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LEISURE
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National Green Awards Ceremony
National Green Awards ceremony organized by the Central
Environmental Authority to encourage the Environment
Friendly Industries and Services was held at Sirimavo
Bandaranaike Memorial Conference Hall with President Mahinda
Rajapaksa as the Chief Guest. The recently opened Ulugalla
Resort, Thirappane impressed at the event by winning a Gold.
Pix by Saman Sri Wedage |
Subsequent to being crowned Best four Star Hotel:
Heritance wins Gold at National Green Awards
The Heritance brand was once again in the spotlight when Heritance
Kandalama and Heritance Tea Factory emerged winners at the National
Green Awards held at the BMICH.
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President Mahinda Rajapaksa the Chief Guest, presenting the
Gold award to Heritance Hotel. Environment Minister, Anura
Priyadarshana Yapa, Secretary to the President, Lalith
Weeratunga, Secretary to the Ministry of Environment, Dr.
R.H.S. Samarathunga and the Chairman of the Central
Environmental Authority, Charitha Herath participated in the
awards ceremony. Pix by Saman Sri Wedage |
Heritance Kandalama was awarded the Gold Award in the Large Scale
Hotel category.
This award won by Heritance Kandalama was one of four Gold Awards
presented at the award ceremony which three hundred applicants vied for.
The recent recipient of the Sri Lanka Travel and Tourism award for
the island's Best four Star Hotel, Heritance Tea Factory, won the Silver
Award in the Medium Scale Hotel category.
Organized by the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), The National
Green Awards scheme was initiated to provide an alternative system to
controlling pollution and greening the environment instead of the
existing command and control approaches and education and awareness
programmes.
The main aim of the all island programme is to promote sustainable
management of the environment in order to achieve a green country
through a clean green environment.
Heritance Kandalama, a hotel committed to sustainable practices from
conceptualisation to construction to its day-to-day operations has won a
large number of awards as one of the most eco-friendly hotels in the
world. It has set precedence to other hotels on how they too can be
effective responsible tourism players by contributing in terms of
conserving the natural environment, protecting bio diversity, empowering
local communities, supporting livelihoods dependent on tourism,
preserving local traditions, arts and crafts and mitigating climate
change especially by using bio mass as renewable energy.
The Heritance Tea Factory, Sri Lanka's first theme hotel is a unique
hotel concept, where a tea factory built several decades ago has been
converted into a plush hotel.
Retaining its traditional character, this most unusual hotel is
situated 6800 feet above sea level amidst the misty mountains and the
lush plantations of the hill country.
The hotel has been recognized by one of Britain's widely read Sunday
Times as one of the 100 best places to stay in the world and The
Independent selected Heritance Tea Factory as one of the five best
factory hotels in the world.
THASL inks MoU with VTA
The MoU was signed between The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL)
and Vocational Training Authority (VTA) in the presence of Minister of
Youth Affairs and Skills Development Dullas Alahapperuma and Senior
Minister of Human Resource Development D.E.W. Gunasekera and Secretary,
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Skills Development S.S. Hewapathirana to
train more people for the hospitality industry using the Vocational
Training Authorities network.
THASL will help VTA to finalize the curriculum in keeping with the
industry's requirement and will be providing the necessary assistance by
providing the industry professionals to do visiting lectures and
providing practical training facilities in member hotels in Sri Lanka. |
