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| Monday, 26 January 2004 |
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by Tharika Gunatilake and Ramani Kangaraarachchi The country's tourist industry is on course to achieve its target of 650,000 tourist arrivals this year, given the healthy occupancies enjoyed by the country's hotels. Industry officials said "the boom" is continuing with most hotel properties enjoying heavy bookings in November, December and January. The previous peak in arrivals of 436,440 in 1999 was surpassed in November, although there was speculation of huge cancellations. "But, there has been no impact on the traffic, " they said. "In fact, there have been increases". A case in point being the 54,946 tourists arrivals in November and 57,722 in December 2003. Tourist traffic which reached a milestone in 2003 with 500,642 visitors, a growth of 27.3 per cent over 2002, is on a positive trend with most City and resort hotel properties doing good business, several hoteliers told the Daily News yesterday. Sustained peace and the lure of the country's diverse tourism product have been major contributory factors for maintaining visitor confidence in the destination. The final arrivals tally for 2003 also went to emphasise that the tourist inflow was not seriously affected by the political developments as a result of the President's take over of three ministries on November 4 despite views to the contrary, industry sources said. Healthy occupancy levels and a heavy up turn in revenue recorded by the hotels has fuelled optimism that Sri Lanka is still a preferred destination amongst travellers irrespective of political developments, hoteliers said. An official of the Colombo Plaza said the hotel is very busy this week with 75 to 100 arrivals per day. "We have big groups from far eastern countries and UK this week," he said. A spokesman for Hotel Taj Samudra said 75 per cent of hotel rooms are booked most of the time and the hotel is doing well. There are large numbers coming from Asian and European countries on leisure and business. An official of Hilton Hotel said they mostly have foreign guests on business as the holiday season is over and business was looking good. A spokesman for Hotel Janaki said they have a number of foreigners from India, Bhutan, China and Ukraine who have come on business and 50 per cent of rooms were occupied by local and foreign guests. General Manager Hotel Hill Top in Kandy Cyril Perera said the number of guests had increased this week and 80-90 per cent of rooms booked. Most guests are from Germany, he said. Koggala Beach Hotel has increased business by 40 per cent and rooms are fully booked. The majority are from Germany and the Czech, according to the hotel management. Meanwhile, the travel trade is also doing well, according to leading travel agents such as George Steuart and Gabo Travels by way of selling air tickets and organised local tours.Healthy occupancy levels and a heavy upturn in revenue recorded by the hotels are reflective of the travellers' confidence in the destination despite the political impasse, they said. An official of Colombo Plaza said the hotel is very busy this week with 75 to 100 arrivals per day. "We have big groups from far eastern countries and UK this week," he said. A spokesman for Hotel Taj Samudra said 75 per cent of hotel rooms are booked every time and the hotel is doing well. There are large numbers coming from Asian and European countries on leisure and business. An official of the Colombo Hilton said they mostly have foreign guests on business as the holiday season is over and business was looking good. General Manager Hotel Hill Top in Kandy Cyril Perera said the number of guests had increased this week and 80-90 per cent of their rooms were booked. Most guests are from Germany. Koggala Beach Hotel has increased business by 40 per cent and hotel rooms are fully booked. The majority are from Germany and the Czech, according to the hotel management. |
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