City hoteliers are up in arms

By Nirmala Kannangara

City hoteliers are up in arms over a government ruling to cancel all prior bookings for functions at hotels in lieu of the upcoming SAARC summits scheduled for the last week of July and the first week of August.

The government has asked the city hotels to cancel prior bookings made for weddings and other banquets and also not to accept any new bookings during the period the summit is to be held in Sri Lanka. The defence authorities had issued the directive two weeks back.

City Hoteliers' Association President and Director Operations, Holiday Inn Colombo, Shanthi Kumar said that the city hotels have been requested by the defence authorities not to hold any private functions from July 29 to August 5.

Kumar said that all hotels have prior bookings on these dates and that they would now have to cancel them and refund the monies.

The Defence Ministry directive comes at time when the tourism industry is suffering a 1.4% drop in tourist arrivals compared to last year.