Category: Tourism

June 24, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has launched an initiative to provide better access and facilities at tourist attractions in an effort to draw more visitors to the island, beginning to recover from 25 years of war. Tourism ministry secretary K A D George Michael said the government had allocated funds to improve basic […]

June 09, 2009 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals in to Sri Lanka slumped 20.6 percent in May 2009 to 24,739 from a year ago as a global travel slowdown and fierce fighting that ended the Tamil Tiger insurgency deterred visitors. According to figures put out by Sri Lanka’s tourism office, arrivals from south Asia, the main […]

June 04, 2009 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government said it had approved a proposal by an Indian company to set up a four-star hotel and convention centre with an investment of 25 million US dollars.Media minister Anura Yapa said the unsolicited proposal had been received from Suchirindia Hotel and Resorts in Hyderabad, India. The […]

May 22, 2009 (LBO) – The number of tourists visiting Sri Lanka in April 2009 slid 12.4 percent to 26,054 from a year ago, with sharp falls from key markets in Europe and India, the island’s tourism promotion office said. Maldivian arrivals dipped marginally by 2.7 percent to 9,160, while Pakistani arrivals almost halved to […]

April 23, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Trans Asia hotel, part of the John Keells group, will be closed for repairs after being damaged in a Tamil Tiger air raid and be reopened under a new name.The company said in a stock exchange filing that the hotel in Colombo will be closed for three and […]

Apr 21, 2009 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lankan fell 10.5 percent to 34,065 for the month of March 2009, with key Western European and South Asian markets weakening, the tourism promotion office said. The number of tourists from the all-important western European market, the lifeblood of beach resorts, fell by 5.2 percent to […]

April 01, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence group said it has opened its latest Maldivian luxury resort called Adaaran ˜Prestige’ Vadoo. The resort, 15 minutes by speed boat from Male’ International Airport, has 50 villas including six Japanese concept rooms on the ocean, a company statement said. The company said each villa comes […]

Mar 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka and Nepal are discussing joint tourism packages that combine the attractions of Himalayan hikes with Indian Ocean beaches, the island’s international trade minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris said.Collective action by south Asian countries such as broadening trade in services like tourism could help them better cope with the effects […]

March 19, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan hotels stand to make financial gains by adopting cleaner production methods if done in a systematic manner, the head of the hotel trade body has said. Srilal Miththapala, president of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, said many hotels have embarked on some form of energy conservation […]

KARACHI, March 12, 2009 (AFP) – Fida Hussain, 52, was once a frequent visitor to Pakistan’s scenic northwest, driving north into the mountains every time he flew over from the United States.But not any more. “I won’t go to Swat or any other place in the area as the Taliban rule there now and no […]

Mar 12, 2009 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka fell 15.7 percent in February to 34,169 with the first two months of 2009 showing a 25.5 percent fall, and visitors from India halving, the country’s tourism promotion office said. East Asian arrivals dropped 28.4 percent to 3,153. Japan dropped 8.3 percent to 867 and […]

Feb 16, 2009 (LBO) – Foreign visitors to Sri Lanka plunged 32.4 percent in January 2009 to 38,468 compared with the same month last year, the island’s tourist promotion office said, with a global economic crisis depressing leisure travel.Arrivals from Western Europe, a key generating market that is crucial to keep coastal resorts in jam, […]