Rs. 3 b second convention centre postponed

By Charumini de Silva

Despite Government haste to build a second convention centre in Colombo with an investment of Rs. 3 billion, the project has been deferred to next year due to unavailability of land, a top official said. Although the Urban Development Authority (UDA) had initially agreed to provide the Ministry a nine-acre land from Sri Jayewardenepura, with the Government’s flagship project Western Region Megapolis plan, they had to revise it.

The General Treasury allocated a sum of Rs. 3.8 billion for the development of the tourism industry this year, out of which Rs. 3 billion was earmarked for the establishment of second convention centre in Colombo, Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs Ministry Secretary Janaka Sugathadasa said.

“Unfortunately we could not implement the project this year, but the money is earmarked for the same project in 2017 as we couldn’t find the suitable land. We hope the UDA will give provide us a land next year,” Sugathadasa pointed out.

At the moment the MICE segment brings around 15% of the arrivals and it is expected that by the end of this year the country will attract around 300,000 in the MICE segment and around one million MICE travellers only from India in the next few years.

Sri Lanka Convention Bureau Chairman Prema Cooray said it was important to build sufficient capacity to cater to this largely untapped area of tourism which probably has the largest potential.

According to City Hoteliers’ statistics, Sri Lanka was only able to provide capacity for 5% of the demand and thereby Cooray suggested that a fair complement of three- to four-star hotels in Colombo was essential to absorb the full potential of MICE tourism.