CNN features Colombo Courtyard

The Colombo Courtyard, an up-market city hotel, became one of the first hotels to be featured in CNN news, taking Sri Lanka's hospitality industry to new heights.

The three-minute program featuring the Colombo Courtyard emphasised the fact that it is a carbon neutral hotel which is one of the first in the South East Asian region.

Managing Director, Colombo Courtyard, Arun Thapar said that a team from CNN visited the hotel because it was following the carbon neutral concept and it was not a common practice among hoteliers.

"The CNN team did the interview and it was telecast in-between the news broadcast. We got the publicity free and if we were to get the same space from CNN if would have cost us over US $ 5 million. Therefore, the mileage we received was unprecedented," he said.

CNN visited Colombo Courtyard in 2014 and CNN's Anna Coren conducted the interview. Apart from interviewing Thapar, the CNN also interviewed Sunela Jayawardena who was the Architecture and Environment Designer of the hotel.

Colombo Courtyard which is in the heart of Colombo offers 32 rooms including 15 suites. It was certified as South Asia's first carbon neutral city hotel through guidance from the Carbon Consulting Company (CCC), where the hotel's carbon footprint was monitored and assessed through a 12-month period.