CHARNIKA IMBULANA
COLOMBO : It is not even two weeks ago the Colombo Times.net announced in these columns its observation that the Cinnamon Grand hotel is the “grandest’ of them all in the midst of the city hotels’ scramble to put out their respective seasonal programmes to the public. To top it all now, the Cinnamon Grand Hotel of Colombo situated imposingly at the very centre of the City, has won two prestigious awards at the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Awards ’24 held at Cinnamon Life on 20th December 2024.
Area Vice President Cinnamon Colombo hotels and General Manager Cinnamon Grand, veteran Hotelier, Kamal Munasinghe who has been spearheading the hotel’s continuous success to even greater heights for the last four years and received very many awards in the preceding years, announced yesterday of this momentous new recognition and winnings to the media on the two categories, -; ‘Best 5 Star Hotel in Colombo City’ and ‘Authentic Sri Lankan Cuisine Restaurant’ for Cinnamon Grand’s Nuga Gama restaurant.
Cinnamon’s mission of unparalleled hospitality
“These awards are a testament to our unwavering continuous commitment to excellence and our mission to celebrate Sri Lanka’s rich heritage through unparalleled hospitality“, said Munasinghe at the media briefing.
“We can achieve all this only with a good, talented team” he said. “Along the years I have had teams so very talented and this has been a major contributing factor to this continuous success and the ability to continue to win awards even now” he added with much gratitude.
Speaking further at the newly, refurbished, relocated and re-launched ‘Cheers Pub’, Munasinghe informed that the awards became more significant especially at this time when there is an unprecedented number of properties that the hotel is operating amongst, serving the general public.
Appreciation of Guests
He expressed his gratitude to the guests of the hotel he said without which it would not have been possible. “The constant, regular and occasional good food connoisseurs, their good wishes and expectations from us challenge us to provide the best.” he emphasized. This is what we strive to do, always to ensure the public is served well.” he emphasized.
Munasinghe has always been assured of support from the media locally and internationally possibly because of his amiable, yet professional approach and the unstinted appreciation, given where it is due. Long established as a professional and regarded a pillar and a quiet strength to the tourism sector in general and well regarded amongst the country’s hospitality trade in particular for his knowledge and strong presence through his ability to show results with the rising numbers, has garnered him many deserving accolades.
Fittingly he took the opportunity of the awards announcement press briefing to show appreciation to the media too by not only expressing his heartfelt sentiments to them but also inviting all present for a celebration lunch that followed.
Sri Lanka Tourism Authority Awards- National Honours
The Sri Lanka Tourism Authority (SLTA) Awards ceremony, regarded the most prestigious of national honoures bestowed on the hospitality sector in the country was mooted in 2007, by way of a draft paper presented by one time hotelier Upali de Silva who was Director Corporate services at the then Ceylon Tourist Board. However it was in 2008 the Awards Ceremony was launched and became an annual event which became a major looked forward to ceremony and known for its impartial selection for recognition in the local hospitality sector for very many years.
The SL Tourism Authority put me through to the Upali De Silva, the person who mooted the idea, now a Consultant of the Awards ceremony this year, to obtain more information of its history.
Speaking to De Silva was very interesting, he said the much needed Awards scheme got revived by him again in 2018, after a short lapse in his position as a member of an evaluation panel on the Accommodation Sector at which time the Authority too had become to be known as the ‘Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority’.
The national honoures Awards ceremony in 2024 this year, the 7th Edition, was held under the organizational leadership of Mr. Upali de Silva who now serves as a Consultant for the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Along with Director Udana Wickramasinghe, he has made this year’s event more exciting by widening the scope by incorporating 8 other categories making it more inclusive in terms of participation.
I asked him Upali De Silva what made him propose this idea at the inception. He said as Director Corporate services at the SLTA he found that when working with all stake holders, a scheme was warranted on which standards are maintained and due recognition is given locally to our own people by our governing bodies in the sector first.
“I found that there were Sri Lankans honoured by various prestigious organizations overseas for our people’s travel and tourism contributions and their worthy efforts in Sri Lanka. For instance our services are being commended and recognized by those assessing bodies based outside of our country. For example, they are selected as Best resort hotel in Asia at the international event, for the work they do in our country” he emphasized.
“There was no platform created in Sri Lanka for recognition in Sri Lanka itself. This was important to initiate to encourage them to do better in serving the visitors with commitment by giving them their due recognition locally first”.
Stringent process in obtaining recognition
Speaking of the selection process Mr. de Silva said “It is really very tough for a hotel to get an award. There is a very stringent process involved in which they have to make their submissions and called upon to make their respective presentations. If they are qualified as preliminary finalists then they are referred to the Grand Jury.” He explained.
“The Grand Jury too makes deliberations to make sure that the winner is carefully chosen based on the proper evaluation process which even includes spontaneous visits which is called on-site inspections by the Panels and the Jury that consists of independent professionals who are extremely objective in selections”.
The process ensures to be a very fair and transparent one. It is a well- established, recognized respected national hospitality Awards scheme”, said Upali De Silva, a veteran hotelier by profession, hotel school graduate and who had worked at the Ceylon Tourist Board for 25 years having held key Director positions since, including positions such as Director, Corporate Services (standards and quality assurance), Product Development and Events.
This indeed is a then a wonderful event in order to ensure that the local hotels and all those involved in the Tourism sector gets to work towards not only their own persona; goals, but that of the country and be recognized too in the process nationally. Congratulations from Colombo Times.net to Cinnamon Grand on their wins at this prestigious national honoures SLTA awards ceremony.
