Mr. Rohan Karr, General Manager of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel which was last week named the best five-star hotel in the country for the second successive year said last week that winning this Presidential Award for Travel and Tourism 2008 in two straight years was a clear demonstration of consistent performance by Colombo’s biggest five-star.

"Winning it for the second year running shows that our performance is consistent and winning in the previous year was not one-off fluke," Karr said.

The 501-room Cinnamon Grand has been running occupancy at the rate of between 58 to 60% (an average of 300 rooms a day) in recent weeks against the city five-star average of 40 to 45%.

The Cinnamon Grand and the Hilton have been classified in the top band in terms of price and Karr said that they charged a specified rate for corporate and free independent traveler (FIT) business although they are flexible in the leisure segment.

"Supposing a travel agent in India wants accommodation for 100 visitors, we will give him a bulk rate," Karr explained.

He said that the Cinnamon Grand raised half its revenue from room sales while the other half came from food and beverages (F&B) sold at its 12 restaurants as well as the banqueting business which is an important segment in hotel operations in Colombo.

Karr said that at the current levels of occupancy plus their F&B earnings, "we’re keeping our heads above water."

Speaking of the award, he stressed that "we didn’t achieve this by accident. The 1,200 people who work here all contributed their best."

The Cinnamon brand is just three years old and the property which was previously the Hotel Lanka Oberoi branded as such by its new owners, the John Keells Holdings group.

Analysts noted that the Cinnamon brand is totally indigenous with at least one competitor boasting international hotel chain brands.

The John Keells leisure group won an impressive haul of six Presidential Awards made by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake last Monday.

While Cinnamon Grand Colombo was adjudged the Best Five-Star City Hotel, Walkers Tours and Whittalls Travels, JKH’s destination management companies won five awards in six categories where they competed.

Walkers Tours won the award for being the Best Adventure Tourism Operator while Kuoni Travels won the award for Destination Loyal Partner – Foreign Tour Operator category with the awards received by Whittalls Travels handling Kuoni Travels here since 1993.

Ananda Yatawara of Walkers Tours won the award for the Best Chauffer Guide while Qantas Airlines, where Walkers Tours are the ground handling partner, won the award for the Best Charter Airline of the Year.

A spokeswoman for the John Keells Hotel group said that Whittalls Travels were runners up in the Kuoni UK 2008 Agent of the Year award. They are one of Kuoni‘s 50 destination management companies worldwide.

Theekshana Wijesinghe of Whittalls Travels and Walkers Tours was adjudged the Best National Guide Lecturer. He has 30 years experience in tour guiding both locally and internationally and works for Whittalls Travels and Walkers Tours.

"We are pleased with our achievements and this is a clear endorsement of our excellence in innovating new products and services," Mr. Vasantha Leelananda, Head of John Keell’s inbound leisure sector commented.

"As a wholly Lankan entity, we are fiercely proud of our country, our product and all our stakeholders – employees, suppliers and partners.

"Our boldness to venture overseas has also resulted in pioneering our own travel operations in India and the Maldives."

Mr. Ajit Gunawardena, Deputy Chairman of JKH and Head of its leisure group said "we are delighted with the six Presidential Awards we have received."

He said that the John Keells group is committed to the travel and tourism industry in Sri Lanka through good times and bad and they are glad that this commitment to both the country and the exceptional standards they strive to maintain have been recognized.

The John Keells group is the largest hotelier in the country dominating the Colombo five-stars. It runs seven resort hotels in Sri Lanka and four in the Maldives.