The # 1 Sri Lankan Hotel Company in 2023

CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY

Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca

Acknowledgement

I thank Mr. Gemunu Goonewardena, Chairman of the Tourist Hotels Classification Committee from 2018 to 2022, and Non-Executive Director of the Board of Aitken Spence Hotel Holding PLC, for his assistance to me in collecting current data.

Hotels Rooms in Sri Lanka in 2023

All types of accommodation are available in Sri Lanka for tourism, including hotels classified by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), unclassified accommodation, bungalows etc. The total capacity is now over 48,000 rooms in 3,657 units. This is including the upcoming 2023 opening of the largest hotel in Sri Lanka – the 800-room Cinnamon Life Colombo. With that, the total number of classified hotels (one to five star) rooms in Sri Lanka will soon reach 15,642 in 160 hotels.

In 2023, five hotel companies operated over half of the room stock in Sri Lanka, which are within their 56 (generally, larger) hotels as indicated in the table below. The other half of the rooms are within the balance 104 (generally, smaller) hotels. A small number of rooms in bungalows managed by a few of these companies were not considered for this calculation.

All three top Sri Lankan hotel companies – Cinnamon, Heritance and Jetwing entered the hotel industry around the same period, 50 years ago. With the opening of Life in 2023, in terms of total room capacity, the Cinnamon brand of John Keells Group will surpass Heritance and associated brands (including 500-room RIU partnership) of Aitken Spence Group.

With a successful operation of 10 hotels in three other countries (The Maldives, India and Oman) Aitken Spence Group will continue to compete aggressively in terms of the total number of hotels and rooms operated by a Sri Lankan company. Their main achievements include opening the first five-star resort hotel in Sri Lanka in 1982 – Triton and a decade later opening multi-award-winning, iconic hotel – Kandalama. The company with the largest number of hotels in Sri Lanka – Jetwing operates a chain of 20 hotels with different and interesting themes. The rest of this article focuses on the # 1 Sri Lankan Hotel company — Cinnamon.

Cinnamon Hotel Brand in 2023

Over the last five decades, John Keells Group operated their hotel management company under different names. In 1970s as Walkers Tours Hotels, in 1980s as Hotel Management & Marketing Services Limited, and in 1990s as John Keells Hotels. In the year 2005, they rebranded their hotel chain as Cinnamon. In 2023, Cinnamon is the largest hotel company in Sri Lanka. They also have four hotels in the Maldives.

With the opening of their 16th hotel – Cinnamon Life, the hotel company will have a room stock of 3,288 in Sri Lanka and The Maldives. Both in terms of the quality of the hotels and the quantity of the room stock, Cinnamon is arguably the greatest hotel company in Sri Lanka, today.

Cinnamon Hotel’s most ambitious project – Cinnamon Life Colombo is the first integrated resort in Sri Lanka and the largest private investment in the country. Sri Lankan-British architect, Cecil Balmond designed the resort while Hyundai Engineering & Construction is the main contractor. The construction of the resort began nine years ago. This 47-floor complex, includes 800 five-star hotel rooms, a retail and entertainment complex, large conference venues, a 30-storey office tower and two separate residential towers with 427 luxury apartments. Cinnamon Life Complex promises vibrant, innovative, futuristic and unique elements. It is expected to be an icon that will redefine Colombo’s skyline.

My Connections with Walkers Tours/John Keells from 1973 to 1993

By early 1970s, Walkers Tours & Travels Limited (later rebranded Walkers Tours) became the leading tour operator in Ceylon. It was founded in 1969. Soon, they represented two of the largest European tour operators, from West Germany and Denmark, who were actively promoting tourism in Sri Lanka.

A young lawyer, Sriyantha (Simon) Senaratne was appointed as the Managing Director of Walkers Tours in 1971. When Walkers Tours was acquired by John Keells Group of companies in 1972, he continued in that position for seven more years. As a part of the vision of the Managing Director, Walkers Tours entered the hotel industry in 1973 with a unique project in a remote area — Habarana, and soon became the leader in hotel management in Sri Lanka.

Prior to my departure from Sri Lanka to pursue my global career in early 1994, for the first two decades of this iconic hotel company, I was connected with them in various capacities. My direct and indirect roles with them included serving tourist groups and representatives of Walkers Tours as a waiter, barman, cook, trainee chef, executive chef, food & beverage manager, hotel manager, operations manager of the corporate office of the hotel company, and finally as the general manager of their two largest hotels in the 1980s. In later years, while working for other companies in Sri Lanka such as Le Galadari Meridien and Mount Lavinia Hotel, my teams depended largely on tourist traffic from Walkers Tours.

I am most thankful to Walkers Tours/John Keells Group for giving me valuable opportunities. They allowed me to experience at a young age, various senior operational positions and leadership tasks during the early years of my career in the hotel industry. My direct and indirect connections with this largest group of companies in Sri Lanka over a period of 20 years, can be summarized as:

1973 – Bentota Beach Hotel

First, I was associated with operational people and tour guides attached to Walkers Tours in 1973 while working as a trainee waiter, barman and cook on one of my Ceylon Hotel School (CHS) internships. It was at what was then the best resort hotel in Sri Lanka – Bentota Beach Hotel. Soon after my graduation from CHS in 1974 I was recruited by Bentota Beach as the Trainee Executive Chef. In that role for a year, I associated with more Walkers Tours groups and Resident Managers and Tour Managers.

Bentota Beach was a popular meeting place for many young hoteliers from over a dozen of new hotels in Bentota and Beruwala. In 1975 at a hotelier’s party, I met Jayantha Silva who had been recruited to manage the first hotel to be operated by Walkers Tours – Hotel Swanee.

1975 – Coral Gardens Hotel

After a year, I was transferred with the promotion of Executive Chef (and Assistant Manager) of the sister hotel of Bentota Beach Hotel – Coral Gardens. There, I took my relationships with Walkers tour leaders to a new level. On most days, we catered for an additional 150 to 200 tourists who visited Coral Gardens Hotel only for lunch during their island-wide round trip with Walkers Tours. In consultation with the tour leaders, I planned standard, three-course lunch menus that could be prepared and served quickly, after their glass-bottom boat excursions to see beautiful coral gardens, Hikkaduwa was famous for.

I met an innovative and ambitious, young hotelier — Bobby Adams for the first time in 1975, two weeks prior to his departure from Coral Gardens, when I succeeded him. Bobby who was the Assistant Manager of Coral Gardens Hotel was joining Walkers Tours to open The Village, Habarana – the first hotel to be built by Walkers Tours. Just before Bobby opened The Village in 1976 as its Manager, Bobby called me from Habarana, “Chandi, why don’t you join me as the Executive Chef at The Village?” he asked. However, at that point, I did not accept his offer. A few years later, I worked for Bobby twice. When I married in 1980, he was my best-man. When I was 27, I became his deputy at John Keells. Bobby was the first Director – Operations for hotels at their corporate office.

1977 – One Week Tour with Walkers Tours

In the summer of 1977, Walkers Tours decided to organize a one-week-long coach tour around Sri Lanka for representatives from all hotels in Sri Lanka providing rooms to their clients. As the Assistant Manager and Executive Chef, I represented Coral Gardens Hotel in this tour. It turned out to be a fun-filled, thank you tour. It was a great, public relations initiative by Walkers Tours with their hotel industry partners.

Most members of the top team of Walkers Tours joined this trip. They included Sri Lankan travel trade legends such as Norman Impett and Nevil Arnolda. They were both Directors of Walkers Tours. I also got to be better acquainted with prominent, younger members of Walkers Tours family, such as Bobby Jordan and Jansi Ponniah, who joined the trip. They both were very friendly, efficient, dynamic and well-connected with the hotel industry.

The highlight of the tour was spending a couple of days at their then flagship hotel – The Village, Habarana. By then, Walkers Tours had a number of hotel management agreements, was managing Hotel Swanee, and was taking over the management of Hotel Ceysands. They were in the early stages of planning a hotel in Kandy which was called Kandy Walkinn (which years later opened as Hotel Citadel). My friend Bobby Adams was very happy to see me again. Both of us sat at the ‘Don Martin’s bar at The Village and had a long chat over a couple of drinks. Bobby was very convincing. “Chandi, you must join Walkers Tours, now!” he insisted.

1977 – Hotel Ceysands

The day after the one-week coach tour with Walkers Tours, Captain D. A Wickramasinghe (Captain Wicks, who later became my father-in-law), the new General Manager of Hotel Ceysands called and met with me. He explained that Walkers Tours had taken over the Hotel Ceysands management from the owners — Ceylinco Group. After a pause, Captain Wicks said, “Chandana, we are expecting 100% occupancy from the first of November, 1977 for six months. We need a good professional like you to join us at least by the first of October, to organize the kitchen, restaurant and bars within a month.”

Soon after that, I joined Walkers Tours as the Food & Beverage Manager and Executive Chef of Hotel Ceysands. At that time, I met Walkers Tours Managing Director – Sriyantha (Simon) Senaratna, and the Finance Director – Priya Edirisinghe, who handled the hotel expansion projects.

1979 – Swanee

Hotel Swanee wasn’t a well-planned, developed hotel. However, when Walkers Tours took over the hotel in 1975, they wisely invested in major upgrades for the hotel. They hired respected professionals such as Bevis Bawa, to upgrade and maintain the landscaping.

As the first hotel to be managed by Walkers Tours/John Keells, it was also an important learning journey for the group. In 1979 at the age of 25, I was proud to be promoted to be the Manager of Hotel Swanee. John Keells Group Chairman, Mark Bostock was very fond of me and arranged my first overseas training in his country (England) with Trust House Forte.

1980 – An Offer from a new Rival Company

I was surprised when Somaratne Silva invited me to his house in Colombo to discuss the Manger job offer for me to open Sigiriya Village, which was expected to be the main competitor for The Village Habarana. He was such an interesting man.

He talked about his training in the Netherlands, his work experience in hotels there, his recommending Bobby Adams for The Village and his positive observations about my work at Hotel Ceysands and Hotel Swanee. I nearly accepted that job, but eventually decided to continue with John Keells.

1980 – Ambalangoda Rest House

By 1980, Walkers Tours/John Keells was expanding its hospitality business by acquiring some smaller properties with management contracts. The group opened their second hotel in Beruwala — Hotel Bayroo, on a management contract, in the midst of various obstacles created by the village thugs. In addition to managing Hotel Swanee, I was asked to take over the Ambalangoda Rest House, to reorganize and improve its standards and to manage it.

1981 – Hotel Management & Marketing Services Limited

At the beginning of 1981, I was promoted again and was transferred to the John Keells corporate office in Colombo. I was the second in command of Walkers Tours/John Keells’ hotel company — Hotel Management & Marketing Services Limited (HMMS), as the deputy to Bobby Adams.

1981 – Temple Trees

Mainly owing to a personal relationship Bobby Adams had with then Prime Minister, R. Premadasa, the group commenced managing the Prime Minister’s official residence — Temple Trees. I released one of the departmental managers from Hotel Swanee — Fazal Izzadeen to become the Manager of Temple Trees.

1981 – Ceylinco Hotel

In Colombo, we had negotiated to take over the management of Ceylinco Hotel. “Chandi, I would like you to take over the management of Ceylinco Hotel and re-organize it”, Bobby informed me. He knew that I had a personal friendship with the Ceylinco Group Chairman, Lalith Kotalawala, which was useful in taking over Ceylinco Hotel.

1981 – Representing Walkers Tours as the Group Executive Chef in Hong Kong

In the midst of my busy schedule with HMMS, Bobby Adams entrusted me, on short notice, with a special assignment in Hong Kong. He wanted me to quickly plan and organize a large Sri Lankan and Maldivian food festival at the Hotel Furama InterContinental, Hong Kong. It was an important, two-week tourism promotional festival, in partnership with a number of organizations. They were represented by well-known leaders of the tourist industry, such as M. Y. M. Thahir of Walkers Tours, Pani Seneviratne of Ceylon Tourist Board, and Ahamed Didi of Universal Resorts, The Maldives.

1985 – The Village & The Lodge

Soon after my return from England in 1985, upon completing my graduate studies in International Hotel Management, I re-joined John Keells Group. I was appointed as the General Manager of their largest two hotels – The Village and The Lodge. I reported to Bobby Adams, and also worked closely on rates and financial aspects with Vivendra Lintotawela, who later became the Chairman of John Keells Holdings. On a day when all 260 rooms in both hotels were occupied, my management team in Habarana led providing hospitality and meals to 1,000 people — 520 guests, 120 tourist drivers and 360 employees.

In The Village, Somaratna Silva had cleverly created a rustic resort with an open concept with individual rooms appearing like small houses in a remote village. In The Lodge, two young Architects — Pheroze Choksy and Ismeth Rahim — continued the open concept, but with more sophistication. The end result was simply a masterpiece of architecture in two sister hotels, blending beautifully with nature, and the seamless delivery of world class hospitality.

John Keells/Walkers Tours, had created two iconic resorts, which were simply a delight for any hotelier to operate. I was fortunate to get that opportunity.

1985 – Habarana Farm

In addition to managing the two resorts in Habarana, I managed a large farm with the assistance of a qualified farm manager who reported to me. The farm cultivated vegetables and fruits to supply both resorts and used kitchen food waste to feed around 35 pigs raised on the farm.

1986 – Keels Food Product Distribution Operation

One day the Managing Director of Walkers Tours, Ken Balendra (later, the first Sri Lankan to be appointed as the Chairman of John Keells Holdings) called me and asked, “Chandana, don’t you have unused cold room facilities at The Lodge?” When I confirmed that we did, he assigned me some additional duties. “Look Chandana, we are commencing a new company – Keells Food Products, initially with mainly meat products. Our vision is to eventually make it the largest such company in Sri Lanka. We would like you to set up the food distribution network for Keells Food Products in the North Central Province.” I immediately hired a Food Distribution Coordinator, bought a large refrigerated van and commenced food distribution.

1986-1989 and 1990-1993

During my three years as the Director of Food & Beverage of the 500-room five-star Le Galadari Meridien Hotel in Colombo from 1986 to 1989, I realized the influence Walkers Tours had with most of the hotels in Sri Lanka. My colleague, Chandra Mohotti, the Director of Room Division of the hotel treated anyone from Walkers Tours as royalty, as their group business was valuable.

During my three years as the General Manager of Mount Lavinia Hotel from 1990 to 1993 we depended heavily on group bookings from Walkers Tours. I enjoyed working with them very closely, especially during the tour group contract negotiations held in Berlin, Milan and London during major travel trade events (ITB, BIT and WTM). After work we all socialized until the early hours in the morning. Those were memorable days.

I left Sri Lanka permanently in early 1994 to focus on my global career. Therefore, I had no direct connections with Walkers Tours/John Keells for nearly 30 years. However, during those three decades, when I visited Sri Lanka over 35 times as a tourist, as a guest of a few of their hotels, I continued to be impressed with the visionary developments, ambitious takeovers, innovative expansions and creative re-branding of the hotel business of Walkers Tours/John Keells.

Many board members and professional hoteliers have contributed to this remarkable journey, having many unprecedented successes. In spite of various macro level challenges such as the 26-year civil war from 1983 to 2009, Walkers Tours/John Keells hotels managed to survive and progress.

How Did Everything Start in 1973?

At the end of the day, it is still important to understand the humble beginnings of this hotel company and appreciate the pioneers who commenced that amazing journey… Continuing next week, with a question-and-answer format with the visionary leader who steered Walkers Tours to enter the hotel industry 50 years ago.