Category: Tourism

Aug 08, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Jetwing leisure group is expanding abroad, building links with foreign partners, including Nepal’s Chaudhary conglomerate which is also investing in the island, a top official said. But with the end of a 30-year war in Sri Lanka prospects at home are also looking up. The mainstay of Sri […]

Aug 07, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence said it was eyeing tourism projects in the north and east of the island after the end of an internal conflict though group earnings dropped as arrivals slumped both at home and in the Maldives. “We are vigorously looking at opportunities in all sectors to partner […]

Aug 07, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s John Keells Hotels said it had halved losses in the June 2009 quarter to 150 million rupees from a year ago as tourists arrivals slumped with the global recession.But the continuing fall in arrivals, low occupancy levels and increased competition and capacity, could affect their performance in the […]

Aug 04, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka plans to impose minimum room rates for hotels in and around the capital Colombo to push up prices following the end of a war which has made the country safer for tourists, government officials said. Bernard Goonetilleke, chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism, the tourism promotion agency, said the […]

July 28, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has been included in an Asian Development Bank funded project to link and promote tourist sites in south Asian countries, especially for eco-tourism and pilgrimage tourism. A report by the ADB said the project was conceived as a linked series of sub-regional tourism investments in the five countries […]

July 14, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka expects more tourists this winter season with heightened interest in the destination after the war ended but hotel earnings are not likely to improve immediately, officials and analysts said.“We can’t definitely see a concrete increase in numbers right now but certainly there’s improved sentiment,” Tourist Hotels Association of […]

July 09, 2009 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals in to Sri Lanka rose in June 2009, just one month after the ethnic war ended and the first monthly growth in over a year, the tourism promotion office said. The number of visitors to the island went up 8.1 percent in June 2009 to 30,234 from a […]

July 9, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence group said it was upgrading the oldest hotel in its chain to its premium ‘Heritance’ brand which is built to reflect the history of an individual hotel as well as the country it is situated in. Neptune Hotel, which will be closed for refurbishment, was the […]

July 6, 2009, ARUGAM BAY (LBO) – Arugam Bay in eastern Sri Lanka is coming to life after the end of a 30-year war in Sri Lanka cleared the way for surfers from around the world to ride its waves again.Hotels in the area were packed to capacity this week when surfers flocked to the […]

July 3, 2009 (LBO) – Britain has eased a travel advisory to Sri Lanka’s east but has warned of rising ant-British rhetoric amid an upsurge of nationalism and possible detentions of people of ethnic Tamil origin.“This has led to violent protests against the British High Commission and other diplomatic premises.” Though Tamil Tigers have been […]

June 28, 2009 (LBO) – The United States has warned its citizens of continued risks of attacks by armed groups and the possibility of foreign nationals of Sri Lankan origin being detained without their embassy being notified.The State Department warned American citizens of a “potential for continued instability, including possible terrorist attacks,” though there were […]

June 26, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is drafting new rules to protect the marine environment with tourist ventures such as whale and dolphin watching expected to become big business with the end of the war, a senior official said.Michael noted how unregulated tourism had spoilt some of the island’s best beaches such as in […]