Calamander Group, Unawatuna will invest Rs 2 billion in United Kingdom to build a 58 room beachfront star class hotel.
Chairman and founder of The Calamander Group Roman Scott, told Daily News Business that he had initially planned to invest this amount in Sri Lanka but was forced to take it out due to the severe red tape he had to encounter in Sri Lanka.
“I was planning to build a four star hotel investing Rs 2 billion but then to my dismay found that the approval process for land clearance, environment and provincial council approvals was going to take more than one year and decided to take it to UK.”
The Chairman said he was also taken aback seeing the huge tax imposed on the hotel sector in Sri Lanka including VAT, TDL plus high electricity tariffs and analyzed that his investment would be more productive in UK.
Scott who also operates the Coffee Bean outlets and the re-launched Calamander Unawatuna Beach after his takeover said that in contrast when he indicated his keenness to invest in North Yorkshire, the mayor there made an appointment with him and wanted to know how he could help the investor in his constituency. “This is how they (UK) welcomed me with the kind words, ‘HOW CAN I HELP YOU SIR?”
This is how they treat foreign investors and lay the red carpet to them and Sri Lankan authorities at BOI and other departments should take a leaf from them and be investor friendly or Sri Lankan would never achieve the US $ 5 billion FDI target and would end up with less than US $ one billion.”
Scott also said that he was surprise and dismayed in the manner in which the national carrier was not supporting the tourism industry. Firstly they (SriLankan) should never have pulled out from Europe (Frankfurt, Paris and Rome) and I think their inbound airfare is not at all competitive.”
He also lashed out at the informal sector and said that they were killing the industry. “For instance there were over 200 unclassified hotels in Unawatuna who are all listed in severs global booking websites and they are selling rooms starting from US$ 30 dollars. But unlike the registered hoteliers they don’t pay a single cent as tax and maintain minimum standers. However in contrast even if our recycling plant brakes down even for single day we have to pay huge fines and hence we don’t see a level playing field in the industry.”
“I also say that Sri Lankan tourism promotions overseas are horrible. Also the entry ticket fees at heritage and religious sites and parks are highly overpriced and are unfairly squeezing the tourist,’ he said.
0 comments: