Private Leisure International Enters Sri Lanka

Private Leisure International is now ready to establish its presence in Sri Lanka. To fill up its portfolio, the company is now inviting villa owners to list their villa. However, acceptance is subject to strict quality control.



 

Focusing itself in providing privacy as the sixth star to 5-star luxury accommodation, Private Leisure International (PLI) has been successfully deliver businesses to villa owners in key Asian tropical destinations such as Bali, Phuket, Lombok, Koh Samui, Krabi, Vietnam, and Malaysia.



Quality control is the key to its success in attracting up-market holiday makers which traditionally is the captive market of 5-star resort hotels, a success which then turns into lucrative business feeder for property owners. By establishing professional management as required by PLI, villa owners are making lucrative income in addition to price gain of their property investment.



Its rapid expansion program is now bringing PLI to Sri Lanka. The company is preparing itself to offer its

holiday rental clients private villa accommodation in the destination blessed with both historic heritage as well as natural beauty. Apparently, the key offerings are similar to other Asian tropical destinations: sea, sand, and sun. But Sri Lanka has even more than those.



Villa owners are invited to list their property in PLI''s portfolio and include them in all relevant online marketing instruments managed by the company. In addition to websites dedicated solely for Sri Lanka villas, the company also manages creative cross-destinations online marketing programs involving hundred of websites.



Running business in multiple destinations allows PLI to enjoy huge cross-destination market directed to villa owners it represent. It is its key distinction that make the company different from local villa rental players.

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Colombo under water after record rain

COLOMBO, Thursday 11 November 2010 (AFP) - Floods following the heaviest rains in 18 years brought parts of Sri Lanka's capital to a standstill on Thursday, officials said.

Boats were deployed by the navy to help marooned residents and police said thousands of houses were under water but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Telephones and Internet connections were also downed through lightening damage and the authorities shut most public schools and also cancelled a national examination for school children.

Several vehicles were stuck in flooded streets causing traffic chaos.

The met department said 435 mm (17.12 inches) of rain fell on the capital within 14 hours overnight making it the worst since June 1992, when 497 mm of rain fell.

"Heavy rains are due to intermonsoonal activity and we can expect more rain," met chief G. D. Samarasinghe said.

Sri Lanka depends on monsoon rains for irrigation and power generation but the seasonal downpours frequently cause loss of life and damage to property in low-lying areas.

The island's two main monsoon seasons run from May to September and December to February and rains in between are called inter-monsoon activity.

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Leading mobile phone makers lose market share

The Galaxy S from Samsung (right)
and Apple's iPhone 3G,
being demonstrated in South Korea

The world's leading mobile phone makers are losing market share to non-brand manufacturers, according to research. Analysts at Gartner say smaller, Asian companies accounted for a third of worldwide handset sales in July, August and September. Nokia is still the biggest seller of mobiles, followed by Samsung and LG.

Meanwhile, Google's Android operating system has sharply increased its share and is now the second most popular mobile operating system after Symbian.

Rising Sales

Gartner says 417 million phones were sold globally during the period - an increase of 35% from the year before.

All of the large manufacturers, except Apple, lost market share to companies that make handsets without a brand.

Apple leapfrogged Research In Motion, which makes Blackberry, to fourth place.

"White-box manufacturers continued to expand their reach outside of China into markets such as India, Russia, Africa and Latin America," said Carolina Milanesi from Gartner.

"We firmly believe this phenomenon will not be short-lived as we still see a continued need for non-3G devices."

China's Huawei and ZTE increased their share of sales, as did HTC of Taiwan.

The number of phones which use Google's Android operating system has been rising rapidly, challenging established rivals.

Android was on 25% of all phones sold during the period, overtaking Microsoft Windows Mobile and Apple's iOS.

Last year, the equivalent figure was 3.5%.

"Google is maintaining a fast pace," said the Gartner report. "Each version brings new features and polish to Android, and the level of innovation is a major innovator."



Courtesy : BBC

Top mobile phone makers

• 1. Nokia


• 2. Samsung


• 3. LG


• 4. Apple


• 5. Research In Motion

Source: Gartner

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SRI LANKA CO-HOSTS ICC WORLD CUP 2011

In 2011 Sri Lanka will host the world’s most prestigious event in the cricket calendar, the International Cricket Council World Cup. The games played in February and March will take place in stadiums located in the colonial capital, Colombo, the Southern coastal city of Hambantota and the ancient capital, Kandy. Sri Lanka is currently 2nd in the world cup rankings, closely followed by England in 5th place. As potential favourites to go through to the Quarter and Semi Finals, the England cricket team may have the opportunity to play at one of these venues.

The R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo is the county’s largest cricket ground, which is capable of holding 35,000 cricket fans. The Pallekele Stadium in Kandy is capable of holding 25,000 visitors. The Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Sooriyawewa, Hambantota is being built exclusively for the ICC world cup in order to increase the capacity of Sri Lanka’s stadiums. Sri Lanka will host a total of twelve matches in these three venues raising Sri Lanka’s profile amongst international sport hosts.
 In celebration of this event, the Sri Lankan Tourism is planning to offer special promotional packages to cricket lovers. The packages include accommodation and ground transportation including domestic scenic air travel to the matches in Hambantota and Kandy from Colombo for day and extended tours at the visitor’s request. The packages will include stays in the Mahoora Luxury Safari Camps in the wilderness. Guests can also stay in nearby Yala National Park which has the highest concentration of Leopards in the world, only half an hour by car from Hambantota. In these safari camps, guests will experience life in the jungle in a luxury setting with themed evening meals. The newly launched webpage with the ‘Visit Sri Lanka
2011’ branding includes further details of the packages on offer to visitors at http://www.srilanka.travel/cricket.

The island will provide the perfect backdrop to the ICC world cup as cricket is Sri Lanka’s national sport. The world cup which first began in 1975, taking place every four years has had nine editions to date. 2011 is the tenth anniversary of the event which is set to be one of the largest celebrations to date.





      

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Airtel posts $370 Million 2Q profit but misses estimates

Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s largest mobile-phone operator, reported profit fell 27 percent after the company cut calling rates to compete in the world’s second- largest wireless market.



Second-quarter net income dropped to 16.6 billion rupees ($374 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with 22.6 billion rupees a year earlier, New Delhi-based Bharti said today. That lagged behind the 17.8 billion rupee average of 27 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Bharti, controlled by billionaire Chairman Sunil Mittal, fell in Mumbai trading as intensifying competition with Vodafone Group Plc and Reliance Communications Ltd. drove down monthly phone bills in India by 20 percent. Bharti is expanding into countries including Kenya with the $9 billion purchase of the African assets of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co. to offset slowing growth at home.



“In Africa, the turnaround is going to take a while,” said Naveen Kulkarni, an analyst with MF Global Ltd. in Mumbai. “It will take at least two to three quarters for them to get a foothold there, and to maintain margins.”



Bharti fell 0.9 percent to 331.55 rupees as of 10:55 a.m. in Mumbai trading. The benchmark Sensitive Index, or Sensex, was unchanged. The stock has advanced less than 1 percent this year compared with the Sensex’s 20 percent climb.



African Expansion



Manoj Kohli, chief executive officer of Bharti’s Africa business, plans to invest in expanding new businesses in Nigeria, Gabon, Zambia, Malawi, Niger and Uganda after the company completed its purchase of the African assets of Zain.



The company plans to invest $1.2 billion in the six countries over the next three years, Kohli said in July.



Japan’s NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Norway’s Telenor ASA triggered a price war last year when they entered India with cut-rate plans to win a larger share of a market that is forecast by researcher Gartner Inc. to exceed 993 million users by the end of 2014. India had 671 million mobile-phone accounts in August, according to the phone regulator, lagging behind only China.



Bharti said it had 195 million subscribers across 19 countries as of Sept. 30, according to today’s statement.



Sales rose 47 percent to 152.2 billion rupees. That compared with the 150 billion rupee average of 37 analyst estimates. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, rose 19 percent to 51.2 billion rupees.



“The margins in Africa are still low,” Kohli said. “By the time we reach the next fiscal year we will see improvements.”



Falling Phone Bills



Bharti announced it completed its purchase of the African assets of Zain, as Mobile Telecommunications is known, on June 8. The acquisition gave the company 42 million new subscribers and access to a population of about 450 million across 15 African countries including Ghana and Uganda.



Bharti’s average revenue per user, a key measure of performance in the telecommunications industry, plunged 20 percent in India to 202 rupees a month. That’s cheaper than Bharti’s average phone bill from its Africa operations.



Bharti is rolling out a third-generation wireless network in India this year that will allow it to begin providing faster data services on smartphones this year. The company paid the government 123 billion rupees for permits in 13 of India’s 22 telecommunication zones, and 33 billion rupees in June for licenses to offer wireless broadband service in four regions.



The company also paid $300 million in January for a 70 percent stake in Abu Dhabi-based Warid Telecom Group’s Bangladesh operations and plans to invest $200 million in the next five years in its mobile operations in Sri Lanka.

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Confusion over 5 SIMs or 25 SIMS per person?

Despite media reports that said Sri Lanka’s Defense Ministry had limited use of Mobile SIMS to 5 per person an official from country’s telecom regulator said that the rule has only restricted a person to have 5 SIMS per mobile operator in the country. 

There are currently 5 mobile operators named Dialog, Mobitel, Etisalat, Airtel and Hutch operating in South Asian island nation having nearly 60% of 21 million population using mobile phones. Sri Lanka is said to be the one of the countries that were offering cheapest mobile tariffs in Asia.

“This means that each person can have 5 SIMS from any operator allowing them to have 25 SIMS per person as there is currently 5 operators in the country” said Telecommunication Regulatory Communication (TRC) Chief Anusha Palpita speaking to Asian Tribune.

He clarified that there are no immediate plans to ban individuals from owning more than five mobile-phone SIM cards, while many were in argue that it was reported earlier that according to a Defense Ministry order that each person in the country is only allowed to have only five SIM cards.

However Defense Ministry had issued a fresh notice earlier in October directing every telecom operator to register their subscribers to prove ownership of their respective SIM cards.

Thus all SIM cards which are not registered by December 31st 2010 would be terminated according to reports.

Under this set up, Sri Lanka will tighten mobile phone regulations by forcing service providers to maintain full details of phone users.

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India, Sri Lanka to sign agreement on ferry service soon

India and Sri Lanka would soon sign an agreement to commence ferry service between Tamil Nadu and the island nation, a step towards promoting tourism between the two countries.

"The proposal would go to the Cabinet soon for approval and after that Memorandum of Understanding can be signed for the same," a shipping ministry official told PTI. The ferry service would be from Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu to Colombo in Sri Lanka and Rameswaram to Thalaimannar, respectively.



"It (ferry service) would be for both cargo as well as passenger traffic...but mainly for tourism purpose," the official said, adding that the vessels would come from a private party, but refused to divulge the details.



"The proposal would go to the cabinet soon and the MoU can be expected by December this year," he further added.



The travelling time through the sea from Tuticorin to Colombo is approximately 10 hours and from Rameswaram to Thalaimannar is about three hours.



India currently has cargo operations from the Tuticorin Port to Sri Lanka.



The government is looking at investing about $20.8 billion in 276 projects to expand 13 major ports -- Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Kolkata (with Haldia), Chennai, Visakhapatanam, Cochin,Paradip, New Mangalore, Marmagao, Ennore, Tuticorin and Kandla in the country.

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