Loved flying, Loving nature
A t a time when other hotels and resorts are complaining of low business, Sunil Sakya (43) is looking forward to adding more rooms and restaurant facilities at Park Village Resort, a scenic setup in Budhanilkantha. Similar plans are underway for his properties in Lumbini, Chitwan, Koshi Tappu and Pokhara. “It’s time for consolidation rather than expansion,” he says.
In the face of tourism slowdown, labour strikes and fuel and energy crisis, his idea is to insulate his family business from escalating overhead expenses while keeping the profit margin consistent and sustainable. “Hotel business is going through difficult times,” he observes. “We have been able to keep our business afloat due to a negligible loan burden that we have and a minimal operational cost that we incur.”
Putting his aircraft pilotsing passion on hold, Sakya joined his family business after his father, veteran tourism entrepreneur and conservationist, Karna Sakya, leaned more to social work. “You know how it is being the eldest son in a family. You can’t generally avoid it,” he says referring to the eldest son’s obligation to take over the family business when the father retires.
After completing his schooling from St. Xavier’s School in Godavari and Jawalakhel, he went to Tri Chandra Campus for his further studies. But everything that defies gravity always fascinated him. So, when an opportunity beckoned, he flew out to Canada to join a flight school. After completing the piloting training, he joined the then Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) while he was in Canada itself. However, before coming back home to take up flying RNAC planes, he went to the University of Hawaii in the USA and pursued a short course in tourism business management. He flew for RNAC as a pilot for about ten years before his father summoned him in to take charge of the growing family business.
Park Village Resort was seven years old when Sakya joined in, after his father and uncle decided to separate the family business. Initially, young Sakya thought of continuing his piloting profession and hotel business side-by-side. Flying demanded only 40 hours per week and he thought he could manage switching between the two jobs. But upon closer scrutiny the idea turned impractical and Sakya took a full-time plunge into the family business, looking after operations, research and planning. Very soon it came upon his shoulders to look after the management of Buddha Maya Garden Resort in Lumbini and then consolidating other resorts in Chitwan, Koshi Tappu and Pokhara.
Sakya is now focusing more into adding value to the existing resorts by putting up more rooms and restaurant facilities than investing in new ones. It’s the yield that matters to him. “Twenty years ago, trekking agents used to charge 6 dollars. Now they are hardly charging 30 dollars. The yield, After meeting the costs and taking inflation into account the new charge is hardly enough even for survival,” he states.
Continuing the tradition of his family, Sakya does not take loans from the banks for his business. And this strategy has helped a lot. “There is no way you can run a hotel on loans. Loan may be beneficial for expansion, but in present times you better consolidate rather than expand,” he says giving examples of some well-established hotels, which had been there for 30-35 years but had to shut down or transform into something else. “In terms of statistics, you may see the number of tourists going up but wonder why the number of hotels is not growing? I don’t want to give out a bleak picture but this is a reality check. We need to find new means and mechanisms to stay afloat in present times.”
To consolidate is not entirely his idea though. It’s more of a family decision. In fact for all the major decisions such as related to strategic planning and marketing, he and his brothers sit down with their father.
For the overall success of his businesses, Sakya gives the entire credit to his management team. “Nothing happens without teamwork,” he says drawing from his learning from the piloting profession in which the flight operation is successful by teamwork of the entire crew.
But he has a definite vision when it comes to selecting locations and building hotels and resorts. He makes sure nature dominates the settings, buildings are below the tree-levels and there are activities like yoga, meditation and other things for body, mind and soul. “Location is important for us. We have Park Village Resort near Shivapuri National Park”, he adds. “We have positioned all our resorts the same way. Our Chitwan resort is near to the Sauraha National Park and our Lumbini resort is near to Lumbini Garden. It’s same with our Koshi Tappu and Pokhara resorts.”
In his business, Sakya tries to make sure that in total revenue the ratio coming from foreign tourists and local clients including the sale of conferencing facilities is 50:50. “Locals might not be that frequent travellers but when they do, they actually spend higher than the foreigners,” he shares his finding.
Coming from the civil aviation sector background, Sakya sees abundant opportunities in Nepal’s civil aviation sector as well. “We don’t give enough attention to civil aviation but tourism in Nepal is facing a bottleneck due to this negligence of civil aviation,” he says. “I think encouraging more participation from the private sector in various components of civil aviation will make wonders. The private sector can be allowed to build facilities like domestic terminal or international terminal or engineering hangars. This is the best thing that the government can do to encourage investment from the private sector to develop infrastructures” he says.
Sakya also thinks that the Nepali tour operators are not able to promote Nepal in the outside world because of the lack of aircraft with the national flag carrier. This makes airfare expensive and Nepal becomes an expensive tourist destination. And he thinks government apathy is the mother of all these problems. “The private sector doesn’t have an opportunity to invest in infrastructure development. This is where our politicians should pay their attention the most. They just need to formulate encouraging policies and create sustainable environment and the private sector will do the rest, like what GMR has done in India. Growth in tourism is not possible without a spurt in civil aviation,” he adds.
Natural pharmaceutical is another field of interest for Sakya. He served as the Chairman of Gorkha Ayurvedic Company for quite a long time after taking break from his piloting profession. “ Nepal is blessed with bio-diversity. We have traditional know-how in natural pharmaceuticals and India is a huge market for us. So, there is a great potential in this field” he informs. Though, not the chairman of the company anymore, he is still one of the owners and is keen on increasing the production of natural pharmaceuticals from the company. “Being a small company has its set of advantages. We can produce things aimed at niche market that big companies can’t afford to do. Our herbs are fresh and the company’s turnover is high,” he informs without giving details.
Though completely immersed in business now, Sakya cannot forget his flying hobby and these days he fulfils it by flying in the simulator in his computer. “While flying, we used to say: ‘the more you know, the more you don’t know’. So I like to keep myself updated,” he adds. And on a spiritual note, he says, “It’s important to live in the present. Whatever comes, I consider it as a gift and take it. I believe in (action) and not in dreams.”
Personal Side
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Likes to read journals and keeps himself updated
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He is married with two children - girls. Elder daughter is studying in Bangalore
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He gets into exercises whenever he finds enough time in the morning
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He used to be active in practicing and promoting Vipassana. He thinks it helps to keep things in balance.
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He hasn’t gone through his father’s book, ‘Soch’ from page to page but knows about the substance that the book contains
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Does not have pets; he likes wildlife.
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He is most comfortable in open-neck cloths and linens. He likes simplicity. He avoids suits as far as possible
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He is a private person; avoids parties as much as possible
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He likes to go to temples and other religious places
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He thinks reading spiritual and management books helps to keep a person balanced, give purpose to whatever you are doing. He thinks it also gives you a good sense of ethics, which helps you in managing and running long-term businesses
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What keeps him going is the feeling of helping people in his own little way
