Symphony at Jetwing hotels
Directors of Jetwing Symphony at the media briefing: From left - Ramesh Costa (General Manager –Jetwing Colombo Seven), Ms. Shiromal Cooray, Vijith Kannangara, Hiran Cooray (Chairman) and Nihal Wadugodapitiya. Ms. Yvette Fernando and Guiseppe Rocchi are also directors of the company and were present at the briefing but are not in the picture.
Jetwing opened something more than just a city hotel – Jetwing Colombo Seven – at Ward Place the former location of the residence of the company’s founder Herbert Cooray, which was also a vision since he started out the business. This is also the first to join the Jetwing Symphony.
Jetwing Colombo Seven is a resort in the city with larger space in the rooms with effects of wood and floor to ceiling and wall to wall windows that creates this feel and look.
The hotel houses 98 rooms with 28 serviced apartments with sophistication said to be not found other city hotels like a capsule coffee machine in all rooms and luxury bathroom fittings and the apartments equipped with a kitchen fridge, washing machine, microwave, electric hob and even grocery shopping facility.
Dining is at Fifty7, a restaurant on the ground floor and a rooftop bar Ward7 alongside the infinity pool with fusion food on the platter and rooftop gymnasium.
The “idea came from our dad Herbert Cooray – even when he was living on this land – and even when things were bad he wanted to build a hotel on this land,” Jetwing Chairman Hiran Cooray said at a media briefing held last week when the 5-star property opened.
Jetwing Symphony, an investment arm, would be a separate holding company that would allow the public to get involved in investing in Jetwing hotels while keeping some of the other Herbert Cooray properties separate.
Jetwing Yala, Jetwing Lake, Jetwing Kaduruketha, Jetwing Colombo Seven, and future hotels like Jetwing Kandy Gallery and Jetwing Pottuvil Point, Jetwing Reef in Uppuveli with a total investment of just over Rs.10 billion form the Jetwing Symphony company.
This has been established with a view to leaving out family-owned properties under Jetwing Hotels from those that obtained a capital infusion from outside investors under the Jetwing Symphony.
The company is looking at future possibilities of opening up in neighbouring countries like Myanmar and Laos, Mr. Cooray said having already established a family property in Auckland.
He noted that in future, tourist arrivals could achieve a ceiling and noted ‘there has to be a ceiling’, because in his view Sri Lanka could attract up to four million visitors per year but due to its island nation status it needs to make sure it ‘earns more from few tourists than have more tourists and earn big’.
Mr. Cooray seemed to have echoed the sentiments of former President J.R. Jayawardene who had announced at the opening of the Hilton Colombo in 1986 that Sri Lanka shouldn’t have more than a million tourists. The country at the time was catering to only 230,106 per year.