Business travel

Hotel Sigiriya conserves environment, wild life

by Surekha Galagoda

Hotel Sigiriya, four hours away from Colombo is in an eight-acre garden of verdant trees overlooking the spectacular Sigiriya Rock. The hotel positioned as a nature friendly hotel has gone to great lengths to conserve the surrounding environment and the wild life of the area.

A spokesman for the hotel said their dedication and hard work has earned them a name for the hotel as one of the most eco friendly hotels in Sri Lanka and the Green Book launched by the hotel showcases the many initiatives taken by the hotel during the past few years.

It is a tool that will create awareness and educate our employees, customers and the community regarding the importance of environment conservation.

CEO Serendib Leisure, Srilal Miththapala in the Green Book's introduction says, "This booklet brings together in a concise format, the efforts of the Hotel Sigiriya team to reduce both cultural and environmental damage.

It is of course by no means comprehensive nor is it conclusive. It is a journey that we will relentlessly continue to the future."

The book explains how the hotel conserves energy, water, minimises solid waste and greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution as well as other chemical pollution.

It also shows how the hotel maximises the practice of reducing, recycling and reusing, maximising the use of environmental friendly materials, maximising indigenous flora in landscaping and eradicating invasive alien species, conserving biodiversity and supporting local livelihoods.

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Dual honour for Emirates Sky Cargo

Emirates SkyCargo won the Air Cargo Carrier of the Year at the inaugural Supply Chain Asia Logistics Awards in Hong Kong, which was attended by more than 300 senior industry executives.

Members of Supply Chain Asia voted Emirates SkyCargo their favourite airline for its excellent services and innovative supply chain support from a shortlist of major players which included Cargolux, Cathay Pacific Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo and Singapore Airlines Cargo.

Emirates SkyCargo also received the esteemed Best Carrier to the Middle East award, for the 10th year in succession in recognition of its service excellence at the annual conference and dinner of the Italian Association of Airfreight Forwarders (ANAMA) at which airlines were awarded for their commitment to customer service and performance quality during 2006.

Emirates SkyCargo Italy also ranked second in the Best Carrier to Australia category. More than 200 air cargo leaders and airlines attended the event in Milan.

"This award is the result of the good work done by everyone in the Emirates SkyCargo Italy team," said Danilo Bonfanti, Emirates Cargo Manager Italy, of the ANAMA Award, thanking his team for their hard work, passion, commitment and team spirit over the years which has shaped Emirates SkyCargo's reputation in Italy.

Hemtours launches 'Holidasia'

Hemtours, the in-bound travel arm of the Hemas Group has blazed a trail in Sri Lanka's travel and tourism industry by launching 'www.holidasia.com' - the country's first-ever leisure booking engine.

Mrs. Jane Chilcott, wife of the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Dominick Chilcott made the first booking in the presence of Director, Hemas Holdings, Abbas Esufally and Managing Director Hemtours, Harith Perera.

Holidasia is an interactive and intelligent booking engine which takes visitors beyond the scope of conventional travel websites.

With its image rich content, it offers them vast opportunities of independently booking their holidays in Sri Lanka and in the Asian region with their credit cards and get instant booking confirmation in real time.

With detailed information regarding travel plans and itineraries, Holidasia offers bookings at Sri Lanka's city and resort hotels with several parallel value added opportunities to make one's holiday truly memorable.

Director Hemas Holdings, Abbas Esufally said, "Holidasia comes into play at an opportune moment when tourism in Sri Lanka is picking up at a slow but very encouraging pace.

The fact that we've opened this booking engine for inbound and outbound tourism makes it all the more significant. With several inquiries already from our overseas partners, I'm confident will make a significant contribution to individual travellers and to the industry in general".

Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism, Renton de Alwis said, "The future is now and we need to be online with it. Making the process of travel decisions simple, closing the sale and following up to ensure that each customer is delighted, is easier, and can be done efficiently with a booking engine technology. Sri Lanka should embrace it sooner than later.

Managing Director Hemtours, Harith Perera said that the project had a substantial investment monetarily and resource wise and took more than three years to complete.