Blue Water Wadduwa bags ‘Hospitality Award’ at NBE 2010

Thursday, 9 December 2010 01:16 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Gayani Perera

The Blue Water Wadduwa was recently bestowed with the prestigious Hospitality Award at the National Business Excellence (NBE) Awards 2010 at a gala ceremony held at the Hilton Colombo.

The contestants were judged according to a given evaluation criteria comprising of eight principle points, which included business and financial performance, global reach, knowledge integration and capacity building, etc.

“We were mainly evaluated with regards to the area of business and financial performance, HR policies and the use of technology, etc. The years under evaluation were that of business years 2008, 2009 and 2010. Although the hospitality industry went through some turbulent times The Blue Water always kept up a progressive streak,” said Roshan Perera, General Manager of The Blue Water.

“During the past few years we have continuously value added to our properties which included the addition of our spa, new banqueting facilities and the re-opening of ‘Seascape’. We have also changed our marketing concepts in order to better maintain our occupancy levels. As a result we as an organisation have managed to reach our financial targets,” he added.

The hotel has been successful in designing an all-inclusive concept for tourists which became very useful during the dark times that the industry underwent recently. The Blue Water has also been able to successfully conduct a good number of foreign weddings.

At present, the hotel offers three very attractive wedding packages, giving couples the ability to select a wedding venue of their choice at different price levels. The Blue Water Platinum Package offers a host of benefits which range from spa treatments to spa dining and much more.

“What differentiate us from the rest are our innovative customer offerings, which break all traditional norms and boundaries. This, I feel, has become our underlining success factor which has contributed towards achieving an award of the nature. We have developed a set of effective HR policies where we have not at any point sent away staff during the off seasons. Due to this we have managed to retain good staff members and also by nature our staff is highly dedicated and extremely friendly. Therefore, due to the high quality services that customers receive, we have a high percentage of repeat clientele,” Perera pointed out.

Commenting on future plans, he said: “We have two properties that we have purchased in Sigiriya and Wadduwa. We plan to start operations in one of these projects within the first six months of next year. In the future we envision becoming a group of hotels which will become our ultimate goal. With regards to The Blue Water we have at present refurbished the hotel especially with regards to our four suites and 13 superior rooms; the rest of the 83 rooms also received a special facelift due to the refurbishment and in the future we plan to create yet another 16 superior deluxe rooms.”

“With high-spending clients coming into the country, a majority of travellers today are looking for luxury, especially with regard to hotel accommodation. We do not intend to make too many changes at The Blue Water as we want to preserve and do justice to its legendary architect Geoffrey Bawa’s work, however we hope to maintain the property in pristine condition.”