• Yoshan De Zoysa on how Galle’s Sydney Hotel is staying true to its roots while catering to modern-day tourism

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry may look to the future, but one of its key selling points is the country’s history and heritage. Sydney Hotel, Galle makes this personal, presenting its own historical experience and setting to guests. The hotel, established in 1921, is embracing its roots while also adapting to the changing nature of tourism and entertainment.

Giving The Daily Morning a closer look at how the hotel was balancing the past, present, and future was Sydney Hotel Director Yoshan De Zoysa. De Zoysa left a career in the corporate sector to take over the family business established by his great-grandfather. This wasn’t an easy shift, he said, especially with the weight of a hundred-year business on his shoulders.

However, with full control over the operation, De Zoysa is determined to keep Sydney Hotel going. He acknowledged his father’s confidence in him and his wife’s support in catering to the modern needs of tourists through innovative additions while preserving the hotel’s roots and history.

Following are excerpts from the interview:

Tell us about yourself and how you got involved in the Sydney Hotel.

I’ve been in the corporate field for a little over 10 years, starting off with a startup company even before getting my A/L results. It started off small and that gave me humble beginnings and the roots of learning things the hard way and going through the mill, which was really important.

I then shifted to a finance company, which enabled me to get a different perspective of things, such as regulations and reporting. Thereafter, I joined my last working place, where I spent the majority of my career – around eight years. This was MAS, where I got an understanding of how things work in a corporate setting.

I started off in the Koggala factory, which gave me the chance to work with many people. I got to know different cultures and people, especially how things are different in the southern area. I moved across different factories and settled in Ratmalana, moving towards the supply chain, which I specialised in towards the latter part of my career.

Then my dad wanted to retire and sell off the family business as he didn’t want me to quit my corporate job. I tried doing both simultaneously before I quit my corporate job last April and took on Sydney Hotel, Galle full-time. That’s how I got involved in the family business.

This business has been in my family since 1921. My great-grandfather started it, my grandfather took over it, after which my father did – and now, I have.

What can you tell us about the history of the place?

There’s a lot of history behind the place. The building was built in the late 1800s, so it’s older than the 100-year business. There used to be a horse track by the British before cricket was played on the ground. Where the pitch is was where the horses used to run off from and there was a building in the back, which is where our hotel is now located. There’s a funny story behind how the building was built, which wasn’t built by my great-grandfather.

A local wanted to see the races and bet, but he wasn’t allowed to when we were under British rule. He was denied by the British, so he built this building as a pavilion so he could see the races and start betting. That’s the story of the building and later, in 1921, my great-grandfather had an idea of starting an establishment there mainly because, during the First World War, there used to be a lot of soldiers and sailors coming to the Galle Harbour.

He called it the Sydney Hotel. The question being asked by many is why it is called the Sydney Hotel. There used to be a lot of ships coming from Sydney, Australia, so my great-grandfather used to see the name Sydney on the ships and that’s how the name stuck. It would make those from Australia feel like home. That’s how my grandfather narrated the story to me.

My great-grandfather, J.L. Pimanda, started the Sydney Hotel. Apart from this, he started two hotels in Nuwara Eliya, which he later sold off. Later on, my grandfather got into the business, buying over shares from his brother and taking on sole ownership.

A lot of people have had weddings, homecomings, and different functions here, and there was even a billiards table back in the day. From what people say, it’s actually the oldest establishment of this nature in Galle and has one of the few non-tourist hotel licences in the country. We are currently going on our 104th year.

What kind of an experience does Sydney Hotel offer its guests?

Our place has four different vibes to it, so there’s a vibe for every kind of person that wants to come in. Something that I opened last December is the fourth vibe, which is a hostel called the Snooze Station by Sydney. I’ve been trying to do things differently but also not shying away from our roots.

Another vibe is called the Sydney Restaurant. My grandmother passionately drove the restaurant, but once she shifted to Colombo when she was quite old, the restaurant closed and we stopped serving food. Last year, when I took over, I opened this up. Our kottu actually got featured on Conde Nast Traveller. A journalist who had come on work was catching her bus and in between, she had dropped in for lunch. No one knew anything and to see this was a big deal for us.

I was also privileged to have the two ex-Masterchef judges, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan, visiting us.

Something I keep pushing is the zero-plastic policy. The staff keeps asking me why we don’t sell plastic bottles, even soft drinks, which is cheaper and more economical, but it’s not about the money. It’s how you contribute to the environment.

You mentioned the recent introduction of a hostel. What can you tell us about it?

It’s something that my wife and I decided on – she is always there supporting me. We opened the hostel in December 2024 and were able to have around 31 different nationalities staying with us in this short span of time. We wanted to have the location as the main factor, as it’s just behind the bus stand and railway station, with close access to the Galle Fort.

We wanted to do the hostel a bit differently. We wanted to have a premium hostel. It’s a bit pricey compared to the usual budget hostels, but it’s clean and comfortable, and you have AC, hot water, and facilities to make tea/coffee. You get served your cool towels and a welcome drink.

We have one female dorm, which four ladies can share, with two bunk beds and an in-house washroom, so they don’t have to share it with anyone. This has been a bestseller so far; solo female travelling has been good and we have seen a lot of solo female travellers in Sri Lanka.

We also have two mixed dormitories, which have a shared washroom, and apart from that, we have two double bedrooms. This can house a total of 20 people at the moment, but there is plenty of space left. I have an entire floor that is vacant at the moment.

How do you ensure a safe and comfortable space for female solo travellers?

One way is the separate female-only dormitory, made more comfortable by having the washroom in-house itself. So, not only are they sleeping in the dorm surrounded by other women, but they also don’t have to go out and use a washroom with someone else.

We have also implemented 24-hour security, so if there is something, someone can intervene. Apart from that, we have the usual safety features such as CCTV monitoring. The space is for 20 people only and while they can use the main entrance during operational hours, there is a separate entrance as well. Having this separation and segregation means we have had no issues so far.

Given its location, how does the hotel utilise sports tourism?

For us, cricket helps a lot and if there are more test matches, we’ll definitely have better crowds coming in, as seen with the Sri Lanka-Australia match recently. You’ve never seen such crowds coming in to watch an Australia-Sri Lankan match – you will have decent amounts, but this was more than expected. No one was actually prepared for the level of consumption. If England plays a game, there is an expectation around it because they have a big travelling fan group.

We only have another two test matches that are going to be in Galle for the entire year, so that definitely hurts in terms of trying to promote sports tourism. However, we have the schools big matches coming up, especially Richmond College versus Mahinda College, so that focus is there and it will bring in crowds.

But it’s not only cricket. Sri Lanka is always focused on cricket only, but there are different types of sports, such as the Australia Open, the tennis matches, football matches, where there is a crowd, and rugger matches.

In your experience, what do tourists look for?

Tourists nowadays want something that’s really authentic. They believe in sustainable travelling and also affordable travelling. You see a lot of places where they only focus on serving foreign tourists, but then they realise that when the season is over, they have no one. This happened during the Covid-19 pandemic as well, where they had no choice but to serve locals. We are predominantly a local establishment, so our focus is on them. We are not going to change that because foreign tourists come in. We don’t increase or decrease prices, instead keeping it as affordable as we can.

Locals spend a lot more money than foreign tourists. At the end of the day, foreign tourists come for a very short span, but the locals are the ones who will keep coming. I think it’s important to know that. It’s a tested and proven theory that the locals spend a lot more, so you shouldn’t discriminate based on colour or whether they are a tourist or a local.

It depends on the type of tourists that comes in as well. Currently, even though we are attracting larger volumes of people, it’s not that spending crowd that we want.

Given the history of the hotel as well as the building, have various groups, including the Government, made efforts to preserve or document its history?

Currently, no. From what I’ve heard, we can’t do anything to the facade of the building because it’s more than a hundred years old. We don’t plan on doing this because we want to keep that same look, but they have built the bus stand right in front of it, which takes away from its look and prevents a lot of people from entering the building as they can’t see it. Cleanliness is also a factor.

There also used to be a big drain in front of the hotel, which they’ve covered. Since then, we have had so many street vendors who are illegally occupying the front. I have reached out to the authorities and got some positive feedback saying they will take some action and provide space for these street vendors.

Hopefully, with all these changes we are seeing now, we will see some positive signs that will rectify this. My ambition is to bring it back to its former glory days, when it was started in 1921.

How has the culture and tourism in Galle changed over the years and how are you preparing to go forward, adapting to these changes?

In terms of how we see ourselves going forward, as I said, we are not going to change the history. We want to keep that, but since we have a lot of space in the building itself that is unutilised, I will be working on building the capital to bring it back to its glory. I’m sure once the front of the facade gets cleared off, there’ll be more visibility and there’ll be a lot of more people that can actually see the place as well to come in.

In terms of tourism, it works in our favour because everyone’s looking for raw experiences and sustainable travelling, so if we keep to these factors, it’ll be helpful for us. Galle as a location isn’t impacted by seasonality, unlike other places, such as Arugam Bay.