Aitken Spence Travels concludes ‘Big Holiday Beach Clean’ at Ahungalla

 

Sri Lanka’s largest Destination Management Company, Aitken Spence Travels organised its own ‘Big Holiday Beach Clean’ event in Ahungalla this July, as a part of TUI Travel PLC’s worldwide series which included destinations such as Mexico, Greece, Turkey and even a reef clean in Egypt, to support ‘Make Holidays Greener Month’, the Travel Foundation’s annual campaign to celebrate greener holidays.
Kicking off with volunteers from Aitken Spence Travels, Heritance Ahungalla and its surrounding local community the event attracted more than 150 participants who cleaned a 3 km beach stretch. The area cleaned also includes the proposed five-star, five storied hotel which is the latest hotel project of Aitken Spence Hotels, a joint venture with RIU Hotels of Spain, to be opened in mid-2016.
Four hundred kilograms of debris collected included various items of plastics, polythene, metal, foam and glass items, which were handed to Heritance Ahungalla for correct disposal of the substances. Further the collected waste will be analysed to assist in better understanding the scale of the issue and implement additional solutions in the future.
6.4 million tons of marine litter enters the world’s oceans each year, which not only threatens wildlife, but also human health, communities and economies around the world.
A keynote speech delivered by Ravi de Silva, the Group’s Sustainability Consultant, encouraged the local authorities to keep the beaches clean; and to build simple steps so that the public too can take to protecting the environment and local wildlife. de Silva further reiterated the importance of balancing the eco-system and its impacts from not following such best practices.
“We are delighted with the outcome of the drive. Sustainability is a key focus area for Aitken Spence Travels. We hope to encourage our customers across destinations on the importance of greener holidays and raise awareness on the issues of sustainability in destinations,” noted Nalin Jayasundera, Managing Director of Aitken Spence Travels.
The local authority in Ahungalla headed by A. Dayarathne, the Chairman of the Pradeshiya Saba promised to support the initiative by assisting in creating further awareness amongst the public while ensuring collective actions are taken by the governing authorities on expanding the mindfulness on such campaigns.
The occasion was attended by the Aitken Spence Travels Management – Lasanth Waravita, Mohan Hapuarachchi, Sajith Wijeneyake, Indika Abeykoon, Axel Storz and by the Executive General Manager of Heritance Ahungalla, Refhan Razeen.
With a significant presence in Maldives and fully diversified in to every aspect of tourism, Aitken Spence Travels is the leader in destination management in Sri Lanka. Partnered with the world’s largest name in travel, TUI Travel PLC, and with over three decades of experience, the company is backed by a reputation of being the most professional in the business. With the commitment towards offering sustainable tourism, Aitken Spence Travels is endowed the Carbon Neutral status by the Sri Lanka Carbon Fund and maintains ISO 9001:2008 and 14001:2004 certifications.