Aitken Spence Hotels launched their new brand ‘turyaa’ at the World Tourism Market at a special ceremony in London yesterday.

Aitken Spence Managing Director Rajan Britto speaking to Daily News Business at the opening of the World Tourism market here said that this is their second brand after Heritance.

“We hope to brand the former Golden Star Kalutara and the 150 roomed hotel in Chennai India under this brand,”Britto said.

The Chennai is a 150 room hotel property while the Kalutara hotel has 200 keys. “We acquired this hotel in Kalutara and converted it to a 200 room property. We will open this by end of the year.”

Commenting further on Sri Lanka operations he said that they are expected to open the Browns Beach Hotel in Negombo early next year. ”This will be a five star resort and the biggest in the area.”

The old hotel was demolished, and the new resort is being constructed with an initial capital injection of Rs.2.1 billion through a rights issue in 2010. The new hotel to come under their first brand will have 143 luxury rooms.

Britto also said that they have taken over two more islands named Raafushi and Aarah in the Maldives.

”We will develop two more resorts in Maldives and we have already leased out two islands for this purpose.” Aitken Spence have invested a total of 5 million dollars on leasing out Raafushi where a four star resort will be built. A further US$ 50 million is to be spent on developing Aarah where a star resort will be built. The inventory will be for 163 rooms.

In 1993, Aitken Spence, which runs resorts under the name ‘Adaaran’, was the first hotel chain to invest in the Maldives.When completed Aitken Spence will be the leading foreign company operating the most number of resorts in Maldives.”

Meanwhile the opening ceremony of the WTM Sri Lanka stand was held with stakeholder’s participation, Chairman SriLankan Airlines, Ajith Dias and Commercial Secretary Sri Lanka Embassy in United Kingdom Nimal Karunatilleke were present.

Naleen Perera, Officer of Sri Lankan Tourism in UK, said that despite limited promotions UK arrivals to Sri Lanka has seen a 13.5% growth.”This is very encouraging,”he said. The event will conclude on Thursday.