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| Friday, 9 July 2004 |
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Hotel show woos foreign buyers by Shirajiv Sirimane The third annual Hotel exhibition 2004, organised by Ceylon Hotel Schools Graduates Association (CHSGA) and Tourist Hotel Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) will be held from July 16 to 18 at BMICH. The event is being co-sponsored by Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited.
With the increase in tourists to South Asia, opportunities are abundant for trade buyers in the SAARC region to meet prospective suppliers from all over the world. Industry related seminars by prominent speakers would also be conducted daily throughout the exhibition. With the local travel industry moving towards an upward trend due to the continuation of the peace process the organisers are expecting additional foreign buyers and sellers this year. According to the President of the CHSGA Palitha Wijemanne buyers are from Maldives, Bangladesh and India while most of the foreign suppliers are expected from Australia, India and Singapore. The exhibition is being organised with the objective of meeting direct, the suppliers and the decision makers of hotels. For the supplier this exhibition would be an ideal opportunity to catch a mass market while the hotelier has the choice of gaining first hand information on new products. He said that the exhibition is being held at a very appropriate time. "This is the off season and most of the hotels are investing on refurbishment," he said. Most of the Sri Lankan hoteliers are introducing Spas to their hotels which is considered as one of the highly traded products. He said that during the exhibition many seminars would be conducted specially for professionals in the hotel industry. IT would be one main area since Sri Lanka has to invest more on this sector in their hotels. Among the other topics are human recourse development and linen management. Last year the organisers earned a profit of over one million and this was utilised to put up a modern library for the hotel school. "This year we are aiming at a higher profit and hope to invest it on professional development for the industry," he said. Regular seminars and workshops would be conducted for employees in the hotel sector with foreign lecturers. Wijemanne, General Manager of Palm Garden Hotel whose experience runs over 30 years said that fresh ideas should be introduced to the industry. Some of the Excise ordinance acts for the industry are over 50 years old and they have to be changed to suit the present day demands," he said. York hotel invests Rs. 300 m on reconstruction The York Hotel Management Services Ltd, has invested Rs. 300 million to reconstruct Wornels Reef Hotel Beruwela.
According to Director Operations, York Hotel Management Nishadha Periyapperuma the hotel, a three star property was constructed in 1983 but subsequently closed in 2000. He said that the management was studying the situation of the country and waited patiently for the right business climate to make this investment. The construction work has already commenced and the hotel will be opened in December. After the reconstruction the hotel will have an extended swimming pool. They hope to introduce a spa to the property since there is a demand for it. In addition a new air-conditioned coffee shop and a conference hall to accommodate 350 would be introduced. The management is also hoping to change its name to 'the Reef' and it is expected to be marketed as a four star property. They are hoping to give the management of the Spa to a foreign company. Nishadha said that the industry in Sri Lanka is booming, specially the up market hotels were doing well. "This is a good sign since it shows that Sri Lanka is now attracting high spenders," he said. In the last two years most of the hotels have refurbished or upgraded their properties anticipating a high season. He said that the government should consider a duty reduction for the hotels which are being refurbished. York Hotel Management has also completed a major refurbishment program for their second property, Hotel Sigiriya. Their flagship hotel, Club Palm Bay Marawila will be refurbished next year. - (S.S.) Brochure and VCD on Lanka launched Lanka based Asian Adventures in association with White Sands Holidays LLC, Dubai, a leading tour operator in the Middle East, launched a colourful and attractive brochure and VCD on Sri Lanka and the Maldives at the recently concluded Arabian Travel Market (ATM) promoting these two destinations for the forthcoming summer season. Sands LLC works exclusively with Asian Adventures for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, and with the summer campaign showing positive signs of being a sell out. The Asian Adventures staff will be seconded to White Sands operations in Dubai from this month. Chairman, Asian Adventures, Naeem Mahamoor said, "our company's participation this year at the Travel Market yielded positive results. "We are catering to the premium market segment and offering a range of options to our worldwide agents and customers," he explained. "Our portfolio include Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Dubai and business looks extremely promising since the worldwide trend today is to look for exotic holiday destinations offering commendable services," he added. Top German agents visit Nilaveli A group of top 18 retail agents completed a familiarization tour and visited Nilaveli, the most sought after beach destination in Sri Lanka. The group was brought down by LTU Touristik Germany. The ground handling agents for LTU group is Hemtours Pte Ltd. They toured the whole of Trincomalee visiting the Pigeon island, Coral island Konneswaran temple, Kinniya Buddhist temple, Fort Fredrick and Trincomalee harbour which is one of the finest natural harbours strategically located. |
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Produced by Lake House |
The event is aimed at providing an "ideal networking platform for
worldwide suppliers" in the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation. Hotel Show 2004 will showcase products related to hotel
supplies, for instance, Food and Beverage, Catering Equipment and
Services.
