Ministry to fix hotel room rates

Chaminda PERERA

The Tourism Ministry will stipulate a fixed room rate below which no hotel in the Colombo city could offer a room for their clients under the directive of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

According to Tourism Promotion Minister Faizer Mustapha, the present room rates of the Colombo city hotels are in the range of US$ 45 - US$ 60 whereas hotels in other South Asian countries charge above US$ 110 a room.

“We will declare a fixed room rate for Colombo city hotels under the Tourism Development Authority Act 2005 and hoteliers who are engaged in offering room below the stipulated rate would be dealt with after the Gazette Notification is published,” he said.

He said this move will help boost the hotel industry and its standards. “We will focus on the industry standards with the increase of tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka,” he said. There is an upward trend in tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka with terrorism being eradicated from the country, he added.