SWITCH-Asia Greening Sri Lanka Hotels Project goes to Deep South

SWITCH-Asia Greening Sri Lanka Hotels Project conducted its awareness seminar for the hoteliers in the Deep South at Lighthouse Hotel, Galle on 3 September 2010.

This is the fourth of a series of awareness programs conducted since the inception of the project, others being held at Negombo, Wadduwa and Sigiriya respectively.

The project aims at enhancing the environmental performance of Sri Lankan hotels through improvement of energy, water and waste management systems and reduces cost of operations and increase market acceptance of Sri Lankan hotels with low carbon foot print.

This is the first time that the Sri Lankan hotel sector is receiving free advice, consultation and publicity from a renowned and well established organisation, i.e. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.  

At the seminar, Siri Gunawardane, the Regional Head of THASL – Hikkaduwa welcomed the audience and introduced the project to the participants.

The four key officials of the project, namely Srilal Miththapala, Prof. Niranjanie Ratnayake, Chamila Jayasekara and Suranga Karavita, made informative and more interactive presentations.    

The project is being implemented with the active participation of its partners, Responsible Tourism Partnership (RTP), Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA), Institute of Environmental Professionals of Sri Lanka (IEPSL) and The Travel Foundation of United Kingdom.

The project is also working closely with reputed local Banks and other Agencies to work out some form of preferential financial assistance for those who have registered with the SWITCH-ASIA Greening Sri Lanka Hotels Project, and develop a worthwhile energy conservative project for implementation.

As at present, a total of 121 hotels have participated at these awareness seminars and many of them have already signed-up with the project.