Govt. retains minimum rates in city hotels

Minimum room rates that help Colombo city hoteliers to sustain their profits are here to stay. The minimum room rates will be retained, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara said.

He noted that it was due to the minimum rates that investor confidence came into the city and in this respect authorities would look to retain this vital aspect of pricing rooms in city hotels as opposed to previous plans to remove it from April 2018.

However, this time there would be a different system adopted in that Mr. Nanayakkara explained that they would have to adjust the pricing according to the peak or seasonal trends working on achieving three million arrivals by 2020 with spending $210 per day from a current $ 164 per day. With 2500 new rooms in the offing this year and demand. “When we are trying to look for investors to come in the decision of the government on the minimum rate is a good decision,” he said adding that a majority of city hoteliers was not in favour of its removal.

Commenting on whether Sri Lanka was comparatively expensive against other destinations in the region, he noted that there was a “big difference.”

He pointed out that Sri Lanka was not interested in cheap tourism and added that though “we should let anyone come, allowing everyone in would ruin our culture and our way of life and our religion. Thailand is certainly looking down that road but not Sri Lanka”. another 3000 was expected to come up within the next two years, it was stated.

“While positioning the country as a destination we are now looking at positioning