Category: Tourism

June 30, 2008 (LBO) – The World Bank has agreed to provide funds to the Sri Lankan government for a tourism initiative among small entrepreneurs and rural communities, the Ministry of Tourism said in a statement. The assurance of support came after talks by Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda with Wold Bank officials in Washington DC, […]

June 13, 2008 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka rose a steep 18.5 percent in May against a sharp fall last year but cumulative figures were little changed amidst bad publicity from an internal conflict, the latest official data showed. The number of arrivals increased by 1.2 percent to 196,403 for the first five […]

June 13, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan celco Dialog, a unit of Telekom Malaysia said it had partnered with AeroMobile to provide in-flight mobile communications, becoming the first in the region to do so. “Dialog Telekom has achieved the distinction of being the first operator in the region to partner with AeroMobile..,” the company said […]

June 09, 2008 (LBO) – The new owners of Sri Lanka’s Continental Hotel have taken board control and sought approval from tourism authorities to sell rooms at lower rates, a media report said. Hotel Services (Ceylon) Ltd, which owns the Continental Hotel in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, was sold by former owner U K […]

June 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is hosting a workshop and familiarization tour for more than 100 German travel agents in a bid to lure more visitors, the island’s tourist promotion office said. The program will increase awareness about the Sri Lanka among German travel agents and motivate them to sell and promote the […]

June 04, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourist promotion office had given a million rupees to re-build an old tourist hotel that was damaged in a Tamil Tiger bomb blast, the ministry of tourism said. The board of directors of Sri Lanka’s tourism promotion bureau had recently approved the request to help Hotel Nippon, the […]

May 28, 2008 (AFP) – The Indian Ocean island of the Maldives plans to open 11 new islands to foreign investors to develop upmarket tourist resorts, an official said Wednesday.The government is also building 10 new regional airports to compliment the booming resort development and allow locals to commute quickly between the chain of 1,192 […]

May 23, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s April tourist arrivals dropped ten percent to 29,747 compared to the same period last year, despite a surge in visitors from the Middle East, a market where the island is being promoted in a new campaign, the Tourist Board said. The highest drop in arrivals of twenty five […]

May 23, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Hilton hotel has won the regional and global Hilton brand awards for 2007, beating some 500 hotels across the world, a statement from the ministry of tourism said. The Hilton Colombo was judged the best hotel in Asia in the balanced scorecard category which measures a hotel’s performance […]

May 20, 2008 (LBO) – The tourism industry in southern Sri Lanka, badly hit by recent unrest, is fighting back by highlighting its best attractions and drawing local visitors, but they also want authorities to lobby harder against foreign travel advisories. Hotelier are desperate to revive an industry that offers plenty of attractions for visitors […]

LONDON, April 26, 2008 (AFP) – Three people were bitten by a rabies-infected puppy dog in British quarantine, a Health Protection Agency (HPA) spokeswoman said Saturday. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced that a case of rabies had been confirmed in the puppy. The dog was in quarantine after being brought into […]

April 08, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Confifi Group says two of its three beach resorts on the west coast have done well in the last winter season despite the sharp down turn in arrivals to the island. . M T A Furkhan, Confifi Group chaiman, said the company has plans to refurbish its hotels […]