The day Colombo felt ‘peace’

Given that I come from a marketing background, maybe my thinking is skewed to consumer orientation, but last Saturday’s ‘Night Races’ garnered so much of excitement from a particular strata of the AB SEC groups of Sri Lanka together with an electric culture that it just reminded me of being on the sidetrack of Monte Carlo.

The party atmosphere with the bright lights and the buzz of the hip music made me wonder what Sri Lanka has elevated to and the first thought that came to my mind was that it was the day that Sri Lanka really ‘felt’ freedom most since 17 May 2010. Let me give my logic.

Jaffna and Colombo

Given that I worked for the country in the Ministry of Finance and the President’s Office during the height of the war, travelling at least once in two weeks to the north of Sri Lanka, my observation was that the real impact of the war was seen in two districts. One was Jaffna and the other was Colombo.

The logic was that whenever I was in Jaffna before May 2010, after 2 p.m. the bazaar would shut down and traffic movements thin out. After 5:30 p.m. we had to be indoors whilst we heard gunfire that even shook the very building in which we slept.

Coming from 15 years of working for British and American multinational organisations in brand marketing, the new experience was very interesting, but the fact of the matter was that for a person living in Jaffna on a day-to-day basis, it was not comfortable.

In December 2007, when we were organising the first business exhibition between the north and south, I went to one of my favourite places in Jaffna, the Rio Ice Cream Parlour, which serves ice cream made from liquid milk.

The restaurant was crowded and I had to share a table with a senior citizen who was enjoying a vanilla sundae. I asked him how things were and he said things were very rough in Jaffna as at one time there were as many as five governments. I asked him to explain and he rattled off the names TELO, LTTE, EROS, EPRLF and the Government.

When I said I was studying for a doctoral degree in business and I decided to serve the country for three years, his response was: “Why not do a study on how a business can survive working with so many policymakers?” Now, looking back at this statement, it just tells us what one was up against way back in 2007-2009.

The other district that really felt the clutches of terrorism in my view was Colombo. Be it the Pettah bomb that killed 140 people, the Central Bank bomb that killed many in the offices around, the Galadari attack that was aimed at bringing down the WTC on a Poya day, the train attacks in Dehiwala, the bus blast in Moratuwa that killed and injured many university students or for that matter the assassinations of Minister of Industries C.V. Gunaratne in Ratmalana whilst walking at a rally, the killing of Lakshman Kadirgamar and the helicopters that kept circling the city that night.

Then came the seven air attacks by the LTTE on the city where Colombo had to switch off all the lights and stay in darkness whilst some of had to hide in the basement of a hotel, which sure amplified the mood that Colombo City was in at that time.

I also remember sitting at many economic policy meetings chaired by the Treasury Secretary when suddenly we were informed of or heard a bomb blast that had gone off, which would alter the mood of the meeting with over 20 CEOs just staring, wondering what’s next for Sri Lanka. This once again explains the general feeling that existed in the City of Colombo.

Night Races

Even though the war came to a close in May 2010 and we moved on with life focusing on a careers and aspirations, what I saw last Saturday sure made me smile given that I have not been a armchair critique but there in the frontline of economic development with the LTTE twice attacking the C130 aircraft that we were flying on, just over Pooneryn in 2008.

The sidewalks of the racetrack were brightly lit with halogens, white skirting-led seating with private parties hosted by the nearby hotels and the cream of society of the night club circuit dancing at the street party opposite WTC near the Dutch Hospital.

The aura was electric when the races were on, be it the Subarus, Ferraris or the motorbikes. The applause of the crowd that followed after every race and then the music starting for the party to continue was a lovely feeling.

The atmosphere was similar to the sidelines of Monte Carlo or the famous Serville Feria that happens in Spain annually. To my mind it was last Saturday that a particular segment of society really ‘felt’ the freedom of peace. I guess it’s time that Sri Lanka now moves to similar events just like in Singapore so that we can attract the top end tourist into the country too.

YOY- 40% +

Whilst Sri Lanka is poised to reach 850,000 tourists into the country this year and may be a million in 2012, the reality is that in the five-star hotels, this strong trend is not seen. One senior hotelier mentioned to me that unless we have a strong nation branding strategy globally focused to tourism, just like the plan proposed for tea, we cannot attract a five star tourist given that the room rates have been pegged up.

In fact the room rates are at a rate that a visitor now asks what services the hotel provides for this rate and what attractions the city provides for one to come to Sri Lanka as against Malaysia and Thailand and so on, which sure is a key question to my mind.

I guess events like the ‘Night Races’ and may be the featuring people like Mohombi and Jay Sean will sure become part of the country strategy but more is needed if we are to be really competitive and become a 2.5 million visitor destination with a turnover of US$ 2 billion to Sri Lanka. Hence the need of the hour is a strong sharp communication campaign for Sri Lanka Tourism.

I will be failing in my duty if I do not commend the Tourism Ministry for the attractive website which has come into play in the recent past. The tone and flavour that one experiences is exactly the touch point that the Sri Lanka brand must possess.

Mirror 37%

If I may highlight the performance of the rest of the game, apart from the eight per cent GDP growth that Sri Lanka will close on this year and the unemployment levels further dropping, the private sector mirroring these macro numbers are very interesting.

As per the Lanka Securities Research on the 218 companies of the Ceylon Stock Exchange which happens to be 81% of the CSE universe, the overall growth year-on-year as per the first nine months published financial results are that a 37% growth has been recorded or to a number of Rs. 138 billion whilst operating profits have increased by 23%, which needs further research.

Incidentally, healthcare has grown by 99% on quarter three performance whilst consumer staples have risen by 52% and financial services also by 52%, which is very interesting even though the stock market does not reflect same.

Issue

The issue is that growth, quarter to quarter, is tapering off. For instance the growth in the third quarter has declined by 15% as against the 7% experienced in quarter two, which means that the global economic fall is having its impact on corporate Sri Lanka. This means that it will have a impact on the economy especially given that over 60 per cent of Sri Lanka’s economy is dependent on the US and EU.

Next steps

1.Sri Lanka must develop a brand plan for the country alongside the economic development agenda as per Budget 2012.

2.The tourism communication plan must be rolled out just like tea and apparel under the national brand plan.

3.All activities like ‘Night Races’ must come under the umbrella and architecture of one of the above national plans.

4.We must get the services of a global internet company which will monitor all blogs and respond, manage the trip advisor reviews and share with respective stakeholders.

5.Develop a national PR strategy for Sri Lanka.

(The author is a respected personality in orporate Sri Lanka and serves the international public sector whilst advising the Government of Sri Lanka on industry and commerce. He is an award winning marketer and has worked for top multinationals Reckitts, Lever and Johnsons in brand marketing and country management and is an alumnus of Harvard University.)