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Interview: Chinese tourists contribute to Sri Lanka's forex: hotelier

Xinhua, October 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chinese tourists have contributed to bring in large amounts of foreign exchange over the years and have appreciated what the island nation has to offer, said Rohan Karr, Director Manager of Sri Lanka's leading hotel chain, the Cinnamon City Hotels,

In an interview with Xinhua, Karr said with a large number of Chinese tourists travelling to other parts of the world, if 1 percent of them chose to visit Sri Lanka, it would fill up their hotels.

According to a recent report from consultancies Fung Business Intelligence Centre and China Luxury Advisors, China's outbound traveler numbers are still growing and are poised to double by 2020 to 234 million passengers, from more than 100 million in 2014.

China has also become the second largest market for the tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka and the new Sri Lankan government led by President Maithripala Sirisena hopes to attract more Chinese visitors to its star class hotels.

"Right now, the total percentage of Chinese guests in our hotels is less than 5 percent. However, we plan to increase this to at least 25 percent," Karr said.

"Right now we are doing around 30 rooms for Chinese tourists, so we will start with this number. If it works we will increase, because our future Sri Lankan tourism is going to be Chinese and Indian for sure," he added.

Karr said in recent years, more Chinese tourists have been visiting their hotels which prompted them to make their hotels more China friendly.

"Everyday we see a Chinese customer in our hotel now," he said.

As an initial step, the luxurious Cinnamon Grand hotel, Cinnamon Lakeside hotel and Cinnamon Red hotel in the capital has recruited Chinese translators and has dedicated a floor each to its Chinese customers.

"We also have extra Chinese channels and everything is translated in both English and Chinese," he said.

Karr has been with the Cinnamon group of hotels for 11 years. He had been in London for 28 years and had worked at the Marriot after which he arrived in the island nation to launch the reputed Cinnamon brand. Endit