Sri Lanka’s Appeal Court suspends minimum room rates for Colombo hotels

Sri Lanka’s Court of Appeal on Tuesday issued an interim order suspending the minimum room rates within the Colombo city hotels.

In the order it is stated thus “Grant an Interim Order until the final hearing determination of this Application, suspending the operation of the purported order published by Extraordinary Gazette No. 2349/02 dated 11 September 2023 produced marked “p-8”.”

The minimum room rate or MRR came into effect from October 1, 2023 through the above mentioned gazette issued by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) that applied minimum rates to market city hotels in Colombo. The MRR was challenged in court by a section of the industry including the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) on the grounds that the decision was taken without consultation of key stakeholders. The petitioners have said that the MRR set at a minimum of US$100 ++ per 5-star hotel room has discouraged many tourists particularly the convention, incentives and meetings’ traffic from visiting Sri Lanka as there are cheaper options in the region.

In this respect the Court has issued the Interim orders suspending the operation of the said gazette until the conclusion of this inquiry.

In the meantime, tourism authorities have said they hope to end the MRR by May 31.

(SD)