It is important for Sri Lanka Tourism to play a major role in South Asian Travel Awards (SATA) and encourage our hospitality brands to participate along with the other participants in the region, said Tuan Saabir Vaffoor Co-Founder/Vice President of SATA, who is also a Director of Highrise Events as well as a Director of the Colombo Chamber of Commerce.
This year over 450 nominees - doubling the number from 2016 - from the Maldives, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka will participate. The judging process in all destinations has commenced and evaluation of hospitality brands is in progress.
SATA is endorsed by the Tourism Boards of the Maldives and Nepal and associations across the nations in the region.
SATA is an idea initiated in the Maldives. The first edition in 2016 was hosted in Sri Lanka with nominees from the Maldives, India and Sri Lanka. This year, Nepal and Bhutan too, have come on board.
SATA's objective is to identify and reward hospitality organisations in the South Asian region by providing them opportunities to improve standards in terms of service and facilities.
The big brands in the region have participated with over 100 brands from India and the Maldives. Nepal and Bhutan have participated as first timers and they will certainly improve on numbers in the years to come
"In Sri Lanka, currently the hospitality brands are doing their share of marketing, but identifying a particular market and giving it full focus and approaching them with a full force will result in tremendous outcome," said Vaffoor
He said Sri Lanka should implement cohesive methods of marketing the country as a destination. The travel shows do play a major role but more marketing methods could be implemented. An area that requires detailed attention is staff training.
"An influx in tourism could be identified but then we also need to look at how we could increase the hotel stays where the government would benefit, as there's major competition with non traditional accommodation like home stays, etc," Vaffoor said. "SATA is a platform that has been created for the hospitality industry to flourish and we invite all hospitality affiliated brands in the region to participate and celebrate South Asian hospitality."
SATA will continue to conduct the evaluations annually in order to recognise and develop the hospitality industry standards in the region.
The grand finale of SATA is scheduled for October 27 and 28 at Equator Village in Addu City, Maldives. Addu City is the most southern atoll passing the equator.
SATA brings together world renowned hospitality brands to one platform.
"We are thankful to the government of Maldives, City Council of Addu and their people. The warm hospitality of Addu is remarkable, Vaffoor said.
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