Category: Tourism

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 […]

June 01, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan police have revived their tourist police branch to better protect tourists in the face of increasing complaints of harassment and a sharp downturn in arrivals. It will re-establish a network of tourist police stations in key resort areas, senior superintendent Maxi Proctor, director of the new unit, said […]

May 30, 2007 (LBO) – Britain is advising its citizens not to travel to the north and east of Sri Lanka, but they are free to visit other parts of the country, the UK High Commission (embassy) in Colombo said. Sri Lanka’s total tourist arrivals are down 19.9 percent so far this year. “Some recent […]

May 22, 2007 (AFP) – Cases of murder, abduction, disappearance and intimidation surface almost daily in Sri Lanka as the South Asian nation appears to be sliding into lawlessness and war.With a truce between the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in tatters and peace talks long since abandoned, rights workers […]

May 21, 2007 (AFP) – The number of holidaymakers visiting Sri Lanka fell by nearly 20 percent in the first four months of this year as fighting between troops and Tamil rebels escalated, the tourism authority said Monday.Visitor numbers to Sri Lanka dropped to 167,674, down 19.9 percent over the corresponding period of last year. […]

April 20, 2007 (LBO) – The hotel unit of John Keells Holdings has sold a hotel property on Sri Lanka’s Unawatuna coastal town in the South West of the island, the firm told the Colombo Stock Exchange Friday. Last week another listed firm, Hemas said a re-branding of several hotels in partnership with the Minor […]

April 19, 2007 (LBO) – Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka fell by 36 percent to 35,031 in March 2007 compared with the same month last year as escalating fighting between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels deterred holiday travel. But arrivals from Eastern Europe increased 60 percent with the number of Russian visitors increasing by […]

April 17, 2007 (LBO) – A downturn in tourism triggered by escalating violence has forced Serendib Hotels to put off plans to re-brand three hotels with a foreign leisure group, its holding company Hemas said. The mass market is still coming and our Dolphin hotel is doing well. Hotel Serendib, Bentota, controlled by the public-listed […]

April 12, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tourism promoters are trying to focus on niche markets, luring golfers and tea drinkers to visit the island after its image as a tourist destination was marred by renewed guerrilla violence. The tourism chief, Renton De Alwis, believes that focusing on repeat visitors who are aware of the […]

April 10, 2007 (LBO) – The Sri Lanka leg of the SAARC car rally was flagged off on Tuesday morning from Colombo where the rally would take a coastal road to reach Tissamaharama in down south. The Rally will end in the Maldives on the 13th of April. On the second day, the Rally will […]

March 30, 2007 (LBO) – The Ceylon tea specialists Merril J Fernando (MJF) group is laying the foundation to enter the leisure sector despite the current downturn in the industry, officials said. The group has become a top player in the tea trade in Sri Lanka by marketing valued added ‘Dilmah’ branded Ceylon tea directly […]