Leisure

Mount Lavina Hotel launch Lanka's tallest Xmas tree

Vishmi Wijeratne

Mount Lavinia Hotel, the five star luxury beach resort launched its famous Christmas tree for the third consecutive time.

"This 75 feet tall Christmas tree that was constructed using environmentally friendly material is the largest Christmas tree in Sri Lanka," said General Manager of Hotel Mount Lavinia, Anura Dewpura .

The largest Christmas tree at Mount Lavinia Hotel

Many dignitaries of different religions graced the occasion and according to Devapura this symbolizes the bonding of all religions.

"Tourists who come here prefer this kind of activities and we have prepared more entertainment for the season.

We hope to make this an annual event so that in future it would be a major tourist attraction," he added.

The Christmas tree goes hand in hand with their 'Go Green' concept.

The project commenced six months ago before being lit up.

While tourists and locals enjoyed the occasion the Mount Lavinia Hotel provided a platform for Ceylon Biscuits Limited to preserve the Christmas spirit of sharing and caring by giving the less fortunate children at Daya Mina Charity and Good Shepherds home gifts marking generosity.

Meanwhile, Dewpura said that there are many scrumptious preparations they plan to execute during the season.

While Mount Lavinia Hotel focuses more on food, the hotel plans on providing their visitors a taste of Christmas of different countries.

"For Christmas this year we plan on having food that other countries have for Christmas thus our visitors will be able to taste the delicacies prepared specially for Christmas in different countries at our hotel," he said.

Dewpura also said that they hope to do a similar thing in terms of food for other seasons thus giving the essence of all seasons to their visitors while providing them an international experience in terms of food.

Dewpura also said that business had been good this year and they expect a higher occupancy and profit by the end of the financial year.

"We are known that our tariffs may be higher. However this doesn't affect the business as everything we offer is of high quality to the customer satisfaction."

Eden Resort heralds festive season in style

Eden Resort and Spa, the five star luxury hotel in Beruwala, welcomed the festive season in glamour, as they hosted an evening of celebrations, culminating in the traditional Christmas Cake ceremony.

The ceremony took place on recently at the hotel premises, where a beautiful ensemble of the ingredients in the shape of the Hotel’s logo was on display.

Together with guests, well-wishers and employees of the hotel, General Manager, Eksath Wijeratne, Executive Chef , Deepal De Alwis and Executive Pastry Chef Mahesh Ranganatha presided over the cake mixing activities, symbolically heralding in yet another exciting season filled with scrumptious cuisine and all-around good time.

SL participates in CITF 2012 China

Sri Lankan tour operators with embassy representatives

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), under the guidance of the Ministry of Economic Development, participated in Chengdu International Travel Fair 2012, as a part and parcel of the Sri Lanka government's special efforts to promote Sri Lanka tourism industry in China.

The delegation of the SLTPB comprised six tour operators and leading hoteliers . Chengdu in Western China is one of the top ten cities with the highest number of tourist departures in 2011 and also an emerging business hub.

It ranked the first in the fastest growing cities in the next decade, as per the forecast of the Forbes’ Magazine. Chengdu is a new market for the Tour Operators in Sri Lanka and it facilitated opportunities for Business development with One-on-One meetings, business meetings and business networking meetings, with positive hopes for a prospective industry in Sri Lanka.

Ranjith Uyangoda, the Sri Lankan Ambassador to People's Republic of China and his staff also participated in the event. The Chendu International Travel Fair successfully concluded on December 2 In 2013, Sri Lanka plans to take part in six international travel fairs in China.