Pandemic opens new business avenues

The tourism industry is currently faced with a plethora of issues as they are fighting hard to sustain themselves in a scenario where there is no one knocking at the door to spend a holiday in Sri Lanka.

However, interestingly the industry has become more energetic and some running travel agencies at one time are now selling groceries, fish and rice to help them and sustain under the current circumstances.

MD and founder of Grow a Life Rasika Rajapakse facing a crisis in his travel firm given the current situation is now continuing work that he started out initially as a CSR initiative.

“Grow A Life is a concept that I started as a CSR initiative and during the pre-COVID period just to have sustainable development through agriculture,” Mr. Rajapakse said.

He pointed out that then during the lockdown period there was huge demand for online purchasing and groceries and so for the convenience of purchasing they expanded into grocery items as well.

The travel staff had to be kept surviving and through this concept he took to grow their life as well, he said adding that he was hoping to occupy them in this venture as well.

During the lockdown period an IT team was engaged to develop an e- commerce website with futuristic thinking with a payment gateway and other relevant infrastructure, he said.

This concept was started to help farmers to reach out to their customers and given the circumstances he hopes to expand into a bigger platform to ensure they could meet their targets and not just reach out to local customers but also overseas as well.

At the moment “we are finding it completely difficult to run the travel business,” he said adding that they did not lay-off workers.

One of the main products at Grow A Life is organic rice, Mr. Rajapakse said adding that “I have quite a good market but not now due to the adverse weather we didn’t get the expected yield.”

Currently the organisation is on the look- out for an investor in a bid to expand their operations, he explained.

Meanwhile, another professional in the industry Denesh Silva who has moved to Bernards Tours is today engaged in the sale and marketing of fish produce to the local market by carrying out deliveries from their present location in Boralesgamuwa. He works together with Angelo Mendis and Isuru Hewavitharana who are part of Ceylon Ocean Seafood.

Mr. Silva explained that they started out this business just after the lockdown period since “we wanted to survive.”

All fresh fish produce in addition to prawns and crabs are being marketed and everything is cut, boned and distributed and supplies are made to residences as well as orders from hotels and restaurants as well, he said.

International orders are also in the offing and they hope to venture out into this sector as well, to countries like Malaysia and Singapore.

They are also recruiting staff members for operations, sales and marketing and procurement, he noted as he sees this as an opportunity for survival with good prospects.

“I don’t see tourism coming back for the next one and a half to two years,” Mr. Silva said.

While some staff at Bernard Tours have been sent on no pay particularly those wanting to start their own ventures, he noted that rest of the staff has moved to the new venture.

“Now we see there is potential and we are looking for staff who have a background in the FMCG business,” Mr. Silva explained.

The company will also be launching their mobile app and marketing online allowing for a number of payment methods. Due to the high potential in carrying out these operations, the company will be shifting to its new location at Mt. Lavinia by November.