Earlier known as Browns Beach, the hotel was demolished to put up this five star 139 room property designed by a consortium of foreign architects.

Aitken Spence Hotels Managing Director Stasshani Jayawardane told Daily News Business that they wanted to create an iconic property and this is the reason they invested heavily on this. “Which ever government is in power we are confident of the future of tourism and we think it would be the driver of the Sri Lanka economy,” she said.

The hotel will have one Presidential Suite, four superior deluxe suites, 48 deluxe suites, 22 premium and 64 deluxe rooms. The hotel also has one of the largest childrens’ pools and an interactive swimming pool. In a bid to attract the conference and the wedding market, the hotel offers four banquet halls which could cater to over 1,000 guests.

The hotel hopes to market the property from around US$ 200 dollars.

She said that both the Kandalama hotel and the Tea Factory in Nuwara Eliya too have been trend setters in the industry.

While defending the local hotel rates to be economical and demand driven, she said that they also welcome global players like Shangri La and Hyatt coming to Sri Lanka. “These will help to position Sri Lanka in a better way in the globe.”

She also said that they are also able to offer higher rate for employees and they see a trend where some of the Sri Lankans working overseas returning to work in Sri Lanka.

Asked what their next project would be, she said that too will be a much talked about venture . “It will be disclosed at the right time.”

Hotel manager Ranjan Stanislaus said they started to market Heritance Negombo an year ago and are happy with the response. “We hope to maintain around 60% occupancy in the first year of operations.”

“We expect a majority 90% to be foreigners and we would be also at an advantage as we could include this hotel as the last of stays when marketing a package.”

Source : http://dailynews.lk/?q=2016/03/23/business/77248