares at 21 rupees each, a stock exchange […]

Mar 14, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals rose 14. 8 percent to 65,797 in February 2011 from a year earlier, though visitors from key generating markets in the United Kingdom and Germany dropped. February arrivals were also lower than the January peak of 74,197 as the Western European winter season drew to a […]

Mar 07, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Galadari Hotels said profits rose 49 percent in the December 2010 quarter to 320 million rupees from a year ago, helped by forex gains, its second successive quarterly profit after a string of losses. The Employees Provident Fund (EPF), a pension fund of private citizens managed by the […]

Mar 03, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourist development office says owners of vacant apartments in Colombo will be given a chance to use them for tourism in a bid to expand room capacity in the capital amid a steep increase in tourist arrivals. Sri Lanka tourist development authority chairman Nalaka Godahewa said about 500 […]

Feb 25, 2011 (LBO) – Hong Kong based Shangri-La hotels has looked at two sites including one close to a well-known wild life reserve in southern Sri Lanka to site its second proposed hotel, an official said. Deputy minister for economic development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene said visiting Shangri-La officials had examined a site close to […]

Feb 21, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Colombo University has started a Master’s program in tourism to cater to the need for highly qualified professionals in the industry which is growing fast after the end of a 30-year war. “Now that the tourism industry is picking up fast there is a need for advanced qualifications […]

February 14, 2011 (AFP) – Police in the Maldives arrested a British man Monday after he caused a bomb scare aboard a SriLankan airlines flight from London that was diverted to the atoll nation, an official said. The flight was heading for Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo but was forced to land in the Maldives where […]

Feb 15, 2011 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in January 2011 rose 46.2 percent to 74,197 with Western Europe generating 32,627 and India being the single most important country with 13,786 visitors. Visitors from Western Europe who are important for the country’s beach resorts rose 53.7 percent from a year earlier maintaining the […]

Feb 14, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotels, which also has operations in the Maldives, said net profit for the December quarter was up 30 percent to 272 million rupees, with revenues growing 5. 0 percent 2.0 billion from a year earlier. But operating profits fell 9.0 percent to 351 million during the […]