Sun Siyam Pasikudah Celebrates Women’s Day with Curated Experiences and a Continued Commitment to Women in Hospitality

Sun Siyam Pasikudah, the boutique luxury resort that earned the Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best award in 2025 and was named the Best Global Hotel Design winner at the Homes & Gardens Design Awards 2025, celebrated International Women’s Day on 8 March 2026 with a full programme of experiences designed to make every woman feel genuinely seen and celebrated.

Under the theme “Eat, Pray & Love” and dressed in the resort’s signature palette of white, beige, and gold, the day unfolded as a seamless journey from morning to midnight. Guests started with the Queen’s Kitchen cooking demonstration at 10:00 AM, where the resort’s chef prepared traditional Sri Lankan dishes in an intimate, hands-on setting. Those who shared the experience on Instagram walked away with a complimentary mocktail, a small but appreciated gesture that set the tone for a day that was as warm as it was elegant.

The resort also offered a 10% discount on its much-celebrated Beach Dinner and Wine Cellar Dinner experiences on the day, allowing guests to mark the occasion by the ocean or within the atmospheric surroundings of The Cellar, the largest wine cellar on Sri Lanka’s eastern coast. Spa guests enjoyed 20% off all treatments, while a 10% discount on any excursion booked on the day gave adventurous guests a reason to explore the stunning east. The evening wound down with “Queens on Screen”, an outdoor movie night on the beach beginning at 9:00 PM, featuring films centred on stories of strength, grace, and female empowerment.

This day was never just about offering a discount or putting on an event,

said Arshed Refai, General Manager of Sun Siyam Pasikudah.

We wanted every woman who was with us, whether as a guest or as a colleague, to feel that this place was made for her. The programme was designed to flow naturally from morning to night, with something genuinely meaningful at every stage. We are also honored to have our colleagues, many of them coming from communities in the East where opportunities for women in professional careers are still limited. What they bring to this resort every single day, the warmth, the dedication, the pride in their work, is what makes Sun Siyam Pasikudah the experience it is.

Beyond the guest-facing celebration, the day also turned inward. Women account for more than half of Sri Lanka’s population, yet their representation in the country’s hospitality workforce remains significantly below 10 percent, a stark contrast to global averages where women make up over half of the sector’s workforce. Sun Siyam Pasikudah has been working steadily to address this, actively recruiting women from surrounding communities in the Eastern Province, providing structured training and mentorship, and building a working environment where safety and professional growth are not negotiables.

Sri Lanka has a proud history of female leadership, being the first country in the world to elect a female prime minister, and the resort draws on this legacy as both inspiration and accountability. The work being done at the property level, from recruitment pipelines to mentorship, is the resort’s way of honouring that tradition in a concrete and lasting way.

Sun Siyam Pasikudah’s Women’s Day celebrations form part of a broader ethos that runs through the Sun Siyam Group, one that believes genuine hospitality starts with the people who deliver it. As the resort continues to grow in international recognition, so too does its sense of responsibility to the communities that make that recognition possible.