By Steve A. Morrell
The leisure sector grew much slower than expected after a 30 year conflict, Chairman Ishara Nanayakkara told shareholders in Eden Hotel PLC’s Annual Report for 2009/10.
"Indeed, there has been an increase in the number of visitors from overseas in the latter part of the financial year but a myriad of other factors impeded the realisation of its full potential. There was a general belief that the tourism industry would be one of the quickest to take off in the immediate aftermath of the end of the conflict, but it has been much slow to materialize.
"The winter season ahead of us will be the true test of the global appeal of Sri Lanka and of the products and services on offer," Nanayakkara said.
The management of Eden Hotel PLC was transferred to LOLC Leisure Limited earlier this year.
It recorded a Rs. 3 million after tax profit for the financial year of 2009/10, an improvement from a Rs. 40.1 million loss the previous year. Revenue increased to Rs. 400.1 million from Rs. 245.3 million. Its long debt declined to Rs. 33.8 million as at March 31, 2010, from Rs. 57.5 million the previous year.
Nanayakkara said Eden Hotel would make strategic investments to create and sustain international standards while outdated infrastructure would be done away with.
"It was a challenging year in many aspects", he said. "Although visitor arrivals had improved, the company would embark on envisaged modernization programmes to meet anticipated visitor traffic."
source - www.island.lk
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