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Tourist Board to promote mansion holidays

by Tharika Goonathilake

The Sri Lanka Tourist Board is urging mansion and holiday home owners to register their properties with the Board, as part of a new initiative aimed at promoting the `Sri Lankan holiday experience' sans the familiarities of the usual hotel stays.

Targetting high-end travellers, the move aims at utilising available accommodation facilities by way of holiday homes, estate bungalows and walawwas in picturesque nature and cultural surroundings in the country, to promote this increasing niche market tourism segment.

Properties in prime locations in Colombo can also be included in the registration scheme. Owners registering with the Board will have the recourse to rent or lease out their properties to selective clientele through a special registry which will be operated by the Board, Sri Lanka Tourist Board Chairman Paddy Withana told the `Daily News' yesterday.

He said the new initiative will help to further enhance accommodation facilities available in the country without setting up new ventures.

"Sri Lanka is gaining focus as a safe and diverse destination and there is an increasing demand for selective holiday accommodation of this nature, which offers holiday seclusion of a different kind as opposed to the mass accommodation facilities," he said.

According to the Chairman, the Board hopes to compile a registry of such properties with detailed information on the locality, accommodation available and the period open for rental or lease.

Owners have the discretion of renting out or leasing the properties according to their preferences, but these details will be finalised once the Board conducts the necessary investigations and assessment of the potential properties on offer.

Owners interested in joining the scheme can write to the Director Special Projects, Sri Lanka Tourism Board, with full details.

A questionnaire will be subsequently forwarded to the respondents followed by an inspection tour to gauge the potential of the holiday homes.

Once registration is complete, the information will be made available to all embassies and Sri Lanka Tourist Board offices overseas and also on a special website.

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Aitken Spence Travels wins PATA Gold Award

Aitken Spence travels has won the prestigious PATA Gold Award for 2003 for the Best Consumer Travel Brochure.

Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is the leading international tourism industry association linking all tourism industry professionals and organizations in Pacific Asia formed over 50 years ago in USA. The brochure themed "For your fascination...", is well researched and produced to cater to the growing nature based tour segment. Aitken Spence Travels have recognized the importance of developing this segment in a responsible manner to cater to tourists in search of knowledge visiting natural areas and to gain cultural experiences.

The company has set up a separate unit under the direction of Tikiri Ellepola, Director Planning and Development comprising of a team of Zoologists, Botanists and specially trained interpreters with sound guidelines to develop this niche market in a sustainable manner. The award winning brochure features some unique experiences exposing tourists to the rich biodiversity of Sri Lanka.

This is the second PATA Gold Award for Aitken Spence Travels in the last three years. In the year 2001 Aitken Spence Travels received the PATA Gold Award for Education and Training. The award for year 2003 was accepted by Gehan M. Perera, Managing Director of Aitken Spence Travels Limited., at a special luncheon ceremony at the Bali International Convention Center in Bali, Indonesia on April 14.

Closenberg aims for five-star standard

by Shirajiv Sirimane

Closenberg Hotel, Galle, has initiated reconstruction to upgrade itself to a Five-star standard. It will be the second Five-star hotel for the Southern Province after LightHouse Hotel Galle.

According to the new Manager of the Closenberg, Dayal Fernando the first phase of the process has already commenced. "The Management has invested Rs. 15 million to refurbish the rooms," he said. Fernando who was the former Manager of Kosgoda Beach Hotel said that the second phase would be to build a swimming pool and add more facilities."

He said that their aim is to introduce a boutique type hotel.

Fernando who is counting over 21 years experience in the hotel trade with overseas training in Oman said that the hotel was in existence for nearly 150 years and this would be the main attraction of the hotel. "The Dutch architecture is well preserved even today and we do not want to change its concept. We are also hoping to promote our hotel for the Benelux market."

He said that the hotel has 25 rooms and a very large reception hall and is located in Magalle overlooking the Galle Harbour and the Fort. It's a single owner managed hotel and the management also owns and operates Secret Hotel and Three Fishers Hotel in Unawatuna.

SARS deals double blow to Bali tourism revival

BALI, Indonesia, (Reuters) Made Suarsa's minibus is almost empty these days as he winds through the narrow streets of Denpasar, capital of one of the world's best-known travel destinations, Bali.

The minibus often used to be packed with tourists from among the Australian surfers, Japanese honeymooners and international celebrities who flocked to the island of long, white sand beaches, towering volcanoes, and lush vegetation.

That was before last October's nightclub bombings on Kuta Beach - blamed on Muslim militants - that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners, and the more recent impact on regional travel from the deadly SARS virus.

Made, a Balinese Hindu in his 50's and already a grandfather several times over, tries to be philosophical about the drop in his business and that of others reliant on the tourist trade.

"Maybe we have to look at our karma, look at things that have gone wrong," he says. But others in Bali, where 70 percent of the population directly or indirectly depends on tourism for their survival, are more pragmatic about ways to get visitors and their money back to "Paradise Island".

Before the bomb blasts, tourism was bringing Indonesia some $5 billion a year, with Bali accounting for about 35 percent of the total.

Don Birch, who heads leading Asian travel information and reservation services provider Abacus International, said Bali was beginning to recover after the bombings through low-cost packages and promotional campaigns to boost its image. Hotels and airlines have made a concerted effort to provide travellers with "cost-effective packages" designed to jump start Bali's tourism business, he told a regional tourism meeting in Bali this week.

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