Sri Lankan tourism is yet to expose the cultural and architectural wonders of ancient Sri Lanka to the world and exploit its benefits to tourism, said international award winning hotelier and Managing Director of Forest Rock Garden Resort and Palm Garden Village Hotel Anuradhapura, B. Chandrasiri.
He said that not only Sri Lankan tourism but also the Minister of Cultural Affairs has failed very badly in this area and they are only keen on collecting the entry fees from tourists. “Take Taj Mahal in India and see what a lot of marketing is being done. Similarly Maldives too is into aggressive marketing campaigns and Male promotions can even be viewed on SriLankan Airlines’ flights.”
He said that it’s high time that the hotels in the Cultural Triangle get together and do a joint marketing campaign to highlight Sri Lankan ancient architecture to the world. This is especially needed to woo more Chinese and Buddhist tourists.”
He said that today most of the so called eco-friendly hotels don’t have local architecture and they have ignored ancient Lankan building techniques and designs.
Chandrasiri who was based in Italy for over two decades said that he wanted to create a landmark in Sri Lanka tourism and decided to invest. “My first project was to build Palm Garden Village Hotel Anuradhapura on a 50-acre bare land where I spent almost a year planting the property with trees before starting construction.”
Five years ago, he embarked on his second hotel project, Forest Rock Garden, a living masterpiece which gives its guests the once-in-a-life time experience to go back into the golden days of the Anuradhapura Kingdom in this 21st century with utmost luxury and great sense of royalty, serenity and peace.
The hotel built on concrete pillars with the intention of not disturbing the surroundings was appreciated for its commitment to excellence by being awarded the Gold award for International Star for Leadership in Quality (ISLQ) by Spanish-based Business Initiative Directions (BID) in France. In order to ensure the continuance of the natural landscape, nearly 100,000 rare herbal plants have been planted on the premises.
In addition to other accolades, Hoteliers Association of Anuradhapura also felicitated his achievements. Minister of Tourism, John Amaratunga who was the chief guest at the event said the Forest Rock Garden Resort could be taken as an example by other entrepreneurs to build eco-friendly and spiritual, boutique type resorts instead of putting up more concrete jungles to promote the hotel industry in Sri Lanka.
He said that he was also disappointed by the delays for approval processes when there is a need to create a new product. “After building the Forest Rock Garden Resort in Anuradhapura and the subsequent overwhelming response I received from both guests and travel agents, I knew that hotels highlighting ancient Sri Lankan culture were in big demand.”
“I planned to build my third hotel Ape Gama also in Anuradhapura with an investment of Rs. 300 million where there would be weekend Pola, tea kiosks, fisheries stall and many ancient monuments recreated in this proposed hotel.”
He said that approval process is taking such a long time and he has to go to several Ministries. (SS)
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