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| Sunday, 2 January 2005 |
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Hoteliers seek government assistance to rebuild by Hiran H.Senewiratne All is not gloomy for the pearl of the Indian ocean which experienced the worst natural disaster the day after Christmas as all the tourists are more than willing to come back and experience the beauty and the warmth of the friendly people of the country who looked after them as their own forgetting their own troubles.
The hotel and the tourism industry which is run like the hand in glove in Southern and Eastern part of the country has come to a complete stand-still following the disaster. But there is light at the end of the tunnel if we all get together and rebuild the nation forgetting petty differences. "For the purpose of rehabilitating and re-constructing hotels and other properties a lot of government assistance will be required, and I am sure the Government will provide what ever assistance it can," President of the Tourist Hoteliers Association Malin Hapugoda said. "This catastrophic tidal wave has caused a tremendous impact not only to the hotel sector but also for the entire tourist industry," Hapugoda added . Since it was the Winter season most of hotels along the coastal areas were packed with tourists from Europe and Asian countries on that fateful day, which killed a number of tourists. He said that only 30 per cent of hotels in those areas are in operational condition while majority of them were badly hit due to this giant tidal sea wave. However, the industry is losing huge amount of money in the coming tourist season due to the massive destruction of hotels in the area. Most of the hotels in this area were either totally or partially damaged, he said. Hapugoda who is also the Managing Director of Aitken Spence Hotel Management (Pvt) Ltd said, that all their five hotels in the down south have been severely affected. The company's Triton and Neptune hotels are damaged beyond repair. He said that the company expects to have limited guests operations once these hotels are repaired in a few months. "It needs to have a huge amount of funds to reconstruct these hotels.The industry needs to seek government assistance to build those properties for the tourist industry," he added. Leading tourist hotels in Bentota coastal line including Bentota Beach hotel, Lihiya hotel, Taj Exotica, Robinson along with small scale tourist hotels were completely damaged. According to sources in the Bentota area, more than 50 hotels have been damaged or washed off in the aftermath of this tidal wave. Confifi Hotel Group Managing Director Stefan Furkhan, said that out of their four hotels down south, Confifi Beach Hotel was severely damaged. He said that the three hotels were partly damaged, but the structures of these hotels are not damaged. Furkhan said that they were fortunate enough to evacuate all guest to safe places but unfortunately two of the employees drowned. He said that repercussions of this disaster will affect the tourist industry. In the long run there will be a high probability of drop in the number of European tourists coming into Sri Lanka. The emerging problemat this moment is safeguarding the valuables of hotels from looters and rogues and the government assistance is the need at this hour, he said . At present they are in the process of assessing the damage caused to their hotels, Furkhan said. The Reef Hotel of Hikkaduwa which was refurbished a month ago at a cost of Rs 17 million was damaged due to this incident, managing company Connaissance de Ceylon Ltd, sources said. Human Resources and Administrative Manager of the company Flight Lieutenant Deegayu Abenayake said that the damage that was caused to the Reef hotel is much more higher than the money that was spent on the recent refurbishment. At present water, electricity, and sewage lines have been damaged in most part of the coastal areas, those need to be put back to normal with immediate effect by the government, he said. According to Lieutenant Abenayake, it would take nearly two years to return to normalacy. Most of the infrastructure facilities including roads, telecommunication, water, power have been affected. Wornels Reef Ltd, a subsidiary of the Colombo Fort Hotels Ltd was refurbished at a cost of Rs 300 million very recently and the its ground floor was completely washed off, its Administration Manager Jude Norbert said.He said that Club Palm Bay hotel of Marawila is not affected in the aftermath of this disaster . Norbert said that perimeter walls of the hotel have collapsed which need to be attended to as soon as possible.At present they are in the process of assessing the damage. Mercantile Investment Ltd Deputy Chairman Gerard Ondaatjie said that their hotels in the down south namely Royal Palm and Tangerine are not affected from this calamity. He said that those hotels will be able to operate once everything gets settled . Director Marketing Jetwing Travels Ltd Lalin de Mel said that, out of their three hotels, Yala Safari was completely damaged, while the ground floor of one of the hotels ie Blue Waters hotel, is fully damaged. According de Mel Light House hotel in Galle was excluded from the wave. The hotel will start its operations very soon . "At this juncture we are not looking at business, but we are more worried about the lives of innocent people," de Mel said.Leading hotels in and around the beaches of south and east have disappeared. Leading hotels in the Eastern part of Sri Lanka namely Nilaveli and Arugam Bay hotels were severely damaged due to this tidal wave. |
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