Shangri-La’s Hambantota Resort set to open mid next year

30 November 2015 03:05 am

By Lahiru Pothmulla
Shangri-La’s Hambantota Resort and Spa, the first of the two Shangri-La hotels being constructed in Sri Lanka would be opened on June 2 next year, General Manager of Shangri-la Hotel and Resorts Sri Lanka, Mehdi Serrour said.

The constriction of Shangri-La’s Hambantota Resort and Spa on a-145 acre land,  commenced in late February, 2012. 

One of the major attractions of the Resort would be an 18-hole golf course, a first-timer in the Sri Lanka’s hotel sector.

Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism-based facilities, themes made focusing families and children, Ayurvedic care facilities and wildlife tourism would also be available at the resort once completed. Serrour said Hambantota Shangri-la Resort is not just another hotel with restaurants and swimming pools but a hotel made focused on family and home based concepts with an added authenticity of the island to promote happiness among the visitors.
“Sri Lanka is different from other countries in its rich authenticity and the country is a paradise, which its people don’t understand properly. While Sri Lankans yearn to visit New York and Paris, people in those cities want to come here to experience rich authenticity in this paradise,” he said. He also said Shangri-La has already invested in recruits from the area and that they would recruit more 100 people from Hambantota and many others from other areas such as Mattala as well as Colombo.   

“We will make sure the recruits of 100 have a ratio of 50 percent male and female. Though usually it is male who represent the majority in the tourist sector and especially hotels and resorts, we believe that female are more natural when ensuring a hotel feel like a home. They have the natural ability to perform the duties which needed to be done,” Serrour stressed.

He went on to note that Shangri-La Hambantota Resort and Spa would promote the city luring visitors from UK, Germany, India and also China and added there are much needed to be done to develop the infrastructure of the area in order to promote tourism.

“Mattala has a brand new airport which would come in handy when promoting tourism and also the Southern Expressway should be extended to Mattala or at least to Tangalle at this point to reduce the exhausting journey from Matara to Hambantota,” he said.  

Meanwhile, Shangri-la Hotel and Resorts Sri Lanka’s Sales and Marketing Director Marcel Kromhout said Sri Lanka has a large economic potential in a strategically located sea route and measures are yet to be taken to fullest potential.  He said though Sri Lanka is renowned for its tea, not enough marketing had been done to promote Sri Lanka tea or tea culture. “We would like to bring back that tea culture,” he said.  Kromhout said the government’s target of 2.5 million tourist arrivals in 2016 could be reached in no time.