Category: Tourism

August 15, 2007 (LBO) – Foreign visitors to Sri Lanka have fallen 20 percent in July with arrivals in the first seven months falling 24 percent, the country’s tourist promotion office said. Sri Lanka has been slapped by travel advisories while a worsening conflict and reports of human rights violations and killings of aid workers […]

August 12, 2007 (LBO) – The Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka has elected as its president Hiran Cooray of Jetwing Hotels, a tour operator with a chain of hotels that’s also promoting eco-tourism in a big way. Four vice presidents were also elected at the association’s annual general meeting representing different segments of the […]

Aug 06, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s leisure sector should focus more on promoting people development and community involvement to make the tourism industry sustainable, officials say. India, Macau and Thailand’s Six Senses Spa won awards in other categories of marketing, heritage and environment. Top coastal resorts, mostly empty because of the ethnic war, have […]

July 15, 2007 (AFP) – Tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka plunged 30 percent in June compared to a year ago as fighting escalated in the country’s bitter ethnic war, the tourism board said Sunday. The rebels have been fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamil and the conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives […]

SIGIRIYA, Sri Lanka, July 1, 2007 (AFP) – Britney Spears, Paul McCartney, Sting and Paul Simon have all travelled to Sri Lanka for a big-bucks taste of tropical luxury.“The rich will not want to come if Sri Lanka has an image of a cheap destination,” Jinasena said. But an escalating war with Tamil Tiger rebels […]

June 30, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Tourism is kicking off a new drew to promote high spending niche tourism to the country with the appointment of a new advisory council led by the private sector. At the moment approximately 300,000 people in Sri Lanka depend on the tourism industry the ministry officials […]

June 24, 2007 (LBO) – Aitken Spence, a large Sri Lanka based hotel chain with operations in the Maldives and India, is laying out a new menu based on local cuisine and herbal spices. The company’s ‘Heritance’ chain of hotels plans to introduce a range of authentic Sri Lankan dishes within the next two months, […]

June 22, 2007 (LBO) – Visitors to Sri Lanka plummeted 40 percent in May with Europe and East Asia showing steep falls, as an intensifying conflict, travel advisories and air raids on the capital scared away foreigners. Most listed hotel firms are reporting losses, but major operators who have operations in the Maldives have managed […]

June 15, 2007 (LBO) – Two of Sri Lanka’s leisure sector players have managed to cushion a downturn in tourism on the island, with profits from resorts they own in the Maldives. . John Keells Holdings, one of the biggest capitalised firms in the Colombo bourse, and Aitken Spence, have been expanding in to the […]

June 11, 2007 (LBO) – Earlier this year, a foreign television crew working for the Travel Channel in London arrived in the country to do a documentary on the tourism hotspots. Travel Channel’s first priority was to visit and film the Dutch Galle fort in the southern coastal region of Sri Lanka. Then their troubles […]

June 4, 2007 (AFP) – Advance bookings for England’s winter cricket tour of Sri Lanka has been rising steadily even as fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels escalates, officials said on Monday.A tour organising official at Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said at least 4,000 bookings by British cricket fans have been almost finalised and […]

June 02, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourism industry aims to attract more women visitors under its efforts to revive faltering arrivals as an escalating internal conflict harms the island’s image, a top official said. The industry is working on several special holiday packages targeting niche markets like professional women and retired people in a […]