Dr Sarath Obeysekera  

I was trying to drive to Cinemen Grand Hotel  and found that driving to the foyer was  blocked .Tried few other places and failed due to increased checking ,

Managed to enter one of the four star hotels by Galle Face but parking was not allowed .I got down and walked in .Staff was looking at me with caution and did a body check and with some sort of a detector .

Walked to coffee shop in the empty ground floor and bought a teas and sat down to kill time to collect my wife from work.

Few week back I had a bitter experience in the same hotel, when I was not treated well as I was not a foreigner .A manager was uncaring of me and I wrote to this paper about the bad experience.

Now we are back to the era similar to what we had during the war .Hotels are empty and local visitors may be treated better.

At that time when I had the bitter experience there was no much attention paid by them to my complain.

Yesterday I saw the Muslim owner of the hotel standing by the reception and watching the  entrance helplessly .

I found that there are only four guests in the whole hotel in contrast to the occupancy few weeks back.

I am not sure how long it will take to revive the tourism unless hotels rethink about their strategy for survival.

Soon people will be laid off and unrest may start.

Banks should not charge interest for the next year for the loans they have taken to develop the hotel.

Hotels should reduce rate by  50-75 % to attract more locals if they want to service

Dr Sarath Obeysekera