Sri Lanka in for a world class shopping experience

Sri Lanka’s Premier destination mall –the Ronan International Centre to open in November

Sri Lanka is in for a world-class shopping-leisure-entertainment experience with the opening of the country’s premier destination mall—Ronan International Centre—in November this year, in time for the end-of-the-year festive season, a press release said.

The rupees 644 million, 68,000 square-feet ‘Destination Mall with a Difference’ is a timely concept of the R-Group International, headed by Mr Rohan Nanayakkara. The R-Group International builds on the legacy of one of Sri Lanka’s pioneer companies Ceylon Carriers Limited, with over six decades of experience in the logistics and hospitality industries. Sri Lanka has been yearning for a destination mall to complement its culturescape of only one department store and a handful of dreary malls. By definition, a destination mall is one that offers such a unique and attractive mix of lifestyle products, leisure and entertainment activities, that people are willing to travel a greater distance to shop, relax and be entertained there.

Event Destination Mall
And there are ‘Theme Destination Malls’ and ‘Event Destination Malls’, and the Ronan International Centre definitively belongs to the latter category. A Theme Destination Mall is one where the visitor could find in one location everything that’s possible in only one category of products or services—for example, clothing. An Event Destination Mall is one that offers a diverse range of experiences all in one location—say from the launching ceremony of the latest automobile, to a one-of-a-kind art exhibition, fashion shows to even a beyond-imagination beach-volleyball tournament!

As an event destination mall the Ronan centre will create such an unrivalled ambience at one venue that will take the definition of shopping and entertainment to an entirely enriching experience! It is sure to be a definite tourist attraction as well. Customer Friendly Location The Ronan centre complex consists of two state-of-the-art buildings (soon to be linked by elevators and walkways) complemented by a 120+ parking area and an eco-friendly outer area. One of the buildings is already anchored by the Keells Flagship Supermarket, contributing to an 850-1000 customer inflow on a daily basis. The visitor inflow is expected to increase further given that the Centre is located outside of the City’s high security areas and easily accessible by the highway.