Today, one of Sri Lanka’s most distinctive home-grown hotel groups formally opens Deewara at Mawella, just outside Tangalle. Thema Collection’s 17th property takes its name and much of its personality from the fishing community around it. It is another expression of founder Chairman Chandra Wickramasinghe’s rather unusual philosophy: don’t build a hotel and then look for a story. Find the story of the place first.
Today afternoon, a restored fisherman’s cottage overlooking one of the quieter stretches of Sri Lanka’s magnificent southern coastline, formally becomes the newest member of the Thema Collection.
It is called ‘Deewara.’
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The name is no marketing invention. It reaches directly into the fishing heritage of Mawella, a coastal community where boats, nets, the day’s catch and generations of families living from the sea remain part of everyday life. Thema describes Mawella as a long-established fishing community where the routines of fishermen continue to define the character of the bay.
Deewara is deliberately small. There are just 11 rooms, with direct access to Mawella Beach and living spaces designed around the character of the original homes rather than an attempt to transplant an anonymous international resort onto a Sri Lankan beach. And yes, the inevitable Spa – Ayurvie by Thema – is also there!
That is vintage Chandra Wickramasinghe.
The founder and Chairman of Thema Collection has developed an uncanny ability over several decades to identify what is distinctive about a location and build the guest experience around it. At Maalu Maalu it was the culture and architecture of Sri Lanka’s east. At Wild Glamping Gal Oya, the indigenous Vedda community became part of a carefully developed local relationship. At Amba Yaalu in Kandalama, Thema created Sri Lanka’s first hotel operated entirely by women. The latter two recently won Gold at the Indian Subcontinent Responsible Tourism Awards.
The properties do not look alike because they are not supposed to.
What joins them is the experience.
Wherever a guest enters the Thema Collection ecosystem, there is a recognisable warmth to the welcome and service. The buildings change. The landscapes change. The stories certainly change. Team Thema Collection remains.
That may explain why this wholly Sri Lankan hospitality brand has been able to grow to 17 properties and 362 rooms without turning itself into a collection of identical hotels. Fourteen of those properties are owned by the group. Its origins reach back to Connaissance de Ceylan, the inbound travel company Wickramasinghe co-founded in 1982, with the move into hotels following in 1994.
There is also a philosophy running beneath the architecture.
Wickramasinghe’s eco-tourism vision has never been confined to putting a few solar panels on a roof and printing a card asking guests to reuse their towels. Thema says each property develops sustainability around its particular environment while involving and creating value for surrounding communities. Its programmes include biodiversity research and free education initiatives that have reached more than 6,500 children.
At Mawella that philosophy has found particularly fertile ground.
This remains a working coastal community. Deewara’s guest experiences therefore include traditional seine-net fishing on Mawella Beach, kayaking and birdwatching on the mangrove-lined lagoon, and visits to nearby Kudawella Fishing Harbour and the Hummanaya Blow Hole.
There is considerably more within reach.
Rekawa, 18 kilometres away, is one of Sri Lanka’s important turtle-nesting beaches. Inland, Mulgirigala rises dramatically from the countryside, its ancient rock temple occupying a 205-metre outcrop. Udawalawe and Yala provide the wildlife, while the south coast itself provides quite enough reason occasionally to do absolutely nothing.
Tangalle has also become much easier to reach.
The Southern Expressway fundamentally changed the geography of tourism in this part of Sri Lanka. From Colombo, Tangalle is now roughly a 2½-to-3-hour journey using the expressway to Beliatta. Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport is approximately 46 kilometres away, while the expressway network was specifically developed to connect the south, including Mattala Airport and Hambantota Port, with Colombo and the rest of the highway system.
That accessibility matters. Tangalle once felt like somewhere one reached after a long journey down the coast. Today it can become the destination rather than merely the end of the road.
And Mawella is sufficiently removed from the busier southern resort centres to retain something increasingly valuable in Sri Lankan tourism: a sense of place.
For Thema Collection, that appears to be the entire point.
Wickramasinghe recently described the modern traveller as wanting more than a room. They want to understand the destination, meet its people and experience its culture and nature. Deewara takes that proposition almost literally.
Sri Lanka sometimes talks about tourism as though success can be measured entirely by arrivals. Two million visitors are better than one million; three million must therefore be better than two.
A wholly Sri Lankan company quietly offers another measurement.
What did the visitor actually discover about Sri Lanka while they were here? How much of what they spent remained within the community? Did the hotel belong to its surroundings, or did the surroundings merely provide the hotel with a view?
Tomorrow, when Deewara | Mawella, Tangalle formally opens its doors, Thema Collection will have 17 different attempts at answering those questions.
Be that as it may, Chandra Wickramasinghe has spent more than three decades demonstrating something Sri Lankan tourism occasionally forgets.
The greatest luxury we have to sell is Sri Lanka itself.
