TARGET for
Contributed BY JUDITH CROWN
TRENDING
TARGET for
DEVELOPM
5-STAR BRANDS
ARE AIMING
TO MAKE SRI LANKA , ONCE OFF
THE BEATEN TRACK , AN
UPSCALE DESTINATION .
Sri Lanka has miles of untarnished beaches , ancient Buddhist shrines , tea plantations and wildlife preserves . But tourism languished in the heat of a brutal civil war that ended in 2009 .
After local hotel operators paved the way , international chains such as Shangri-La , Hilton , Hyatt and ITC are pouring into the Indian Ocean island . Nine chains have projects in the pipeline with more than 2,800 rooms scheduled to come online through 2020 , according to Thailand-based consultancy C9 Hotelworks . “ The market was undersupplied ,” says Bill Barnett , managing director of C9 . “ The new hotels , with their higher quality , will make the locals up their game .”
Already , the number of hotels had increased by about 45 % to 400 from 2012 to 2016 , according to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority ( SLTDA ). Hoteliers are heartened by the rise in international travelers , up 14 % to 2 million last year , according to the SLTDA . From 2011 to 2015 , growth averaged 20 % a year . Forbes magazine placed Sri Lanka among the 10 coolest places to visit in 2015 .
SEEING STARS Previously , Sri Lanka was seen as an affordable , offthe-beaten-track place to explore , says Giles Selves , general manager for Minor Hotel Group ’ s four properties in Sri Lanka . “ With 5-star brands coming in , the island will become a more upscale destination .”
Thailand-based Minor was a pioneer : It opened hotels under its Avani flag in 2011 and 2012 — 4-star properties with rooms in the US $ 150 range . It opened its first 5-star resort under the Anantara flag at Tangalle on the southern coast in December 2015 . A year later it opened a second Anantara resort at Kalutara on the southwest coast , designed by the late Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa . Room rates start around US $ 320 . The island traditionally drew visitors from Western Europe , but increasingly they ’ re coming from India , China , Australia and the Middle Eastern Gulf states , Selves says .
A big challenge for the newcomers is recruiting and training staff . “ With the lack of tourism in the early 2000s , many left the country ,” Selves says . “ We ’ re starting to see them coming back .” Competition for top talent is beginning to push up wages , which will raise the local standard of living even as it increases operator costs .
While the international chains are developing the resort market , they also are expanding in the capital city of Colombo with mixed-use developments that will cater to affluent locals as well as the business
10 hotelsmag . com July-August 2017