Experts believe Sri Lankan hospitality and leisure sector needs professionally qualified managers

As Sri Lanka experiences a surge of growth in the hospitality and leisure sector, experts believe that more attention must be paid to empowering the sector personnel with globally acceptable qualifications. “ We have to look beyond what is currently taking place and encourage hotel sector managers to acquire internationally recognised qualifications,” says Eraj Abeywardena, the widely respected senior hotelier who is also the Director of Studies at the Imperial Institute of Hospitality and Leisure (IIHL).

IIHL is recognised as the pioneering institute that offers globally recognised qualifications in association with the Institute of Hospitality UK, the world’s most prestigious professional institute for the hospitality sector.

Dr. Chandi Jayawardena, who is widely seen as one of the leading hospitality and leisure sector professionals from Sri Lanka and is currently based in Canada, also says that Sri Lanka needs professionally competent managers and executives within the sector.

“During the last 10 years, the rest of South Asia saw an increase in tourist arrivals seven times higher than what Sri Lanka achieved. Over the last three years Sri Lanka has enjoyed peace and has viewed potential for growth of tourism with great optimism and embarked on unprecedented range of development projects,” says Dr. Jayawardena.

“In many post-war forums held in recent years, the hospitality and leisure sector leaders in Sri Lanka have passionately debated about the challenges their sector will face in the context of the tourism growth targets. There is no doubt that human resource development is the key challenge in tourism growth in Sri Lanka – both in terms of quantity and quality.”

“In terms of quality, Sri Lanka cannot compete with similar tourist destinations, unless world-class education for future employees of the leisure and hospitality is made available within Sri Lanka at affordable fees. Similarly, internationally accredited and recognised professional qualifications and development opportunities must be provided for managers,” he adds.

Dr. Jayawardena points out that many interpretations of the number of employees needed by 2016 and beyond exist, but he believes that it is reasonable to predict that we would require half a million employees in hospitality and tourism sector in Sri Lanka within a period of five years. He also believes that all stake holders of tourism in Sri Lanka such as hospitality management professionals must ‘think outside the box’, be innovative and learn from various best practices as well as similar challenges faced by other destinations.

“There are many mutually beneficial “win-win” opportunities for international partnership and collaboration. Professional associations such as Institute of Hospitality have formed such relationships which can be of tremendous benefit to the industry.”

Imperial Institute of Hospitality and Leisure COO Harshana Perera says that in order to cater to a growing need for world class qualifications, Sri Lanka must be able to produce hotel executives who keep abreast of latest developments in the industry and can relate to changing dynamics. “The hospitality and leisure sector must also be able to translate growth into outstanding opportunities for its members as other professional sectors such as accounting and management have done.”

The Imperial Institute of Hospitality and Leisure offers internationally recognised professional qualifications for Sri Lankan leisure sector executives, in association with the Institute of Hospitality of UK.