Hospitality Sri Lanka: An idea that evolved from a commitment of passion - Part 2
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of ‘Hospitality Sri Lanka’, we ran a narrative (Part 1), last week, capturing the essence of our journey - from how an idea evolved to where we are now: essentially, it traced the behind-the-scenes journey that led to the release of our inaugural issue in July2016.
This storyline marks the next chapter in our journey
Distributing our first copy of ‘Hospitality Sri Lanka in July 2016 can best be described as a profound moment of euphoria and relief; an emotional experience that represented the culmination of immense effort, creativity, and sleepless nights. It was a moment where months of conceptualization, writing, editing, and designing took physical form.
As we motored on publishing the ‘quarterly’ during the ensuing months, Ashraaq through social media (website, Facebook, etc.), invited our audience to become a part of our entrepreneurial journey. Our social media platforms became more than marketing channels; they transformed our relationship with our customers.
After a couple of years of continually overcoming the complexities of ensuring a timely and wide distribution of the print magazine, including the challenge of high production costs, we noticed a migration of audience and advertising spend from print to digital. That’s when we put our heads together and discussed going digital. Other benefits of going digital included saving on printing and mailing costs, leaving a smaller carbon footprint and more importantly, moving to a digital-first approach significantly shifts the cycle from a quarterly print (involving weeks of planning, drafting, design, and review), to meet one big deadline - to focusing on managing multiple smaller releases throughout the month (in our case every week).
Finding a partner to help us transition from print to digital
Prior to our search for a web-developer, (one which included asking around for recommendations), we spent time discussing what strategies we had to adapt to shift to digital. We required a specialist partner to set up a new CMS (Content Management System) platform: a system that integrates with an email platform and has relevant dashboards that track top-performing content, user engagement, and subscriber sign-ups. We then researched potential developers’ portfolio sites, previous work, specific skills, pricing and availability (i.e. did they have the capacity to take on new clients).
Eventually, we selected a relatively little known outfit called Sysdek whose programmers showed a readiness to create the codes we wanted them to craft. Apart from ticking off nearly all the boxes, we realised that their programmers, when designing something were prepared to do so through our eyes and the end-user in mind. When pushed by us, they were also willing to get (and stay) out of their comfort zone so that they learn more and grow as well. We then discussed and finalised a business proposal that included a binding agreement as to the expected timeline of work, total costs and a series of payments for each reached milestone. In a nutshell, Sysdek was to handle the process of creation; whilst we managed the hosting needs.
The overall website development process, which began in January 2018, included planning, content creation, website design (i.e. settle on a mockup that best reflected the website we wanted to build), and testing and review, and took approximately 16 weeks from ideation to completion, before we launched the website on 9th May 2018. During the development process time, the three of us must have shuttled from home to the Sysdek office every week (sometime twice) and spent countless hours at the Sysdek office to get things moving.
One of the best things Shafeek, Ashraaq and I did was run every part of the business ourselves for almost two years. So, when it came to going digital, it was easy to decide the role each of us had to play. Namely, Shafeek as editor, to write the lead article every week plus create and review content, including contacting writers of hospitality-related articles to complete the weekly articles load. My task was to handle all back-office matters, such as proof read and sign off content, manage the dashboard and the website, integrate subscriber data and maintain the mailing list, deal with the web - developer, as well as handle advertising and payments. Ashraaq dealt with graphic designing and providing assistance on technical issues. And yes, both Ashraaq and I occasionally write articles to support the articles load.
The shift to going digital nearly eight years ago marked a new chapter in our journey… one that began on 16th February 2016. Running a magazine can be an incredibly rewarding experience. We started ‘Hospitality Sri Lanka’ because we consider magazines as one of the best way to capture a perspective on the world of hospitality. I believe our magazine has achieved that for the thousands of readers, who have motivated us to get to where we are today. I’m proud of our team for what we have accomplished. Receiving the “Best Hospitality Industry Media Platform 2025 – South Asia “ from LUXlife, Magazine, UK, last year, was truly the icing on the cake.
Who knows where the next chapter of our journey will take us. Rest assured though, that we will continue shaping what comes next, and we will steadfastly stay connected with all our readers, signaling our ambition and commitment to stay ahead in a rapidly changing industry.
Mehroon Wahab – Is Director Sales/Admin for Hospitality Sri Lanka. She is a former media representative for ‘Spa Asia’ in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, is a professional jazz Pianist and composer. Her originals can be listened to online including on Spotify. She is an avid birder and wild life photographer, and a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) instructor.
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