Six branded hotels to generate 784 keys, 6,000 jobs : Melwa partners Hilton Group for Rs 10 bn projects here | Daily News

Six branded hotels to generate 784 keys, 6,000 jobs : Melwa partners Hilton Group for Rs 10 bn projects here

Melwa Hotels and Resorts Director T.P.Anandaraja unveiling the Hilton hotel chain map in Sri Lanka with Hilton’s South East Asia and India Vice President William Costley yesterday. Picture by Thushara Fernando.
Melwa Hotels and Resorts Director T.P.Anandaraja unveiling the Hilton hotel chain map in Sri Lanka with Hilton’s South East Asia and India Vice President William Costley yesterday. Picture by Thushara Fernando.

The newly formed Melwa Hotels & Resorts will invest Rs.10 billion to build three Hilton Hotels & Resorts and three DoubleTree properties for the Hilton chain and become the biggest single non listed hotel company Sri Lanka.

Melwa is known as a steel bars and products manufacturing company and this is also the first time that the company has diversified into the leisure sector.

Melwire Rolling Business Development Director Dr. Ranjith Bandara told the Daily News Business said the investment was mainly from bank borrowings which accounts for 40%.

The Yala and Negombo properties have already begun construction and will be opened in 2019.

The six new hotel properties including the three resorts are scheduled to open between 2020 and 2024.

The hotels are, Hilton Kandy Resort, Hilton Yala Resort & Spa, Hilton Kosgoda Resort, DoubleTree by Hilton Nuwara-Eliya, DoubleTree by Hilton Colombo International Airport and DoubleTree by Hilton Negombo.

The total number of keys for these hotels will be 784 and the entire project will generate over 6,000 employment opportunities The biggest hotels will be Hilton Kosgoda Resort and Hilton Colombo International Airport each offering 200 rooms while Hilton Kandy Resort will have an inventory of 150.

He said these hotels will be built by Melwa Construction and most of the hotels are being designed by Design Consortium.

This latest milestone also marks the debut of the award-winning DoubleTree by Hilton brand in Sri Lanka and significantly expands Hilton’s presence in some of the most sought-after destinations in the country.

DoubleTree by Hilton is a fast-growing, global portfolio of 500 upscale hotels with more than 117,000 rooms in gateway cities, metropolitan areas and vacation destinations across six continents. “Our hotels are strategically located in key tourist destinations of Kandy, Yala, Kosgoda, Nuwara-Eliya, Colombo and Negombo allowing them to reap the full benefits of the burgeoning growth in tourism in Sri Lanka.

This is the first time in the hotel chain history that six hotels are simultaneously built in one country,” Hilton’s South East Asia and India Vice President William Costley said.

“With few international hotel brands having a widespread presence throughout the country, Hilton will enjoy the first mover advantage in riding on Sri Lanka’s growth trajectory,”Costley said.

Hilton honours members who book directly through preferred Hilton channels that have access to instant benefits, such as an exclusive member discount, free standard wi-fi and a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of Points and money to book a stay.

Hilton has a portfolio of 14 world-class brands comprising more than 4,900 properties with over 800,000 rooms in 104 countries and territories. “We are currently 300 hotels all over the world,” he said.


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