Sri Lanka, until recently, was the Promised Land of travel destinations, and three content creators, Saasha Karunarathne, Chethana Ketagoda, and Amandha Amarasekara have joined forces to establish the ‘Destination Trio’ – a unique travel initiative that uses the three creators’ unique perspectives and combined followings to showcase travel and lifestyle content framed through their own individual styles of content creation.
In Saasha’s words: “Destination Trio is the collective name for the three of us, who are already well-established content creators and have joined together as friends and creatives, to create travel based lifestyle content while travelling together to local and international locations. The three of us collectively have a following of over one million across all platforms. The idea is that it’s ‘Triple the content, triple the exposure’.”
As announced on 5 May 2022, the Destination Trio, or D3 as the trio calls it, hopes to shake things up with their brand new initiative with their impressive reach on social media, harnessing the growing significance of social media marketing and the sheer influence of online creators to present their audiences with a truly 3D experience. Brunch sat down with Saasha, Chethana, and Amandha to learn more about the Destination Trio, what it hopes to do, and how.
When was Destination Trio first conceptualised, and what was the initial idea and goal behind the project?
Saasha: This was an idea that I have had for a few years now. I have always wanted to create travel content ever since I started my career in the television industry. The idea of globetrotting and documenting that in video format has always been a dream but I never wanted to do it with the traditional approach of “Hey look at me! I’m travelling and this is what it’s like”.
I’ve always been on the lookout for a novel way to cover that travel aspect and I’ve also had this almost-obsession with YouTube creators like David Dobrik, Casey Neistat, and Liza Koshy, and by studying them over time, I realised how valuable influencer and creative collaborations are.
One day, it was like a light bulb went off in my head, and I knew that it was meant to be a collaborative concept – the dynamic of friends travelling the world together and sharing their own original take on a travel experience. New platforms like TikTok give us more room to really play, and for brands, it means that they get to level up and showcase their products at globally recognised locations with trusted faces to all our audiences.
How did this particular collaboration between the three of you come about?
Chethana: To be very honest, it progressed very naturally. Over the past few months, the three of us have had multiple opportunities to work together. It gave us an opportunity to understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses and worked as an eye-opener for all of us because we saw firsthand how easy it was to work together in a professional capacity, and that’s rare. Somehow, the energy levels were in sync and our work ethic matched!
Saasha: I always say Chethana is the glue that sticks us together. It started with her. Chethana and I just clicked. We quickly became friends and I remember talking about this idea with her in the car one day. And she asked me, “Well, hypothetically, who would you actually LIKE to work with on something like that?” and my answer was, “Honestly, the only people I feel would be able to add value are you and Amandha”. And that was it. Chethana was already a friend of Amandha at that point and a day later, she had got to work in getting Amandha onboard and suddenly, we were a thing, group chat included.
Each of you, as creators, has your own niche and you are all heavyweights on social media with different backgrounds and likely different audiences. Why did you choose travel?
Chethana: The answer is in the question itself; the three of us have different audiences and as content creators, we have probably tried every type of content! At least I have. The one common thing that we had not done was travel!
Amandha: A small part of this breaks down to how we’ve touched on the bases of almost anything and everything else in terms of content, all the way from fashion tips to comedy to infotainment to lifestyle and everything else in between. Travel was the one other aspect we haven’t really had the opportunity to move up on and would love to learn a bit more about, by dabbling in it. Not forgetting the fact that Sri Lanka is such a beautiful island, not travelling and seeing these natural marvels was something we felt we were truly missing out on. It was just a matter of putting the two together.
As much as you are colleagues, we assume you are also friends. What is it like towing that line of being business partners and having that personal connection?
Chethana: So far so good! I think being friends first is our foundation, that’s how we know our vibe is the same. When I say vibe, it includes both our professional behaviour and personal connection. The three of us don’t toy with our work, and we also know that we can count on each other.
Amandha: It makes the process a whole lot easier. We’ve come to realise we are like-minded when it comes to work ethic and have worked on several projects together. This has helped cement a bond, which helps each of us understand what the other is bringing to the table. It’s helped us utilise and integrate our skills to always getting the ideal result, be it a better angle when shooting, more innovative ways of approaching a concept, etc., and we have managed to always remain professional when it comes to work.
What makes ‘Destination Trio’ different from any other travel platform or travel blogger’s content?
Amandha: Maybe it’s the fact that D3 shines due to our diversity and it’s not just one ‘rinse and repeat’ concept. Chethana’s comedic approach, Saasha’s informative one and my high fashion and aesthetic take on content are what give D3 the ability to stand out from the crowd. The ‘travel’ concept is merely an add-on.
Chethana: To put it simply, it’s travel with a twist. As far as our individual projects are concerned, we will continue to work as solo artists, because as I mentioned before, we belong to diverse fields. Destination Trio is not a roadblock, but rather another feather in our hat.
What type of travel can audiences expect from each of you moving forward?
Saasha: A fantastic cocktail of both local as well as international travel. Amandha and I have our hopes set on a certain land of the rising sun within the next year or so, and Chethana has her eyes set on a rich land of kings and maharajas, so you’ll have to stay tuned to find out what comes first.
What were some of the major challenges you encountered when first initialising this collaboration?
Chethana: I wouldn’t say it was a challenge, but I remember after Saasha told me about this idea, I was a bit sceptical about pitching it to Amandha, because all of us know what usually happens when you mix friend circles. But guess what? These two are almost the same in nature, and they instantly clicked. So I’m just going to say ‘phew,’ haha!
Saasha: Okay, I never knew of this hesitation until I literally just read what Chethana said. For me, they were all technical roadblocks. How much content do we create? How is our content going to be different from others? How is our content going to be different from each other’s? Do we get a cameraman onboard? Do we hire an editor? How do we handle finances? All the basic problems you have to figure out when starting any new venture. One major problem we didn’t realise we had was figuring out the dynamic between each other. Since it’s a trio, what kind of relationship we would have amongst each other was something we had to travel together to figure out; and I think our first trip together really pushed us into the deep-end and made us figure that out.
As for support, thankfully all three of us have maintained great relationships with a lot of the brands that we had worked with solo and a lot of them have shown their support for our new venture as the Destination Trio. We shot our announcement trailer at Villa Bird Lake, Hikkaduwa and were able to collaborate with brands like LOVI Ceylon, Shay Int, and Thambili Island. For the Singapore trip we had the sponsorship of the brands Janet Ayurveda and Kelly Felder who were our skincare and clothing partners. We wouldn’t have been able to get our feet off the ground as quickly as we did without the support of these brands.
Considering that travel and lifestyle based content is the expectation, what are your thoughts on how it will be received by audiences, considering the current state of the nation and prevailing turbulence?
Chethana: There’s no doubt that all of us will have to work thrice as hard to face the current crisis. We understand the risks it has, but we also understand that travel based content can do so much for our tourism industry. This is a billion dollar industry, and it could provide for thousands of people, if done right. Social media proved to be one the most powerful tools during this trying time, and I can only hope that our audiences would understand why we do what we do.
Saasha: That’s something that all three of us have been contemplating. The timing just seemed to hit us on the face, honestly. It’s difficult to ask people to get excited about travelling the world when the country is in dire straits. I honestly think it’s up to us to figure out how we phrase our content so people understand that this is us, giving them a small glimpse of the outside that still exists beyond the chaos. Personally, I have decided to use these travel experiences to showcase certain qualities or disciplines of people of other countries that have helped them thrive. Maybe there’s something there that we can all learn from. I truly believe the change this country needs right now has to come from within us and our behaviour, and I hope to show that with our content.
Tell us a little bit about your first project.
Saasha: Singapore! We travelled to Singapore together a few weeks ago and it was a dream come true. I cannot begin to tell you how fun it is to travel overseas with friends. It’s one of those things that just awakens your inner child. We were so giddy, and acting like such fools together. We learned so much about each other, and ourselves, unfortunately. But that first trip was truly so amazing with so many ups and downs within just a few days. We have just started releasing that content and are excited to see how our audiences receive it.
The trio’s Singapore content is currently live and audiences can get their first glimpse at what the destination trio are all about at #DestinationTrio on Instagram.
