Category: Tourism

Mar 22, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings has acquired 100 percent of Ramada Resorts, a beach resort formerly known as Golden Sun Resorts, for 350 million rupees, a stock exchange filing said. The filing said the shareholders of Golden Sun Resort in Kalutara on the west coast had given the nod […]

Mar 18, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka state-run Employees Provident Fund of private citizens had bought a 10 percent stake in Lighthouse Hotel, a unit of the Jetwing leisure group, a stock exchange filing said. NDB stockbrokers said the EPF, the country’s largest retirement fund, had bought 4. 6 million shares of Lighthouse. The hotel […]

March 17, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s hotel owners are racing to refurbish and add thousands more rooms as foreign holidaymakers pour into the country after the end of nearly four decades of ethnic bloodshed. Leading hotel groups plan to spend millions of dollars on new decor and facilities for the influx of tourists drawn […]

Mar 16, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings said the largest chunk of 2.5 billion rupees it plans to raise through a rights issue will go for new hotels in the island’s former war zone. It also plans to build a hotel in the northern Jaffna region. The firm said about a […]

Mar 15, 2010 (LBO) – Some of the world’s top surfers will take part in a Japanese surfing championship that returns to Sri Lanka this month after a five-year break following the end of the island’s ethnic war. The Japan Pro Surfing Association’s (JPSA) annual competition will be held during March 19-23 at Hikkaduwa, a […]

Mar 12, 2010 (LBO) – Large parcels of Hotel Services (Ceylon), owners of Hotel Ceylon Continental, changed hands in early trade on the Colombo bourse Friday amid speculation its owner businessman Nahil Wijesuriya was selling out. The trades pushed turnover on the bourse to over two billion rupees by mid-morning, brokers said. The indices also […]

Mar 12, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hayleys group said it bought a 51 percent stake in Ceylon Continental Hotel Friday for 1. 8 billion rupees. Hayleys said in a stock exchange filing that under stock market rules it has to make a mandatory offer to other shareholders of Hotel Services. Updated The stake was […]

Mar 08, 2010 (LBO) – An under water scooter rental firm is starting up in a tourist area north of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo, to feed an upturn in the industry following the end of a 30-year war, the island’s investment promotion agency said. Mountcastle Marine recreational sports complex will be in Arachchikattuwa in Sri […]

Mar 06, 2010 (LBO) – Over half-a-million tourists are expected to visit Sri Lanka this year as the travel trade bounces back strongly from the effects of a war with hotels so heavily booked that some are even refusing new reservations till end of March, officials said. Tourism authorities have planned an aggressive global promotion […]

Mar 05, 2010 (LBO) – Two British travel writers have published a guide book on tourist attractions in Sri Lanka’s former war zone in the north and east, now accessible to the visitors after 30 years of conflict. Juliet Coombe, a photojournalist for the BBC Lonely Planet guide book, and her co-writer Daisy Perry spent […]

NEW DELHI, February 24, 2010 (AFP) – India’s rail minister announced Wednesday plans for high-speed trains for Asia’s largest rail network as she kept fares unchanged — underscoring the government’s focus on “inclusive growth”. Indian Railways boasts a network of 109,000 kilometers (67,730 miles) that transports some 18.5 million people daily on 14,000 passenger and […]

Feb 19, 2010 9LBO) Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings said it plans a rights issue to raise funds for future expansion as the island’s tourist industry recovers from the effects of a long war. The company said in a stock exchange filing that it plans to make a rights issue of one new ordinary […]