business travel
Hong Kong Tourism Board beckons Lankan travellers
Shirajiv SIRIMANE in Hong Kong
Hong Kong by night |
Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) is welcoming Sri Lankan tourists to
visit their country.
Cable car to Ngong Pingto village |
Hong Kong Disneyland |
An official from the HKTB, said that Sri Lanka travellers are keen to
visit the Disney Land, Cable car and engage in shopping. “Their average
stay is around four days,” he said.
Developed as a joint venture of The Walt Disney Company and the
Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the
world-class resort, which opened in September 12, 2005, is Disney’s 11th
theme park globally, its the first in China and an important milestone
for sharing the magic of Disney with families throughout Asia.
Located on picturesque Lantau Island, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is
accessible by automobile, bus, the MTR rail network and eventually
ferryboats.
It includes a lavishly designed theme park that blends classic Disney
storytelling and 21st century technology.
Hong Kong Disneyland offers a full day of theme park fun, filled the
dazzling entertainment in magical kingdom of dreams, imagination and
adventure.
The park combines classic Disney attractions for all ages, with
Broadway-quality live entertainment, flavourful Asian cuisine and
appearances by beloved Disney characters including Mickey Mouse, Minnie
Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Winnie the Pooh, Cinderella, Stitch and many
more.
Many Sri Lankans also take the cable car to go to Ngong Pingto
village to see World’s tallest outdoors seated Bronze Buddha. The
village also offers special vegetarian meals at the temple restaurant.
The visitor arrivals to Hong Kong showed that the first six months of
2008 have grown by 8.9% to 14,185,504. The figure includes 2,147,926
arrivals to the city in June, which represents a year-on-year growth of
5.6%.
HKTB Chairman, James Tien said that the half-yearly performance was
well on track, “Notwithstanding the recent downward trend of
international arrivals, as seen in June, which was led by various
factors in the macro environment, we remain cautiously optimistic of the
outlook and our tourism industry’s performance in the second half of the
year,” he remarked. “Eyeing the pent-up demand and the sustained China
fever post-Olympics, the HKTB is already working with travel-trade
partners in various long-haul markets, including the US and France, to
develop China/Hong Kong combo packages for capturing the visitor
traffic.”
China is now the top destination for visitor arrivals to Hong Kong.
Among the individual markets, various high-potential and emerging
markets continued their robust performance and delivered remarkable
results in the first six months.
These included South Korea (500,713, +27.1%), India (191,176, +19.2%)
and Russia (19,905, +24.8%), he said.
Going Green at Trans Asia
Maintenance Supervisor Ajit Dias, together with Maintenance
Technician M. Aluthge, who were the brains behind this project
bending over one of the planters containing the spinach plants.
Dias’s goal is to one day produce some of the vegetables used in
the hotel’s restaurants. |
An initiative taken by the Engineering Department at the Trans Asia
Hotel saw a harvest of twenty kilograms of spinach grown in planters
under organic conditions. The Executive Chef who used it in the
associate’s restaurant - The Link. This was a first for the associates!
The hotel boasts of a large slab or terrace on the first floor
adjoining the guest rooms, where the architects had designed huge
planters growing flowers and foliage which was visible from the rooms on
the higher floors.
However, the recent change in weather conditions saw more rain,
strong winds and other elements from the atmosphere ruining these
flowering plants.
It was then that some of the associates from the department including
the horticulturist who came up with an idea of growing a vegetable in
these planters.
The hotel’s team of gardeners who make the full requirement of
compost for the entire surrounding gardens of the hotel filled these
planters with compost and earth, and as a trial, planted spinach seeds.
Within three months a beautiful nursery was born.
They have also grown ladies fingers, and looking to cultivate more of
these crops in the planters all along the terrace outside the rooms on
the first floor! No doubt, “going green” has certainly taken to the
hearts of those working at the Trans Asia Hotel. |