Jetwings to enter India

Jetwing Hotels is to enter India with its first foray through the Chennai market, in collaboration with an Indian partner who is investing in a luxury as well as business property, where Jetwings will provide the management know-how.
“As of now we are looking at Chennai because of the proximity to our country and the ease of language; for a small Sri Lankan company, it is a stepping stone into massive India,” said Hiran Cooray, chairman, Jetwing Hotels. He went on to say that they are also in discussion with the Chettiar family to lease one of their mansions for a boutique hotel. “We will probably end up spending one a half million dollars on this. We will open four more hotels in the next two years, for sure,” said Cooray.
He thinks it is a great idea for hoteliers to take the initiative as far as creating infrastructure measures are concerned. “Oh most certainly, governments would like to do this but they have other responsibilities like economic development to keep in mind. We as hoteliers have to work with the local government; it certainly happens in Sri Lanka,” he added.
The month of April will also see Cooray taking over as chairman, PATA. How will his new role benefit Sri Lanka? “I’m lucky in a way that I’m taking over PATA when Sri Lanka too is taking off. There’s absolute stability now, the government is doing a lot of work in the north and east. Opportunities to promote the destination as well as PATA, will be more. Tourism has evolved a lot in the last 25-years everywhere else, while ours stood still.Tourism must spread the word of peace all over,” he said.
“The other main role I have is to involve more youth in tourism. People like Captain (CP Krishnan) Nair will be role models. I also want to make the strategic information that PATA has, available to hoteliers. Also, PATA has task forces which is one of their core strengths. We are planning to revive that,” he concluded.