SPIEGEL ONLINE : What is the situation in Sri Lanka?
Shiromal Cooray: Two of the three hotels that have been hit by the attacks are currently closed. The third has reopened and accepts bookings. Of course, the churches need some time to rebuild. Additional precautions are taken, for example, the military has been given more power to investigate, curfews have been issued. But we are very confident that the situation is under control.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What is the mood among your employees and guests?
Cooray: The guests seem to be fine, they do not panic, and normal service continues. We are also tour operators for tours in the country. At the moment we are careful, we assess the situation daily, but see no reason to stop one of the tours. The mood among the employees is depressed - some have lost colleagues or acquaintances.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: You write on your website that employees of you and a guest were killed in the attacks.
Cooray: Yes, a young couple, they did not work in our hotel in Negombo on Sunday, but went to Mass in the morning to Katuwapitiya church. There they were victims of the bomb attack. We also had guests traveling with us on a round trip: the couple was on honeymoon and at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo, the husband was murdered at breakfast - his wife survived. That's very sad.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: You are a Christian like most victims. Are you scared?
Cooray: No, I'm not scared. I am a Catholic and went to Mass this morning. We have already been through 30 years with worse situations. About ten percent of Sinhalese are Muslims, we live very harmoniously with them and never had a problem. We think that the attacks are related to international networks and that the assassins belong to a very small minority who follow the same ideology as the IS. We are confident that the intelligence service will be able to control this.
photo gallery
7 pictures
Sri Lanka: Between tea plantations and terrorSPIEGEL ONLINE: The year 2019 had started so well for Sri Lanka's tourism industry: Lonely Planet has declared your country the top 1 destination. How important is this for you?
Cooray: Very important. We have received a lot of attention, everyone has talked about booming tourism in Sri Lanka. Maybe that was one of the reasons why we were chosen as the target.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why do you believe that?
Cooray: Maybe the assassins thought they would get a lot of attention for their attacks. Then they found out that our security arrangements, which were very severe during the Civil War, were relaxed - there was no reason to be alarmed. We were a really easy target. We will not make that mistake again. Also we hoteliers and tour operators take more security measures.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The years after the end of the civil war in 2009 have been extremely successful for the tourism industry - the number of tourist arrivals has increased four-fold over the past ten years. How did you experience that?
Cooray: In the 30 years of civil war, no tourist has ever died - and that's what we had to tell at the time at tourism fairs around the world. It was very difficult, we could not raise prices, but we survived. Then we increased the number of our hotels from 12 to about 30, including small villas with only five rooms. We have also entered into a joint venture with Dertour, the organizer brings the largest number of German tourists to Sri Lanka.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: How important are the German tourists for Sri Lanka?
Cooray: Germany has always supported us - even during the civil war. The tour operators have never taken Sri Lanka out of the program, even during the worst times. We owe them a lot and know that they will not let us down now either. German tourists have always been very supportive of Sri Lanka and we feel very connected to them.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: With such a rapidly increasing number of visitors: Should the rush be regulated?
Cooray: Maybe in certain places, such as the Sigiriya World Heritage Site, there are too many people in the morning and in the evening. The visitors would have to be steered rather than their number restricted. I've just come from Croatia, where four million people visit 15 million tourists a year - and Sri Lanka is a much larger country. I think we can easily handle two million more visitors, twice as many as 2018.