Category: Tourism

Sept 09, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hemas Travels is breaking into the Buddhist pilgrimage market by offering an eight-day tour in a dedicated train in partnership with the Indian rail system. Pilgrims are taken on Mahaparinirvana Express a dedicated train, with sleeping births and dining facilities offered at between 105 to 150 dollars a […]

Sept 09, 2009 (LBO) – International luxury hotel chain Six Senses is to manage a resort built on an islet on the north west coast of Sri Lanka becoming the first tourism project to be announced after an ethnic war ended, officials said. The 60 mangrove boutique chalets will located within inland water bodies and […]

Sept 09, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka plans to lease islands off the north-west coast for tourist hotels, as the travel industry recovers after the end of the 30-year ethnic war, government officials said. We now wonder whether 4,000 rooms will be enough to meet increasing demand, he said. Sri Lanka has seen an upturn […]

Aug 26, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotels is expanding the profitable health tourism business and plans new resorts on prime beach properties kept dormant during the ethnic war, a senior official said. “The Maldives as a whole has experienced a downturn because of the global economic turmoil.But we’re seeing a recovery and […]

Aug 24, 2009 (LBO) – Aitken Spence, one of Sri Lanka’s top hotel firms, has resumed talks with Six Senses Spas, an international spa chain, on building an up-market resort on the south-west coast, a senior official said.“Next to Heritance Ahungalla we have 10 acres and 27 acres on an island in Madhu Ganga, very […]

Aug 14, 2009 (LBO) – Foreign visitors to Sri Lanka increased 28 percent in July from a year earlier, with Western Europe and South Asia generating markets showing steep increases, the island’s tourism promotion office said. A 30-year internal conflict ended in May with the leadership of Tamil Tiger separatists being wiped out by the […]

Aug 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings said losses more than doubled in the quarter ending June 2009, considered the off-season in the tourist industry, with the downturn in arrivals worsened by global recession. The company said in a stock exchange filing that its net loss rose 137 percent to 114 […]

Aug 09, 2009 (LBO) – A Nepal conglomerate has paid 175 million rupees to buyout the Sri Lanka’s listed Hayleys group from two hotels it held jointly with the Jetwing leisure group, a media report said. Jetwing manages and part owns Lighthouse Hotel with the Hayleys group. It also manages listed Hunas Hotels, another Hayleys […]

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 […]