Travel

Coffee Promotion Continental

One of the Colombo's newly opened pastry shop Cafe County at the Ceylon Continental Hotel Colombo will host Coffee promotion for all the coffee lovers from 26-31 October 2007.

Cafe County offers a wide range of coffee like Cafe Latte - Expresso topped with velvety steamed milk, Cafe Mocca - Espresso and chocolate with steamed milk, famous Americano - Espresso and many more will be served at the pastry shop - Cafe County.

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Villa Ocean View invests Rs. 200 m for refurbishment

The Ocean View Resort management has invested nearly Rs. 200 million to refurbish Villa Ocean View Hotel Wadduwa. The hotel which was closed for over six months, would be reopened on November 1.

Business Development Manager, Ranjaka De Mel said that the property needed a facelift and this was the reason for the hotel to go for refurbishment. He said that the hotel now offers 140 rooms, which includes 6 suites.

All rooms have been redone with new toilets, furniture and linen and several new features too have been added.

The restaurant too has been partly air-conditioned. "Some foreigners prefer to dine with the sea breeze and this is why we decided to keep one section open," he said.

In addition the beach bar too has been redone. "We are looking for introducing a spa under our second phase of development," he said. Conference and wedding market has always being on of their key strengths and they too have been upgraded.

A modern kitchen too has been built while the roof top restaurant and bar has been refurbished. The 73 cabanas too have been repositioned and they have been rebranded as Villas.

Deputy General Manager of the Hotel, Manilal Gunasekera said that though they have upgraded the property the rate have not been increased. "This is because we do not want to deprive the local clients who patronize the hotel specially during week ends," he said.

The Ocean View Resort management also own and manage the 90 room Induruwa Beach Resort.

(SS)

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Sri Lanka Tourism undeterred, stays on course

Sri Lanka Tourism in the wake of the success of the "World Spice Food Festival 2007" - Hawker Street Festival in particular, is preparing for the forthcoming winter season's programmes, undeterred by the attack on the SL Air Force base, at Anuradhapura situated 250 kilometres away from the capital Colombo.

On learning of the attack on the Air Force Base at Anuradhapura Sri Lanka Tourism was quick to send out a media release dispelling any fears giving the true picture to the local media and to associates in the industry through an e news letter disseminated to over 8,000 addressees in their network.

Managing Director Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau Dileep Mudadeniya speaking of the incident " We cannot be disheartened by this kind of small set back, many countries in this region have problems of this nature but the tourism industry remains focussed on attracting visitors."

He went on to add " Our own programmes to draw visitors to Sri Lanka will go on as planned.

The French have shown a particular interest to visit Sri Lanka and the world's biggest multi sport adventure competition for women 'Raid Amazon' is going to be held in Dambulla in January next year, also the Galle Literary Festival, our calendar for visitors covers a wide area of interests and the tourist are positive about travel to Sri Lanka" In conclusion Mudadeniya said "We must keep the momentum and not get distracted by these incidents".

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Spice festival concludes on Saturday

The most recent success story of Sri Lanka Tourism's initiatives came from the 'World Spice Food Festival 2007' and its Hawker Street food promotion which ran last week.

Director Corporate Affairs of Sri Lanka Tourism, Upali de Silva, airing his views on the event "Our hard work was well rewarded. On the 19th around 1300 persons visited the Hawker Street Food Fair at Nomads Grounds and on the second day on Saturday there were more than 2000 people excluding children and all the food sold out well before time".

An idea of Sri Lanka Tourism to bring in signature chefs to the food fair was supported by Sri Lankan Airlines and the event sponsored by HSBC Colombo. This much publicised and popular programme continues through this week with the hotels serving their chosen specialities made by visiting signature chefs.

The range is - Hilton Colombo: Mexican; Hotel Galadari: Chinese; Cinnamon Grand: Lebanese; Trans Asia Hotel: Singaporean; Ceylon Continental: Indonesian; Taj Samudra Hotel: Italian; Holiday Inn Hotel: Indian(South); Galle Face Hotel: Australian; Mt. Lavinia Hotel: Thai; Water's Edge: Malaysian; Mango Tree: Indian; Raja Bojun: Sri Lankan; Siam House: Thai; Sakura: Japanese; Han Gook Gwan: Korean; Hilton Residence: Mediterranean.

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Royal Thai celebrates Halloween

Trans Asia's Royal Thai Restaurant proves its versatility once again. This time in a totally different vein. From the 27th-31 October. For the first time - a package for a minimum of eight persons has been created for those reserving the two private dining rooms during these five days.

The package comprises a welcome drink, a set menu and many more. The meal is ended with freshly brewed coffee or tea accompanied with petit fours.