Covid threatens to shut popular Unawatuna restaurant     

A popular beach-side restaurant in Unawatuna is facing closure after taking a serious hit as a result of the coronavirus.  

Happy Banana is a favourite hangout for most visitors, especially those travelling from Colombo to Unawatuna.  
On any given day Happy Banana is full to capacity for lunch and  dinner. However, even before the travel ban the restaurant had just one  or two families visiting the place for a meal.  

Now, after being forced to close for several weeks, the owner of  Happy Banana, Janath Abeygunawardana, says the future of his business is  very bleak.  
 “I don’t have any form of assistance from the authorities so I  don’t know what I can do. I had another small hotel as well which I  opened using the profits I was making from Happy Banana but I have had  to close that hotel as well,” Abeygunawardana  told Daily Mirror.  

 Abeygunawardana said that he had around 36 employees at Happy  Banana when business was good but had to reduce it to around 10 just  before the travel ban.  
 He says paying the staff has now become almost impossible with no income.  
 “How can I pay them when I have no business at all. We can’t do  delivery services like restaurants in Colombo because people don’t order  delivery here in Unawatuna or Galle as much as they do in the Colombo area,” he  said.  

"I don’t have any form of assistance from the authorities so I  don’t know what I can do. I had another small hotel as well which I  opened using the profits I was making from Happy Banana but I have had  to close that hotel as well"

 Abeygunawardana said that even before the recent travel ban his business was suffering by depending only on local patrons.  
“Not having tourists had an 80 percent impact on my business,” he said.  
 Abeygunawardana said that he does not want to close his restaurant  and is trying hard to continue, but the future remains uncertain.  
Unawatuna is often full with tourists both local and foreign but with Covid the beach is now deserted.  
 Small vendors who depend on tourists to sell their products are also struggling to even earn enough to feed their families.  

 The ‘Puppet Man’ who became popular after being featured on  foreign social media channels, is among those struggling in Unawatuna.  
 Speaking to Daily Mirror, Siripala said that he has been selling puppets attached to strings for 35 years.  
 He said that business was good when there were foreign tourists but since Covid he has just managed to survive.  

 The Puppet Man said that before the travel ban between provinces  there were local tourists visiting Unawatuna on weekends and he managed  to sell one or two puppets and earn just enough to meet his daily  needs.  
 “When there were foreigners I was able to earn a lot. With locals I earned but it was not the same,” he said. 
 The recent travel restrictions had forced Siripala to also stay indoors and look for alternate means to earn a living.    

Watch the video on Daily Mirror Online   

Unawatuna beach