Category: Tourism

NEW DELHI, Aug 18, 2007 (AFP) – India aims to double its tourist numbers to 10 million in 2010 when it hosts the Commonwealth Games, a report said Saturday. Indian Tourism Minister Ambika Soni said the numbers visiting the country had grown steadily with 3.92 million tourists in 2005 and 4.43 million in 2006, according […]

August 16, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka wants to use sports events like a forthcoming marathon to entice more tourists to the island and rebuild an image tarnished by war and allegations of human rights abuses, officials said. The number of tourists to Sri Lanka fell 20 percent to 44,142 in July and arrivals in […]

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 […]