Dambulla Homestay Operators Empowered by Nations Trust Bank to Tap Tourism Potential through Enhanced Value Proposition

In assisting the local community to enjoy the dividends of the growing tourism potential in the region, the newly opened Dambulla Branch of Nations Trust Bank recently conducted a seminar for homestay operators and interested entrepreneurs in the locality of how the homestay value proposition could be developed and delivered to attract and retain customers and enhance the brand profile. The seminar that dealt with various aspects including service quality, designing unique, immersive experiential offerings, food and beverage and hygiene and good housekeeping, was conducted with the support of veteran hotelier and consultant, Mr. Aruna Jayakody at the Sannasa Hall in Dambull to an audience of over 60 participants.

Mr. Menaka Wavita, Vice President - Branches (Emerging Region) of Nations Trust Bank, elaborated the reasoning behind the Bank’s CSR initiative. "With Lonely Planet and other global travel sites citing Sri Lanka as best for travel in 2019, there is further room to attract more tourists to Dambulla and we felt that we could help build livelihoods of more people and make this economic opportunity more inclusive and sustainable by strengthening the capacity of entrepreneurial individuals of this community to offer quality homestay value propositions. By ensuring that minimum service quality standards are maintained across the board by tourism operators, Dambulla will be able to enjoy the patronage of more tourists, which then results in higher incomes for people of Dambulla, not only in tourism, but also in other livelihoods such as agriculture."

Mr. Lional Gunasekara, President of the Tourist Hotel Owner's Association - Sigiriya, who attended the program, shared his views on the learning outcomes. "This was a great opportunity for our small tourism sector operators to listen and learn from an industry professional with extensive experience on different aspects of the homestay business. It was an eye opening session for them because they were able to identify areas of improvement that they had not thought about much before, where with little to no extra investment, they could get better customer satisfaction and revenue from enhanced guest experience. I want to thank Nations Trust for organizing a much-needed awareness session of this nature."

Mr. Ruwan Premarathna, Branch Manager of the Dambulla Nations Trust Bank, reaffirmed the Bank’s commitment to help people and businesses achieve their goals and aspirations and noted that the Bank is in Dambulla for the long-term and hopes to uplift the lives of community members through similar value adding educational programs in the future.

Nations Trust Bank PLC is among the top 30 business establishments in Sri Lanka as ranked by Business Today Magazine, ably providing a host of financial products and services to a wide range of customers. Nations Trust is also the bank behind Sri Lanka’s first fully digital bank, FriMi. The bank operates 94 branches across the country, boasting an ATM network covering 135 locations and 46 Cash Deposit & Withdrawal Machines, plus more than 3,500 ATMs on the Lanka Pay Network and is the issuer and sole acquirer for American Express® Cards in Sri Lanka.