New Hotels in East Cost of Sri Lanka

15th October 2009, www.lankabusinessonline.com

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority has approved the construction of new hotels on a prime beach property on the island's east coast following the end of the war, a senior official said.

S Kalaiselvam, director general, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, said the country aims to add about 20,000 hotel rooms in the next seven years to cater to the anticipated boom in tourism.

Sri Lanka now has a total of 13,000 rooms.

The tourism industry had been in the doldrums for years because of the 30-year ethnic war.

But the conflict ended in May with the defeat by government forces of Tamil Tiger separatists, resulting in an immediate revival in tourist arrivals.

Many of the new hotel rooms are earmarked for new tourist zones on the island's coasts.

The east coast is reputed to have some of the best beaches in the island.

"In Passekudah, Batticaloa we're developing a 150-acre zone," Kalaiselvam told a forum for American businesses seeking investment opportunities in post-war Sri Lanka.

"Already we've land given to 13 parties to build 1,000 rooms."

Sri Lanka aims to attract 2.5 million tourists by 2016 following the end of the war.

The here main new zones being developed as tourist hotel sites are Kuchchaveli, north of the eastern port of Trincomalee, Kalpitiya on the north-west coast, and Passekudah.

The Tourism Development Authority has called for applications from investors to develop 500 acres in Kuchchaveli.

It has also called for expressions of interest from investors to develop five islands in Kalpitiya, which Kalaiselvbam said would be "like the Maldives."