McQuire Rens & Jones (Pvt) Ltd. together with Hotel Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo yet again organised one of their flagship events, ‘The Breakfast Meeting’. This is the fourth in the series where such breakfast meetings are held every other month for chairmen, managing directors and CEOs. Attendance at these events is by invitation. The past breakfast ...

Switch-Asia ‘Greening Sri Lanka Hotels’ project makes progressBy Cheranka Mendis Sri Lanka Tourism will soon introduce a ‘Green Accreditation Scheme’ for hotels which would classify hotels under its green initiatives, Switch Asia Project Director Srilal Miththapala said. The scheme

Laugfs Leisure Ltd., a fully own subsidiary of the Laugfs Gas Plc in its strive to become  one of the dominant  players in the hospitality industry has acquired Mag Consultants and Agents Pvt Ltd., (MCAPL) and its assets, comprising 1 5 acres of prime sea front beach property at Waskaduwa Kalutara with an investment of ...

Yala is the undisputed home of the Sri Lankan leopard, the star attraction of the Yala National Park. With Sri Lanka claiming the highest density of leopard in Yala within 140 kilometres, the newest phenomenon in these illusive cats is the rapidly growing population, which has naturally seen them venture out of the park and ...

The Daily FT spoke to the Immediate Past President of Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) and Chairman and Managing Director of Conniassance de Ceylan Ltd., on the state of post-war Sri Lanka tourism industry, the progress and key challenges as well as future prospects

Following is the address delivered by The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President Anura Lokuhetty at the National Conference on ‘The Role of the Business Community in Reconciliation’ organised by Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS):   Ladies and gentlemen, throughout the history of mankind, humankind has searched for ...

Following are excerpts of an interview with Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) Secretary T.M.F. Packeer, who is also Managing Director and CEO of Asian Exotica Ltd. Q: Sri Lanka Tourism has a very clear future standing as articulated by the President, of 2.5 million visitors

Reuters: South Africa’s Sun City resort will invest $ 800 million in a tourism project in Sri Lanka, the Gead of the State-run Tourism Board said on Friday. Sun City resort is run by South African gaming and hotels group Sun International Ltd. It will be the largest ever investment in the country’s leisure sector, ...

Range of sectors discussed for investments during meeting between Qatar Premier and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa Range of sectors discussed for investments during meeting between Qatar Premier and Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa (strap) Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Qatar   together with Yousf K...

IN 2010, the boost for Sri Lanka tourism was being named the top travel destination by the New York Times. As the dawn of 2012 emerges the plus point is being among the top six of National Geographic’s best global destinations. Upbeat on tourism, the Government is considering a target

The best way to make the benefits of ICT to reach all the people, especially the disadvantaged as envisaged by the President is to develop local e-content talent, said President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga. The Presidential Secretary said so while participating as the Guest of Honour at the e-Swabhimani Awards 2011 held in Colombo recently. Speaking ...

Famed star class hotel located on the Golden Mile of Beruwela, Eden Resort and Spa (LOLC Leisure Group Hotel), made history when it created the Signature Cocktail for Sri Lanka Tourism for the Year 2012 at a ceremony held in Mount Lavinia Hotel earlier this month. This event was held

By Ranee Mohommed For the third consecutive year, the Sri Lanka Design Festival(SLDF) showcases Sri Lanka’s award winning apparel industry to a specifically invited global audience of buyers, retailers, sourcing specialists and backward integration supply chain partners -a key event of this apparel industry agenda at the festival is its Apparel Industry Fashion Show. The ...

By Sanath Weerasuriya in London The curtain rises at the World Travel Mart in London yesterday with a new hope for Sri Lanka Tourism to go beyond its target of 800,000 tourist arrivals to the country by the end of this year. The business for the Sri Lanka Tourism at the modern architecturally

Assistant Barman at the Cinnamon Lodge, Habarana Harsha Dilhan Fernando has won second place in the all-island Signature cocktail for Sri Lanka Tourism competition, conducted under the auspices of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board. The event was held at the Galle Face Hotel. He had already been placed

Programme by world famous celebrity chef for industry personnelAs an additional event in the World Spice Food Festival, this year Sri Lanka Tourism together with the Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association (CHSGA) and the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (SLITHM) is bringing

Following the success of the World Spice Food Festival since 2005, Sri Lanka Tourism is once again staging the World Spice Food Festival 2011 with the aim of showcasing culinary expertise from around the world with added Sri Lankan flavour. The festival will be held from 28 October to 9 November

The last week was an eventful week indeed. We barely recovered from the news of the death of the maverick inventor Steve Jobs. Although I am a loyal Microsoft right-brain person, I admired the ‘left-brain innovative spirit’ of Apple and the ingenuity of the man. He had not gone to university and had what some ...

Colombo: Newbie Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha has flown down to Sri Lanka on a four-day visit to film a documentary and do a magazine photoshoot.  The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau said that the 24-year-old actress will do a photoshoot at the world heritage site Sigiriya for the European

Bollywood cinema’s latest female sensation Ms.Sonakshi Sinha arrived in Sri Lanka yesterday via Sri Lankan Airlines UL 142 at 5.44 a.m. from Mumbai –India for a four- day special promotional assignment in the country. The Bollywood beauty was given a very warm reception on arrival at the BIA, with a traditional welcome dance and greeted ...

Last week I received an invite for an ‘Inventors Day Celebration’ in one of the leading schools in the country and the master in charge shared a thought that I felt was a cutting edge idea. Apparently, every one of us is an inventor in some part of our daily life. The issue is that ...

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority is positive about the China Aviation Technology Import-Export Corporation's (CATIC) five star hotel project which is expected to be launch by the end of thi .....

Stock Broking firm Capital Alliance suggests that the 2.6 million tourist arrivals target isn’t a pipedream but achievable though it will be only by 2020, which is 4 years later than the Government and industry set timeline of 2016. “The Government projects 2.5m arrivals in 2016, but the industry will lack the rooms and trained ...

Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka ’s exotic southeast coastline, is set to welcome 96 top world surfers from 19 countries spanning Argentina , Peru , USA across the globe to New Zealand , to compete in SriLankan Airlines Pro Surfing contest held in association with Australasia ’s Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) from 30th August – ...

A high level delegation from Russian oil and natural gas giant Gazprom led by its Director General Gulev Valeriy this week met Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa at his office in order to discuss investment opportunities, especially in the oil exploration in the Mannar and Cauvery Basin, natural gas market as well as tourism ...

The attendees present at the Sri Lanka National Energy Efficiency Awards 2011 experienced history in the making as they witnessed Heritance Hotels and Resorts being crowned the most energy efficient hotel chain in Sri Lanka. Heritance Hotels made a clean sweep of the Large Scale Hotel Sector category, a feat that has never been achieved ...

Sri Lanka Tourism Awards 2010 organized by the Sri Lanka Tourism and the Ministry of Economic Development was held at the Waters Edge Hotel Battaramulla, last evening (27) with the participation of the Deputy  Minster of Economic Development, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena as the chief guest.

The concept of providing lodging houses for tourists is being launched to facilitate tourists. Deputy Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said that this programme would be instrumental in providing the economic benefits to the people. He said that the aim of the government is to make tourism a people’s industry. The number of rooms available for ...

Sri Lanka will soon get a Seven Star Hotel. Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Board said the new hotel will be constructed in addition to the seven five star tourist hotels in the country. Chairman of the Tourism Board Nalaka Godahewa said that 2011 is a significant year for tourism in Sri Lanka. A ...

M.R.’s goal of 2.5 mn. tourists by 2016 The country’s   major hotel operators have planned to build hotel rooms meeting only 6 percent of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s target of getting 2. 5 million tourists by 2016. Hiran Cooray, Chairman Jetwing Group, one of the country’s leading hotel investors, in response to a question, told participants ...