Category: Tourism

Feb 12, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence Hotels said group net profit for the December 2008 quarter shot up almost 200 percent to 358 million rupees. Revenue for the nine months to December 31, 2008 rose eight percent to 4,505 million rupees The company said six months of the period under review relates […]

Feb 12, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourist hotel industry body has suggested a fresh campaign to promote the island as a destination for visitors now that the ethnic war that deterred tourists is ending. “Sri Lanka tourism is beginning to be cautiously optimistic, with the inevitable end to the long and protracted war situation,” […]

Feb 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s long-suffering hotel industry faces better prospects as the ethnic war that has kept visitors at bay is almost at an end, while depressed valuations and investment needs may trigger take-overs, an equities researcher has said. Srimal Liyanage of Lanka Securities said he believes the hotels listed on the […]

Feb 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s national airline has teamed up with the tourism authorities and trade to lure visitors from what is seen as a lucrative market in Eastern Europe.Sri Lankan Airlines said in a statement a series of carefully targeted campaigns were done recently in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic targeting […]

February 8, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and elected to bat in the fifth and final one-day international against India here on Sunday.Umpires: Brian Jerling (RSA) and Tyron Wijewardene (SRI) TV umpire: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI) Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG) India, leading 4-0, made two changes from the side […]

Feb 05, 2009 (LBO) – A blond woman in China with an unusual history; airline passengers armed to the teeth, crowded into a rickety Russian plane in Afghanistan, are an unlikely combination to encounter on a single journey.Award winning British travel-writer and novelist Colin Thubron, – one of whose latest works is Shadow of the […]

Feb 03, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Galle Face Hotels Group plans to build a 100-room luxury resort hotel on an atoll in the Maldivian archipelago, a senior official said.The new hotel is sited on an uninhabited island which also has a domestic airport.and airport buildings. The new Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed, during his recent […]

Jan 26, 2009 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka last year fell sharply from its main markets of India and Britain whose currencies also depreciated significantly against the dollar. Tourist industry analysts said that the downturn in tourism could worsen this year because of the weaker currencies and economic slowdown in key visitor generating […]

Jan 15, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourist arrivals fell 18.2 percent in November to 36,091 with key generating markets of Western Europe down 28.2 percent and South Asia down 12.6 percent, the tourist promotion office said. In the 11 months to November arrivals were down 10 percent to 389,550. November 2008, Western European arrivals […]

Dec 11, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is among five countries included in an Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded plan to promote south Asian regional tourism and simplify cross-border tourist movements.“Together with the investment project, the technical assistance will enhance the positioning of the sub-region in both intraregional and international markets as one of the […]

Dec 04, 2008 (LBO) – A series of strikes that hit Maldivian resorts, including several managed by Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence group are ending, after the strikes were called off following presidential intervention, officials said.Maldives has a new coalition government, which was brought to power by pro-democracy activists. The strikes were partly triggered by a […]

December 3, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka operated special flights to a Thai military base to evacuate all its 378 nationals stranded in Thailand due to political protests, acting foreign minister Hussein Bhaila said Wednesday. The country’s national carrier, Sri Lankan airlines, operated flights to Thailand’s U-Tapoa airbase and completed the evacuation of all its […]