Santani is one of the World’s Greatest Places
Santani, Sri Lanka’s wellness resort, has been picked by TIME magazine as one of the 100 World’s Greatest Places and referred to as a “resort to help you disconnect.”
Vickum Nawagamuwage
“On a former tea plantation in the mountains of Sri Lanka sits Santani, a resort to help you disconnect. There are no televisions (really) and no wi-fi included (guests can pay extra if they find they can’t live without it), but there is a tri-level spa with a sauna overlooking paddy fields, open-air salt soak pool and wellness packages fusing Ayurveda, yoga and meditation,” the TIME magazine stated in its review of the wellness resort in its September issue.
But there is more to this unique place in that it is involved in preventative healthcare and anti-ageing and the use of the Ayurveda therapies with a special diet customised to each guest’s personal requirements, the resort’s CEO Vickum Nawagamuwage said in an interview with the Business Times on Tuesday at his Colombo office at Bambalapitiya.
He explained that most people come on a wellness getaway where everything is personalised with activities like yoga, walking excursions, hiking upto the Knukles Range with even some of the renowned Dumbara weavers still around.
The 20-room hotel caters to its selective clientele mainly from the US, UK, Australia, West Asia and Singapore and occupancy is always at around 90 per cent, he said.
The resort had been picked for its quality, originality, innovation, sustainability and influence and where they do discourage visitors from using their mobile phones which has in fact lead to increased interaction among guests staying at the hotel.
The less than 2 year-old resort, Santani is located in a place where no one else goes and is secluded. “We have shown in Sri Lanka how to do tourism and shown the world what Sri Lanka tourism is,” Mr. Nawagamuwage said.
Built in establishing a brand image, the hotel is looking at expanding its room portfolio by establishing 30 villas that would be open for investments and is set to be launched within three months, the CEO said.
Explaining that this is a “very successful model” the villas would be located on an extension of the existing property by a further 70 acres that had been invested in by one of their own visitors.
Moreover, the company has plans to open at least two properties in Sri Lanka and about another two overseas.
The local properties are likely to be located in the Wilpattu/Anuradhapura area and the East while there is possibility of expanding overseas under the same branding Santani at least two of the following destinations that is still under discussion namely Austria, Switzerland, Bhutan, Mauritius, Indonesia, Zimbabwe or Portugal.