The healing power of travel
For Yaseen Khan, the founder of ‘Long Weekend Sri Lanka’ (LWSL), a lifestyle brand that is slowly gaining hype in the travel industry, believes ‘travel’ attests to a healthy lifestyle.
Ramboda falls. Pix courtesy Yaseen Khan
Soon after graduation in 2009, Yaseen together with a few partners, started his own business -an inbound travel company. “When I was small, our family travelled a lot in Sri Lanka.
So, I felt that this was the perfect industry for me to get into. Generally, the travel industry from the outside looks very extravagant and fun,” he recalls.
But he soon found out that this was a completely different on the inside. “You don’t really travel when you’re in the industry.
And coming into the business as a fresher and managing it for the first time was quite tough and challenging,” he says.
Things however worked out well for the company. But in 2015, they hit a wall, because they were dealing with the Russian market and the country had its own problems at the time.
However they managed to keep afloat. But it was last year he thought it was finally time and sold his shares and moved on taking a long break from work for about four or five months.
During this period, Yaseen travelled by himself and it was his first visit to Jaffna, which was an eyeopener. This was when he slowly began to build the concept for ‘Long Weekend Sri Lanka’.
This was a low point in his life, where he wasn’t sure about what to do with his career, he narrates. He got into his car, put some clothes in and drove off to Jaffna.
Yaseen explored Jaffna and the surrounding areas for two weeks, by himself. He did not make any plans or hotel reservations at the time, yet he covered Jaffna, Delft Island, Point Pedro and Mullaitivu etc.
“It was during this trip, when I thought to myself that there must be so many people just like me, who might not have explored Sri Lanka properly,” he recalls, adding that if you took Colombo as an example, on a weekend most people would spend time either partying or with their family.
Pussellawa
He explains, Sri Lanka is a gifted island. “Everything is just a few hours away.”
That’s when he realized that he wanted to get into the domestic market, which he felt, no one else was really considering.
“Being in the industry, what I realized was that the domestic market was sort of cornered into going on weekend getaways to hotels etc. So, I thought I’d dive in full time, even though the margins were low.” That’s when he came up with the concept of ‘LWSL’.
“There are people who do a bit of travelling. But in most cases, it’s to the same places such as Unawatuna, Galle etc.
Other than that, as Sri Lankans we have not explored the country properly,” Yaseen says adding that in some instances he was introduced to new locations by foreigners.
“These are places like hidden beaches and attractions like snake farms etc.”
At Delft Island Jaffna
He firmly tells us his idea is not to sell any travel packages, rather LWSL is more of a lifestyle brand, which works primarily through content. “It’s just visual content with the aim of inspiring and educating the public on the experiences and destinations that the country has to offer.”
Through this they also hope to spark an interest in people to explore Sri Lanka. It’s about promoting that lifestyle to appreciate your surroundings and perhaps be a little more adventurous and go out there.
Yaseen maintains that travelling has a lot of healing power.
He explains that while it’s a good way for families to bond, or for friends to get closer, one could also find themselves through travel, which is mentally healing.
This is what LWSL is about.LWSL is currently in their first stage showing what’s out there with the objective of letting the market explore for itself. But they do provide support whenever it’s needed.
Yaseen does most of the work from filming to editing the video content.Get in touch with Yaseen through facebook.com/longweekendlk/
Panama