The upmarket Aditya was under construction when giant waves smashed into this southern coastal resort, but the owners still decided to "indulge their passion" and sink 170 million rupees (1.7 million dollars) into it.

The 12-suite plush property opened Tuesday with a top price tag of 500 dollars a night for the elite "Sooriya", or sun suite. But it also has lower priced accommodation for 230 dollars, about four times holiday makers' average nightly spending on hotels.

"If you don't build your passion because of the tsunami, then you are giving up on life itself," says Husain Dawoodbhoy, managing director of the Aditya which has no parking for tourist coaches.

"We are not catering to busloads of tourists," Dawoodbhoy said. "This is an exclusive experience. We're not worried about occupancy rates. All we need is six guests and we will be okay."

The longest vehicle on the Aditya car park is a stretched Mini Moke with three rows of seats to drive the guests to nearby attractions. A key stop is the site where an entire train was wiped out killing over 1,000 people.

A few more upscale resorts have opened since the tsunami with some priced at a whopping 900 dollars a night for two Aman resorts which opened after the tsunami.

"We are no longer positioning ourselves as a cheap beach destination," says Udaya Nanayakkara, the chairman of the country's tourism promotion board. "We are not only looking for more tourists, but those who are spending more."

One of Colombo's oldest five star hotels, Colombo Plaza, spent 21 million dollars to upgrade and relaunch as Cinnamon Grand, a move that pushed room rates up, a company official said.

However, the overall tourism picture remains gloomy in a country known for its golden sandy beaches, tea-growing lush green mountains and historic sites dating back 2,000 years.

Sri Lanka welcomed some 566,000 tourists last year and the industry was set for a major takeoff this year when the Boxing Day tsunami struck, leaving some 31,000 people dead and over a million homeless.

About a fifth of the country's 250 star-class hotels were affected by the sea surge and most of them are back in business although hotel rooms remain empty much of the time.

The country received a slightly higher number of tourists in the first 10 months of this year compared to last, but overall occupancy and tourism earnings are plummeting.

Officials explained that even tsunami aid workers and Sri Lankans who had obtained residency abroad and were visiting relatives here were often counted as "tourists" and distorted the overall picture.

The number of guest nights in hotels dropped to 214,243 in the first 10 months, down 36.6 percent compared to the corresponding period last year, according to Tourist Board statistics.

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka figures show that tourism earnings have dropped sharply with receipts from the tourism sector down to a provisional 267 million dollars from 317 million dollars last year.

An expected surge in tourists from China too did not materialise because of the tsunami, industry officials said.

The traditional European markets which provided the bulk of package tourists saw a 16 percent decline in arrivals underscoring the problems for hotels catering to tour groups.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.