Title: Coir Village Lake Resort
Author (s) : Asha Elizaba
Krishna P
Kumar S Govind
Seelima Chandran
Coir village lake resort is an exquisite lake resort situated at Thrikkunnappuzha, a small island lying beside the national water way connecting Kollam and Alappuzha. Nature finds her ultimate expression in this blue lagoon, surrounded by soft whispering lake, tall coconut trees, rich greenery; a natural ingredient for a perfect holiday.
Since the lake connecting Alappey and Kollam is a national water way which is used for transportation, the earlier owners of the land started a small restaurant there as a refreshing centre for the tourists in between their long 8 hour cruise from Kollam to Alappey. But later the restaurant was closed when DTPC closed down the boat service between Alappey and Kollam because of the development of roads.
It was then Mr. Reghu purchased this land. He is a B.com graduate. At first he thought business isn’t meant for him because while he was doing his fertilizer business he ended up with lots of bad debts. But development of tourism in Alappey had brought new meaning to his life. He decided to use the backwaters of Alappuzha for tourists purpose. It was he who brought the concept of Houseboat from Kashmir to Kerala. Initially he used to canvas the tourists from railway station and took them for a ride on his single boat. And it proved to be a stepping stone for his business career. When he came to know about the land in Thrikunnapuzha, his experience and interaction with the tourists made him realize the business opportunities lying there and he decided to buy that land.
His idea was to make this place an ideal heaven to escape from the stress and strain of the day to day life. He was a man who showed that true hardships and dedication could bring about great changes in business. His experience had taught him that the dazzling beauty of paddy fields and the shores on either side studded with coconut trees and rich vegetation will attract the tourist.
He decided to build a resort and a restaurant there and named it as ‘Coir Village’. He found this as the most appropriate name for his new venture because coir weaving is the major occupation of the people living there and inspite of that the name can create an identity to the place, since it depicts the livelihood of the people there.
On 1st August 2000 Coir village was inaugurated. A resort with thatched roof and cane furniture and a restaurant which gives the taste of ethnic culinary delights of Kerala attracted Indian as well as foreign tourists to this island. Dishes are served to the guest in the traditional plantation leaves, and the tourists really enjoy it. Initially there were only 4 cottages. Gradually when the business developed the number cottages also increased. When he got more orders, he offered a stay in the static house boats, but that idea didn’t work since the house boats failed to provide the same comfort of a room, even though guest are paying the same.
The resort provides all the facilities like 24 hours room service, Doctor on call, satellite TV, hot and cold water, foreign exchange etc for the comfort of their guests. Rooms are luxurious A/C cottages with all the modern amenities, for that they are charging Rs.4000 per day.
Since Mr.Reghu had lots of experience with tourists he knew how to deal with them. Unlike promoting the concept of ‘Adithi Devo Bhava’ the employees there treats tourists as friends. They play cricket, football, caroms etc with the tourist. During festival season they conduct competitions like boat race, Athappukkalam in which tourists enjoy themselves and winners are given prizes. This will not only help the tourists to have knowledge about our culture but also help them to have a feel of it. They also arrange the facilities to watch Kathakali, Mohiniyattam etc if the tourists demand in advance. The tourists will be given with a brief description of what is going to be performed and a brief idea about the Mudras. This helps the tourists to understand the concept of what they are seeing.
The resort also provides another means of recreation -fishing. Tourists can try fishing from the nearby lakes. If they catch fish it will be prepared to them freely. The tourists, especially foreigners, really enjoyed this system and spend most of their time in it. The domestic tourists usually prefer to stay in the resort itself. They come there to enjoy the serene beauty of the nature and remain in calm and after having a stay for two or three days they will leave. They don’t want to explore the village unlike foreigners.
Tourists, especially foreigners come there to explore the place and lifestyle of the people residing there. Considering their interest the resort provides them an opportunity to walk around the village and study about the coir industry. They watch with great fascination, the way coir weavers do their work with very primitive and ethnic tools and implements. The interest that the tourists show in them encourages the people and they try to explain what ever the tourists ask in their best manner. They are greatly welcomed by the people there. They also eat meals from some houses and people are eager to show their hospitality. Some tourist even helps in unloading the loads of coconut fibre which comes there. They give gift to the local children and also sent them greeting cards during Christmas, New Year, thereby maintaining a constant relationship with them.
When the tourists come to Coir Village they usually visit Mannarasala temple, Krishnapuram palace etc and the resort people provide vehicles to them. For that they have 7 cars and 5 drivers. They also provide the tourists with bicycle or bikes if they want to explore the village all by themselves.
Usually the tourists coming there like to have a ride on auto rickshaw. They want to explore the village life by having a ride on rickshaw. Since there is an auto stand nearby the resort people will provide those facilities and the tourists could have a joyful ride at a reasonable cost. Even though there is a beach, tourists won’t prefer to go there for relaxation since it is a fisherman beach.
Resort take tourists for a free ride in the boat at 4.30pm, thereby tourists can explore the backwater life of Kerala. Canals winding through the vast expanse of coconut trees and neat tiny hamlets lined up along either side of canals are panoramic sights which gives a nice experience to them.
If demanded Ayurvedic massaging is also provided to them and they have an experienced Ayurvedic doctor for doing it.
The season time is mainly from December to February. Their main advertisement is through word of mouth. Tourists who visited Coir Village will suggest this place to their friends and encourages them to visit there. At first the promotional activities were undertaken through travel agencies. They had customers from England, Germany. Every tourists coming there experience a homely atmosphere since language doesn’t act as a barrier between the tourists and the resort people. Tourists usually show interest to learn Malayalam and they in turn will teach their language to them. This helps them to understand their culture also.
People who came there usually prefer one man’s name, Mr. Mohan Pillai a boatman. Because of his nature and kindness the tourists really loves him. And some tourists even send money for his daughter’s marriage and this shows the relationship that the tourists have with the people living there.
When the resort started it also provided some benefits to the society. Like the price of the land increased because of this resort. Eight years back, the price of the land was Rs.2500/cent, now it is Rs.46000/cent. And also when the resort was started the income of the local people considerably increased. The carpenters, masons were the local people. They were recruited for house keeping and keeping the surroundings hygiene because their cooperation is the first thing that they need to sustain.
Since it is a remote area there was no road. Thus Coir Village became a reason for building a road in that area. Another initiative they took was bringing three phase connectivity.
There are many factors which affected their business badly. Tsunami, which hits the shore of nearby places of Thrikkunnappuzha in 2006, got their bookings cancelled. It was Valiyazhikkal, which is 20 km away from Thrikunnappuzha, got affected. But the media propagated that Thrikkunnappuzha also got affected by tsunami.
Then the spread of chiquin guinea also affected their business. The truth is that there is no single mosquito there; even they do not know what the reason behind that.
Even though they are lacking some facilities like swimming pool, one thing which stands out in them from other resorts is the kind of hospitality they are showing. The tourists coming there blend with the nature and sense the warmth of the Mother Nature which itself act as a competitive edge for them. Resort used to ask feedback from customers for further improvements
Coir Village doesn’t cause any pollution to the society. They ensures efficient disposal of wastes. The wastes from restaurant are given to the nearby pig stay and the plastics materials are collected by the panchayat people thereby maintaining an efficient waste management system.
Coir village whish was started with 4 cottages now have 23 cottages with 48 employees and are going to build 8 more cottages. Even though a nearby land is purchased by some people for starting a resort, Mr.Reghu doesn’t consider it as a threat. On the other hand he considers it as an opportunity for developing Thrikunnapuzha as a tourist zone wherein he could have a lot of customers in the future.
Now the tourists consider Coir Village as a brand independent from the umbrella brand God’s own country. They are trying to get Thrikkunnappuzha officially approved as a tourist zone and for that he is looking forward to more and more resorts to come over there…..
