Hemas ties up with Minor

Hemas Holdings, on the back of a 100 percent leisure sector growth for the first half of this year, tied up with Minor Group of Thailand to manage properties owned by the company’s subsidiary-Serendib Group and their Anantara brand, with long term plans to develop more properties in Sri Lanka and the region.

Hemas Holdings Chairman, Hussein Esufally said the company was trying to change its strategy of catering to the wholesale market and tap top of the range customers. “So far we have been catering to the mass market, but now we are trying to change the strategy,” he said. A company source said that Hemas bought land in Negombo and is planning to set up a hotel there, but plans are yet to be firmed up.

Esufally said, the Serendib Group did very well upto November last year, till travel warnings issued by some countries after unrest in the North East began. “The leisure sector grew more than 100 percent mainly due to contributions from the first choice charter, but we saw a blank period after November,” he said. However he added that there was some improvement, although very slight. Hemas Minor alliance will first focus on upgrading and re-branding Hotel Serendib in Bentota, as the new ‘Anantara’ resort, where Minor will have 20 percent stake in the company.

William E. Heinecke, Chairman and Chief Executive of Minor International– one of the largest hospitality and leisure companies in the Asia Pacific region with over 500 restaurants and 16 hotels, said the hotel would be repositioned in the ‘affordable luxury’ category. “The market will essentially be four and a half to five star,” he said, explaining that ‘Anantara’ is derived from Sanskrit meaning ‘borderless water’.

Minor International has expanded to include 16 resorts under the Four Seasons, Marriott and Anantara brands in Thailand, Vietnam and the Maldives, including several award winning hotel and resort properties. It is also the leading premium destination spa operator with 23 Mandara and Anantara spas that have consistently been named as the best in Asia and among the best in the world.

Analysts said the performance of the leisure sector had been surprisingly good up to September last year and the company claims that the occupancy rates had been high due to the recent refurbishments of their hotels. “The leisure performance is picking up from the tsunami downfall, but the international media is continuously elaborating the bleak security position in Sri Lanka which is likely to affect the entire Sri Lankan tourism industry,” Hemtours, Managing Director, Harith Perera told The Sunday Times FT. Esufally said that the country needs peace to drive the industry to its maximum potential. “We hope some sort of a devolution package with a win situation for both sides will emerge so that the industry can prosper,” he said.