Sheraton Kosgoda Turtle Beach Resort, the first luxury hotel in the area, will be celebrating five years soon and are looking at the best times ahead.
General Manager Mano Gunasekara
General Manager Mano Gunasekara said that the tourism sector as well as the hotel went through rough patches and each one of them came out even stronger. These included the Covid-19 pandemic, Easter Sunday blasts, economic crisis and many changes of governments which created political instability from time to time. “Each time both the country and our hotel came out of them resiliently and now we are looking at the future with bright optimism as several issues have now been resolved.”
However, the most recent travel advisory on Arugam Bay and the twin elections concluded peacefully (Presidential and General) did not have a much of a negative impact on the industry.
He said that the investors and partners of the LOLC Leisure and Sheraton management also invested in the property taking twin risks. “Firstly it was a kind of a ‘virgin tourism tertiary’ and no ‘big players’ had invested in the area. In addition the country’s situation was not the best for a multimillion dollar investment of this nature.”
However, looking back the investors are very happy with the return on investment they have made and most importantly the service it rendered to the community in the area.
Thanks to the presence of a global hospitality player in the area many others invested helping to bring the much needed tourist to the area and creating jobs as well as giving many other benefits to the community.
He said they regularly engage with the community and also have sessions with outside service providers like surging, beat ride and transport providers bringing them to the hotel.” He said that when they started they only had about 2% of staff drawn from the area within a radius of 15 km but today it has increased to 20%.
Senior management of the hotel
“Some of them have got promoted and others have migrated to hotels locally and overseas within the group and also to other hotels.”
“Hence I don’t see staff leaving as a brain drain because we also have some of them coming back to us with better international experience. I am now looking at increasing the female ratio among the employees. ”
Commenting on the destination he said it is being extensively marketed via their international chains and they have a very good mix clientele.
Having over 30 years experience in the hotel industry with overseas exposure he said that they also adopt several new features to make the hotel stay more comfortable for guests which also includes a express check in where a guest could go to the room bypassing the reception. We will do their documentation later.”
He said that they have lined up several special offers and surprises for X’mas and New year.
Having qualified at the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management with a specialisation in Accommodation Operations, and subsequent higher studies at the University of Colombo with a Post Graduate Diploma in Tourism Economics and Hotel Management, “my career spanning 25 years has been in the chosen field of hospitality.”
