Leisure Marketing Services, a web based travel magazine has recently introduced a web based accommodation guide on Sri Lankan locations. This is the first time that a comprehensive web based guide on Sri Lanka tourism is been introduced.

www.accommodationguidesrilanka.com is the new web address on travel trade of Sri Lanka.

A long felt need from a marketing perspective of the hospitality industry of Sri Lanka has been fulfilled with the introduction of the accommodation guide. The trends in tourism have changed over the years with many travellers preferring to search and decide on the places to be visited and where they would like to stay once a destination has been decided on. In this respect a comprehensive accommodation guide will provide the required information for the travellers. Not only foreign tourist, even the domestic traveller will be able to plan their holidays with the information on the accommodation sector been available on the web.

The web based guide will be comprehensive, covering hotels, guest houses, holiday bungalows and all types of accommodation outlets. It will also provide the opportunity for service and facility providers to showcase themselves for the benefit of visitors by advertising in the guide. Accommodation outlets will be highlighted under different categories and listed under the respective towns. All information on the outlet will be provided on a standard format with a link to their respective web page. Hotels could publicise their special offers for the benefit of the browsers, who in turn will be potential customers.

‘I have been involved with the travel trade for a considerable period of time from a tourism promotion and advertising perspective. The need to promote the destination and the products at a time when the tourism industry is not doing well was felt by most hoteliers. Yet they could not spend much on advertising. Looking at ways of doing it at a low cost the idea of a web based guide was pursued’ said Cholitha Daswatte, partner of Leisure Marketing Services.

Launched just one month ago, LMS plans to capture 80% of the accommodation outlets in Sri Lanka by the end of 2009. ‘Our aim is to make this the best web based accommodation guide on Sri Lanka and hope to improve the contains and format as we go along’ said Imasha Fernando, other partner in business.