Colombo Airport an aviation hub:

Tourism poised to reach great heights

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Sri Lanka tourism is poised to reach great heights with the end of the war, to its pristine glory when tourism boomed in the paradise isle.

In addition peace could also be exploited to convert the Colombo Airport to an aviation hub of the region.

An expert in the field Nahil Wijesuriya, who is involved in diversified business ranging from freights, shipping, real estate and many other like hemispheres and the Chairman, Ceylon Continental Hotel, told the Sunday Observer that `good times' are looming with Sri Lanka ready to warm itself to the cockles of the European sector in becoming the `paradise isle` that it was once famous for.

He however said that the global financial crunch and the Swine Flu would have a check on the tourism sector. "However this would only be a temporary setback and tourists will soon get the `holiday mood` back," he said.

Wijesuriya said that repeat clientele keep on coming to Sri Lanka as they like the people and this is a major plus point to the industry. "You can see that tourists don't go to see Sigiriya or the tooth relic in Kandy more than twice.

However there are tourists who visit the same hotel every year for more than 20 years," he said.

"With peace, travel advisories too are expected to soften and this would help the travel agents to market Sri Lanka more aggressively bringing more tourists," he said. Currently there is a high insurance premium due to travel advisories and this makes Sri Lanka marketing difficult for travel agents in these countries.

He said anticipating better times ahead the Ceylon Continental hotel will be investing Rs. 300 million to refurbish the property which was over three decades old.

He said that to meet the modern day demands they would make the rooms bigger by joining them. "We have 250 rooms and our target is to bring it down to half," he said.

He said that, Ceylon Continental due to its location has a unique sea view and this would be projected in their future marketing endeavours.

He said that the Colombo airport while being in a strategic location its infrastructure too is good.

"This country must exploit this and market the airport as an international hub to the region," he said.

Commenting on the `minimum room rate` imposed for the City hotels he said it was a very bad move that is killing the industry.

"One must realize that the tourism sector is now suffering and Sri Lanka has lost its bargaining power.

In this scenario we cannot have a minimum room rate. What should be done is to allow the rates to be decided on a supply and demand basis," he said.