A Whiff of Tourism at Nilaveli via Trinco Blue at Cinnamon

Michael Roberts

The covid pandemic has, as we know, decimated the travel and tourist trade since March all over the world. Hardly any foreign tourists have visited Sri Lanka since then and Bandaranaike Airport has hosted only a few airline arrivals and departures (e.g. Qatar Air) — other than SL Airlines’ mercy flights. In this arid climate John Keells are to be complimented on opening its premier line Trinco Blu hotel at Nilaveli to tourists from 26^th June 2020. While such top-drawer hotels as Palm Beach Resort and Jungle Beach remain under lock and key in this stretch of coast, Trinco Blu and Anilana have opened their doors.

I have been at Trinco Blue since Sunday the 5^th for six nights. I had not been able to secure a spot on the Saturday and I gather that this coming week-end will have a full house –which means 81 rooms booked. I am told that Trinco Blue has averaged 40 per cent occupancy – a figure which surprised me because I had not encountered any crowding in the restaurant or seen much use of the swimming pool or the seas. There were only two foreign couples in sight till this Friday – both professional executives in Colombo. The local tourists seem to be middling-level middle class or thereabouts. Few swim or savour the sea waters. One can presume, nevertheless, that their resort to the resort is for relaxation and leisure …. and food of course (a wide variety of cuisine being on offer).

Needless to say, the hotel lays stress on social distancing and the wearing of masks — though there are limits to the mask usage when one is in the dining room. The widespread use of sanitizer was marked by the spraying operations of a blue-suited worker with a heavy duty back-pack and sanitizing nozzle.

Maadhal fishing crews –beach seine action that is – have occurred at least once a day and on one day both in the morn and the evening ….. smack bang in front of Trinco Blu. Great stuff this. As most will be aware, this is a labour intensive method of fish trapping – labour involved in the expressive lines of rope-haulers tugging their beach seine ‘trap’ ashore; but also in the careful labour intensive unraveling of the nets after the haul-in operation and the preparatory netting work beforehand.