TRAVEL

Sustainability highlights of Aitken Spence Hotels

Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings PLC has doubled the sustainability content of this year's Annual Report.

In addition to reporting impressive financial achievements, the company has highlighted positive impacts made on environmental and social aspects.

In reaching out to the local communities, the Group has directly and indirectly associated with changing their lives for a brighter future.

Group views sustainability as a strategic avenue for growth in the long-term as opposed to ad-hoc philanthropy and provides tremendous opportunities and encouragement to local communities in villages that the hotels are located in.

Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings Managing Director J M S Brito explains that 'Corporate Sustainability has long been a tradition at Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings. It has been a way to connect with the societies in which we operate, a way to positively contribute to the global fight against global warming and most importantly, a way to enrich the lives of local communities our customers and employees'.

There are many heart warming stories of how local villagers have benefitted from the Aitken Spence hotels for livelihood and how they have improved their living conditions, some climbing very high in the corporate ladder.

Thirty-years seven-old Ranjith Kumarasinghe from Palukatula village in Kandalama joined the Heritance Kandalama Hotel as a trainee waiter and today he is the Human Resources Assistant Manager. He still works on his field during time off from work.

A former labourer, S. M. Meiyappan was promoted and appointed as the Health Club Assistant at the Heritance Tea Factory.

Meiyappan's local knowledge on birds in the area has helped him to become the Heritance Tea Factory's trekker as well.

He now takes tourists on nature trails. Another former labourer hailing from Hethersett village, J. Sivasamy is now a supervisor with eight staff members working under him at the Hethersett Spring Water Bottling Unit at the Heritance Tea Factory. Sekeralage Siripala, a farmer from Upper Areula village in Kandalama has been playing flute at Heritance Kandalama since its inception for fifteen years, daily payments received from the hotel supplements his farming income . The stories of Ranjith, Meiyappan, Sivasamy and Siripala and their families are only a few amongst hundreds of many others who are saying thank you to the Aitken Spence Hotels for changing their lives for brighter futures.

Aitken Spence Hotels Managing Director Malin Hapugoda said, the company has for decades infused growth into the local economy through employment generation. It is extremely difficult to isolate our key achievements in sustainability, which covers a wide array of economic gains to environmental protection measures including mitigating climate change. However, we feel that the most incredible achievements are always people related; changing lives by spreading economic benefits to those who need it most brings about the best in our company.

Special efforts have been made by the company towards achieving completeness of the Annual Report by adopting universally applicable and accepted disclosure of information according to international reporting standards. The Sustainability Report has been produced based on the reporting framework developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) complying with the G3 guidelines and indicator protocols for economic, environment, human rights, labour, product responsibility and societal performance. The report outlines the company's progress in embedding the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact and Climate Change mitigation actions.

The best practices followed by the Group for the conservation and protection of the environment have been recognized as global case studies on sustainable tourism. In addition to being the largest hotel group in Sri Lanka, the company is a rapidly growing regional player with a large portfolio of hotels under the brands of 'Aitken Spence Hotels' and 'Resorts and Heritance Hotels and Resorts' in India, the Maldives and Oman.

JKCS launches new hospitality software

A hospitality management solution by John Keells Computer Services (JKCS), Sri Lanka's travel technology leader, will be showcased at the Hotel Show 2010.

"Zhara HS" is an IT solution that marks the future of the hospitality industry by creating smarter hotels that are able to build strong revenue streams.

When designing Zhara, JKCS which worked primarily in the global aviation industry, has used the sophisticated business models employed by airlines for generating higher yields per passenger.

Zhara HS uses these models to create efficiencies in hotel operations, drive down costs and build sustaining sales models. Zhara HS captures the core essence of the industry and helps hotel businesses succeed in every element of its operations.

It has been developed on a 100 percent web platform to give the capability of managing operations from anywhere in the world, at any time through the friendliest interfaces.

The hospitality suite also comes with a unique pay-as-you-earn pricing model which makes it extremely cost effective. Zhara is currently being rolled out across John Keells Group Hotel properties.

Zhara HS will be exhibited at the Hotel Show 2010 held at the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorial Exhibition Centre on July 16,17, and 18. All hotels, and relevant business and individuals are cordially invited to meet the Zhara representative and personally trial this new solution.

American Express hotels promotion

This season American Express offers cardmembers 1 for 1 lodging at exquisite boutique and resort hotels. Offering a free night for every night booked, American Express will reward cardmembers for any number of nights booked on single, full or half board basis. A 20 percent savings will be offered for additional rooms booked by the cardmember for his group of family or friends.

The list of top end leisure destinations offering the comforts from July 10 to August 31 include The Fortress - Koggala, Eden Resort and Spa - Beruwala, Elephant Corridor - Sigiriya, The Privilege - Beruwala, Amaya Reef - Hikkaduwa, Amaya Hills - Kandy, Amaya Lake - Dambulla, Tree of Life - Kandy, The River House - Balapitiya and Tamarind Hill - Galle.

Considered some of the best leisure destinations in the country, these hotels offer the best of luxury and relaxation surrounded by breathtaking nature, architecture and design.

Commenting on this offer, American Express Cards DGM Priyantha Talwatte said "We are privileged to join the country's premium partner organizations in offering this value added benefit to our cardmembers during the forthcoming holiday season. Be it time away from the city with friends or family or a private retreat with that special someone, these destinations are bound to be a well deserved break."

The American Express card is issued and acquired in Sri Lanka solely by Nations Trust Bank.