40 th year commemoration of first National Holiday Resort in Sri Lanka …..
Bentota - NHR is situated on the Northern coastal tip of the Galle District of the Southern province 61Kms away from Colombo . The town is a popular tourist attraction and also a favorite destination for water sports. It is especially famous among the foreign tourists as a calm and quite destination with full of activities. The name “Bentota” comes from a mythical story which dates back to the period of kings saying that a demon called “Bem “ruled this river ( tota = river bank).
Bentota National Holiday Resort (NHR) owned and managed by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), is located at the starting point of Southern province with the bridge (famous “Bentota Palama”) and covers about 100 acres. The resort is surrounded by the sandy beach ,the Bentota River and its delta. Also, it is located parallel to the Galle – Colombo main road and Colombo – Matara railway track.
Having this panoramic view NHR-Bentota offers various kinds of facilities for both domestic and international tourists i.e. accommodation (first to five star hotels), restaurants, water sports, shopping arcade, post office, bank, telecommunication, railway station, life saving unit, Red Cross and Police post.
On this platform the Government has laid the foundation to Bentota National Holiday Resort in 1969 and declared open on 19 th December 1969 by the late Hon. J.R. Jayawardane, then Minister of State. The NHR- Bentota will be completing its 40 th anniversary in December 2009. Taking into consideration of involvement in the tourism industry by Ceylon Tourist Board later known as Sri Lanka Tourist Board and presently Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, the National Tourism Organization(NTO) has planned the commemoration of 40 th anniversary of NHR-Bentota on grand scale. The important message of this celebration is the positive contribution by the National Holiday Resort, Bentota to the Tourism Industry and to the country.
The assessments show that the Bentota is a popular resort among international and domestic tourists with least negative impacts to the surrounding environment and community compared with other tourism areas in the country. In this sense, being the best example NHR- Bentota proves that planned tourism initiative is the best option to the industry and the country.
From the beginning, the Ceylon Tourist Board has taken many initiatives to motivate the private sector to invest in Tourism at NHR-Bentota. All developments were initially planned with the Tourism Master Plan (1967) and developed afterward. Presently, SLTDA is contributing its all efforts on development of NHR- Bentota in sustainable manner.
The initiatives taken are as follows for the betterment of the resort and the tourism in Sri Lanka.
a) Allocating lands for hotel developers at a very low lease rental.
b) Capital drawing at concessionary interest rate through state banks and grace period for long repayment.
c) Tax concessions on imports for construction material and interior work requirements including furniture.
d) Income tax exception to the investor’s up to the period of 5 to 10 years and concessionary rates onwards.
e) Development of all common infrastructure facilities of the resort on the expenses of National Tourism Organization (SLTDA)
f) Development of ancillary resort facilities such as Telecommunication, Post Office, Police Station, Railway Station by the Ceylon Tourist Board.
g) Establishment of a resort office and overall supervision and the management of general infrastructure in the resort.
h) Conduct training programmes for tourist facilitators (i.e. taxi drivers) in the resort area
With this initiatives, following tourist hotels were developed in Bentota.
- Lihiniya Surf Hotel
- Serendib Hotel
- Cey Sands Hotel
- Bentota Beach Hotel
- Club Robinson Hotel in the initial stage.
Subsequently, Taj Exotica Hotel was also established as a 5 star hotel in the resort.
Today the resort has about 600 guest rooms from one star up to five star category. Taking steps further, in late 1990s central waste water and sewerage treatment plant was established for the first time in Sri Lanka as a common facility to the hoteliers in Bentota.
Tourism been the fourth highest foreign exchange earning in Sri Lanka , celebrating its 40 th maturity has a high value to the tourism industry as well as to the nation in the country.
Therefore, Sri Lanka Tourism together with all stakeholders will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of NHR – Bentota from 18 th to 20 th December 2009. It is our pleasure to bring the message as to how tourism should be developed in a country; tourist to have a peaceful holiday, private sector to offer tourism facilities and local community to share tourism benefits. NHR-Bentota provides a classic example of planned tourism in Sri Lanka.
With peace in the country, tourism has a new start. On this occasion having 40 th Anniversary of Bentota NHR is a value addition to tourism the most important message Bentota bring us today is, how planned tourism can contribute to the development of tourism industry and the nation. Taking this industry towards other parts of the country in line with Bantota example will certainly bring a peaceful holiday to tourists while letting the service providers to have successful businesses and community to share tourism benefits. 
