Message from Chairman Jetwing Hotels and Jetwing Travels

Dear Partners and Friends,

We commemorated the tragic loss of lives and the injuries sustained by others and the permanent scars left in some lives, yesterday (2019-05-21), as we marked one month since tragedy struck our beautiful island. The Jetwing Family held a memorial service at the Jetwing Blue Hotel in Negombo, last morning in memory of our two colleagues who lost their lives.

If you can spare some time, I would like to share two thoughts that I took away during this ceremony. One was, what was shared by the young Franciscan priest who officiated. He mentioned that he visited many houses where one, two or more family members had perished, and there was sadness all around, but he said no one had asked him or any of the other priests “why did it happen to us?”, as would be expected when confronted with similar situations. There was a general feeling that they gave up their lives for the greater good of the country. By their deaths, Sri Lanka realized there was a global threat that is impacting us the way it does almost all other countries in the world.

We had to get our act together, re-activate our once famous Intelligence services that defeated a brutal terrorist organization just 10 years ago, build brotherhood in our neighborhoods and our country, and look at ourselves as Sri Lankans! Not as those belonging to a different religion or an ethnic group, but purely as Sri Lankans.

Secondly, I learnt that honesty and integrity is still alive in us humans. The father of our male colleague who passed away, informed that he had a visit from another colleague of his son who is working at Jetwing Blue and returned a sum of money he had borrowed when his own father was ill. This young boy did pay his debt to his dead friend’s father. He did his duty by his friend as an honest human being. I am bursting with pride for my colleague.

We Sri Lankans are now stronger, and are determined to stand together to protect ourselves, our country and those who visit us, whether it be to visit friends and relatives, on business or simply to enjoy our hospitality and take in our breathtaking views while sampling our famed cuisine . We now know terror can strike anywhere at any time as it would anywhere in the world. We will take precautions, already systems are in place at Hotels and public places.

We are confident that the Foreign Governments will evaluate the situation carefully and lift the travel bans real soon. We celebrated an important Buddhist Event, Vesak over the weekend. Many Sri Lankans made use of the long weekend and the very generous offers made by Hotels to the domestic traveler to travel around the country. And Travel they did, most Hotels were indeed full that weekend.

We are eternally thankful to our Security Forces for bringing normalcy into our lives so quickly as they had promised and for continuing to ensure our safety. We are thankful to our clergy of different religions for preaching calming, inclusive teachings and for keeping all of us together.

We are thankful to each and every one of you, for assuring us that no sooner the travel bans are lifted you will support us unhesitatingly. We have much to be grateful for!

With warm wishes,

SHIROMAL COORAY
Chairman & Managing Director – Jetwing Travels (Pvt) Ltd
Chairman – Jetwing Hotels Ltd