Sunday December 11, 2005
Recovering, but slowly
How fare hotels, shops and restaurants since last year’s Dec 26 tragic tsunami?
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Picture postcard-perfect sights like this await the visitor to Sri Lanka’s coastal hotels and resorts. – Photos by IZATUN SHA |
THE tsunami caused this hotel Rs60mil (RM2.28mil) in damage but it made a quick recovery, thanks partly to its “buy one, get one free” joint travel offer with Sri Lankan Airlines earlier this year.
A quick glance around the private beach, indoor pool, lounge, coffeehouse and pub revealed a pretty good crowd.
The hotel’s general manager, Roshan Perera, said the Blue Water’s occupancy rate dropped to 60% in January and February but the figure went up to a respectable 70% in March. Between 60% and 70% of the hotel’s guests are tourists from Britain and Europe.
“We started well (this year) and the occupancy rates kept going up,” he said adding that the hotel made an average monthly profit of Rs5mil (RM190,000).
He said the hotel was looking at achieving Rs120mil (RM4.56mil) profit for the financial year ending in March 2006. That might be achievable as statistics from the Sri Lanka Tourism Board shows tourist arrivals increasing.
Culture Club Resort, Dambulla
This resort was not much affected by the tsunami, as it does not depend solely on foreign visitors. Its manager, Srijith Gooneratne, said only the beach and the eastern area of the resort were affected by the tsunami while the cultural attractions, the hill country, natural reserves and six Unesco-recognised cultural sites were left untouched.
The resort recorded a monthly occupancy rate of 80% even after the tsunami, thanks mainly to locals who love its natural setting (which includes the magnificent Kandalama Lake) and the Ayurvedic treatments it offers.
“The number of visitors is satisfactory as people, especially from big cities like Colombo, like the environment and Ayurvedic treatment. They normally stay between four days and a month,” said Gooneratne, adding that the resort currently registered an average monthly turnover of Rs25mil (RM950,000), of which 25% constituted Ayurvedic treatment sales.
The resort is being refurbished to the tune of Rs40mil (RM1.52mil) and will be ready early next year.
The Beach Hotel, Negombo
This hotel was badly affected by the tsunami but “tourists are now convinced that it is safe to come here,” said its general manager, Hyacinth Gunawardena.
She said the recovery was mainly due to efforts to bring in tour operators and foreign journalists to check if it was safe for tourists to visit areas that had not been hit by the tsunami.
The hotel occupancy rate, Gunawardena said, went down drastically between December last year and February this year, hitting a low of 25%. But it went up to between 40% and 60% in the middle of this year. Prior to the tsunami, rates were about 90%.
She is optimistic things will improve as the country’s tourist market is expanding beyond the traditional British and European countries and is now attracting visitors from India, China and some Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.
St Andrew’s Hotel, Nuwara Eliya
Despite being in the hill country, the general drop in tourism hit this hotel as badly as coastal ones with occupancy rates dropping to a low of about 20% from between 65% and 70% before the tsunami.
Its general manager, Wester Felthman, added however that there was a sharp spike in April to 70% occupancy thanks to locals visiting the Nuwara Eliya carnival, which offers golf tournaments, hill climbing, and horse and motor racing.
Felthman said the hotel had been forced to reduce rates, which doesn’t help the profits, of course.
While more package tours are now arriving, stays tend to be short, just one night usually, because of the tours’ tight schedules.
“We are working with tour operators to encourage guests to stay longer, for at least two or three nights,” he said, adding that the hotel offered a host of activities, including a Nuwara Eliya city tour, cattle farm visit, nature walks, bird watching and wild life sight-seeing besides golfing.
Shops and restaurants
The situation isn’t very good for some gems shops and restaurants, particularly those located in remote areas.
P. R. Fernando, sales manager of Lakmini Pte Ltd, said several gems shops along Peradeniya Road in Kandy have hardly had any customers at all as they depended on tourists, mostly from Europe. Sales at the three-decade-old Lakmini dropped almost 90%.
Li Bin Andre, owner of a Kandyan Chinese restaurant, Bamboo Garden, also lamented on how the tsunami had affected his sales, which had dropped to 30%.
“Everybody is affected by the tsunami, even here in the hill country. But things are gradually improving,” he added.
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