“Anantaya” Resorts and Spa, one of its first properties, located 66 kilometres north of the Bandaranaike International Airport, and 20 minutes drive from Chilaw was ceremoniously opened by President Mahinda Rajapaksa last week.
Anantaya offers a total of 87 rooms ranging from superior rooms to suites. This property is in close proximity to tourist attractions from whale watching in Kalpitiya to the jungles of Wilpattu.
“We are basically catering for upend market in Europe and we are very strong in the European market especially in the UK, Germany and Holland. We have already tapped big tour operators like TUI and FTI. They really wanted to go ahead with exclusivity agreements, which we didn’t want. But they are very keen to work with us.”
“We are also liaising up with book engine operators like booking.com, agoda.com and so on and also we are targeting Eastern European market like the Czech Republic, Russia and other key destinations. We benchmark with 200 dollars as an average rate on half board basis,” Laugfs Leisure Limited General Manager Aruna Jayalath told Ceylon FT.
He also explained about Laugfs Leisure’s other projects.
“Now we have strategically identified properties in Waskaduwa, Kalutara, Chilaw and Pasikuda. The Passikuda property will be in operation by mid next year.”
“Our unique features are different to any other hotels: in fact, for Pasikuda hotel we have hired a Thai architect and we are giving a totally new experience to the clients. We don’t want to call this a hotel, we want to call this ‘a new experience.’ This is why we are very careful when selecting locations,” he said.
Speaking further he also touched on the investment plans of Laugfs Leisure.
“We have spent Rs 2.5 billion up to now, and we are investing another Rs 2.5 billion on Pasikuda property. Our Kalutara property will be much bigger than these two with 200 rooms. It is a Rs 4 billion investment and all together the investment is Rs 9 billion.”
Taking about other two resorts Jayalath said construction work on the Kalutara project would begin by the year-end.
“All plans are done, designs are done, and approvals have been taken. So it is just a matter of going ahead, but we don’t want to go ahead until we complete the Pasikuda property, but may be by end of this year we will be starting the Kalutara project.”
