From a boy who loved cricket to a respected hotelier
Monday, 30 September 2013 00:55
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By Cheranka Mendis
Sri Lanka tourism has certainly changed over the years, moving from an industry that was almost in shambles to a thriving one. Not many can remember the details of the past, from how the industry moved from a lucrative one to one with little hope and then back on to the world map as a key travel destination.
Chairman of Jetwing Hiran Cooray is today a well-known hotelier both here and abroad and remembers the transitions of the industry as he grew from a boy who loved cricket with little interest in the business to eventually taking on the mantle of a group that is among the premier hospitality partners in the local market.
Diving into his box of memories, Cooray recalled walking into the kitchen at home about the time Blue Oceanic (now Jetwing Blue) opened with just six rooms in 1974 to find the small two-burner cooker at home missing. “I asked my mother about the missing cooker and she said my father had to take it to Negombo because the hotel didn’t have a cooker. That was the closed economy,” he recollected, “my mother moved back to cooking with firewood.”
“Until 1977 it was difficult to get imported goods in the country and that is the time tourism also started to flourish in the country.” In fact, the country’s first tourism master plan was prepared during this period, which was the accepted document up until late 1990s-2000.
Cooray remembers the ’70s as the glory days. His father never had to get into marketing as the rooms were blocked by operators just upon completion. Blue Oceanic soon moved on from its six room capacity to 12 rooms and then 40.
“At that time we didn’t have a pool at Blue Oceanic and one German operator asked my father how much it will cost and upon hearing the approximate amount he wanted to know when he could give the money to complete the pool. That was how the ’70s evolved to the early ’80s. Tourism was booming.
From glory days to despair
The good times then came to an end. Cooray was just completing his school career when all hell broke loose with the ethnic strife. For the young cricketer it seemed like time stood still. “Some tourism destinations in the country closed down completely, some survived with great difficulty. It was a period of unbelievable agony and sadness in the country.”
Amidst the troubles, Cooray was among the privileged few to be sent abroad to study. In America from 1984 to 1987, he noted that almost all his calls to his mother had the pertinent question of ‘does thaththa have enough money to pay for the next semester?’
Cooray said: “We managed to get through. I came back in 1987 to two disastrous years in my life. In fact I used to wonder why on earth I came back. The period ’87-’89 was a period where it was not only the north and east that burnt, but also the rest of the island.”
He had just followed his father into the business and for the first time ever in the history of tourism, the Chairman of Tourist Board decided to ask the tourists to go back because the extremist groups in the south were not allowing hotels to operate and tourists to move in. “It was sheer frustration and agony.”
Investing amidst trouble
It was during this time that his father expanded his investment in the business – something the fresh-out-of-university guy could not understand. “I had come back with a management degree with all the powers to analyses, lot of theoretical knowledge and I could never ever understand what he was doing.”
When he was questioned, his father’s advice to Cooray was to pay off all debt on the due date and that the banks would look after him. “When he invested I wasn’t sure if the bankers will look after us. But he said not to worry and to keep going. That is when he invested in hotels in the hills, in the national parks and so forth, from which we are benefiting now.”
A brief silver lining appeared after the dark clouds in 2001-2004 during the peace process. Suddenly tourism was increasing, and people started to invest again and refurbish some old hotels. Unfortunately the tsunami came and wiped it off. “It was again agony, sadness and despair,” Cooray recalled. “What started very well came down again.”
With the end of the peace process, the conflict got back on track and the smoky atmosphere made it almost impossible for hoteliers to run the hotels. It was during this time that Cooray took over the reins as President of the Hotels Association with a membership of 153 hotels.
“We were pleading with the airlines and the embassies to relax travel advisories and we were fighting with the Tourist Board saying we need to promote the country more. Nothing happened – only one bomb here and a killing there. Tourist numbers kept reducing steadily.”
“Please sir, you have to stop the war”
When the hoteliers pleaded with the embassies to relax the advisories, the response came loud and clear, never wavering in their stance – ‘tell your government to stop the war.’ In sheer desperation, the membership then decided to meet the President. Receiving an appointment a month after in November 2007, Cooray along with the senior association members sat down with the President, the Treasury Secretary and the Central Bank Governor and pleaded to stop the war.
“We told him ‘Sir, you have to stop the war.’ He looked surprised and told us very calmly ‘this war I never wanted but I will never stop fighting.’ But he also told us that he doesn’t want us to close the hotels and asked the Treasury Secretary and Governor to tell the banks not to close on us. That support kept us alive. If he didn’t back us then, most of us in tourism would not be there by the time terrorism ended in 2009. We were struggling so much.”
Rising again
It is now a completely different story. Sri Lanka is now on a level playing field even after losing 30 years of tourism progress compared to the rest of the world. From pure survival and hardly any product development, to the marked progress in the industry within four years is a great achievement, he expressed. “Some may say it’s slow but I think it’s marvellous. Having gone through what we went through, it is incredible for Sri Lankans to rise again so fast.”
How did the industry survive? Cooray listed the national carrier, tour operators, Government grants and subsidies, the people of the country and the resilience of the industry as key factors that kept the ball rolling.
“We are thankful for the national carrier that kept on flying to destinations tourists were coming from, often long distance to keep us alive; the tour operators for their faith in us and kept featuring us in their material, the Government support helped cushion the blows and the people for keeping their smile and for building close ties with guests led to many repeat business,” Cooray said.
“The industry was also resilient and didn’t give up. Sometimes when we go for ITB and WTM, we met the Nepalese who also had their share of bad luck. The difference between us was that they used to look so dim and worried and here we were the happy-go-lucky bunch partying. That is the attitude of the island people. We were cheerful and never gave up even though it was difficult to smile at times.”
The tourism product is now evolving every minute and continued progress is being made to improve the product. He assured that Colombo was now a changed city with its hidden wonders now being brought to life and creating spaces which can be utilised for MICE events as well as post-MICE related events. Waterways are being restored, roads improved, and connectivity in general has increased. With the expressways and airports now connecting several parts of the country in one smooth drive, MICE travellers can enjoy meetings in one location and travel to another to enjoy their meals, he said.
International hoteliers are coming in which highlights investor confidence in the country and adding the necessary level of competition to the local business. “We are all going to benefit from this change.”
Cooray also added that Sri Lanka is the new kid on the block, alongside Myanmar, when it comes to tourism in the region. “I know with my association with PATA that all other destinations in the area are mature destinations. We might not be able to compete with them. Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have had 30 years of prosperity to develop and they continue to blossom.”
However, we are now fast-tracking ourselves to get on equal footing. “We are blessed with a five star island – 47% of our country is still green. We are diverse, compact and authentic.”
Sri Lanka can also expect a lot from India and can develop by simply piggy-backing on the giant neighbour’s development. Indian weddings have now taken over Negombo, with hoteliers recently closing down the area for other guests, to accommodate a three-day massive Indian wedding which took over the four Jetwing properties as well as a number of other hotels in the vicinity. “This is the possibility and the future,” Cooray said.
