28 August 2017 11:20 am
By Zahara Zuhair
The second hotel project of Siddhalepa Group, the Siddhalepa Anarva in Mount Lavinia built with an investment of Rs. 1.8 billion was opened to guests last week.
It is said to be the only city hotel that serves authentic Sri Lankan Ayruveda. It consists of seven floors with 98 rooms plus the spa which will be open for in-house as well outside guests.
The spa consists of six rooms with a herbal room, steam room, dedicated to different Ayurvedic treatments. In addition to that it also has a roof-top swimming pool facing the Mount Lavinia beach.
“The purpose to open this was to improve medical tourism in Sri Lanka, extending our strength in line with the country’s objective to be a medical tourism hub,” Siddhalepa Ayurveda Resorts and Spas Senior Marketing Manager Ushan Edirisinghe told Mirror Business.
He said that their target market will be medium and up market in order to attract more revenue to the country.
“When it comes to medical tourism a lot of budget people come to Sri Lanka. We are not targeting the budget people, it won’t give much revenue to the country, we are targeting medium and up market people,” he said.
This hotel comes after 18 years of their first hotel, which is Wadduwa health resort built in 1999. How Anarva differs from its first project according to him is the first hotel is completely dedicated to Ayurvedic treatment where people have to reside their for 7-21 days for treatments, whereas the new hotel would cater to people who come to the city for different purposes and they can get their treatments while being in
the city.
Another specialty of their service is they use all home-grown products, making it indigenous. What makes their service more special is their capability to provide not only relaxation but also medical treatments making Sri Lankan Ayurveda unique.
The group also has a Siddhalepa hospital in Templer’s Road Mount Lavinia. In addition to that they have their spa options in Wijerama Road, Colombo - 7, as well as one in Shangri-La Hambantota. Altogether they have five projects in Sri Lanka, Edirisinghe noted.
Already having expanded their spa resort options to international markets such as Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, he said that they have plans to further expand to different markets.
The Siddhalepa Group is founded on the ancient practice of Ayurveda in Sri Lanka, a family heritage of over 200 years and there generations.
Established in 1979 by Dr. Victor Hettigoda, the group is a pioneer in the industry and one of the largest of its kind, manufacturing a range of over 400 medicinal oils, balms, elixirs, herbal cosmetics and teas along with other medicines for domestic and export markets.