Embrace change for better returns says Louis T Collection CEO

Tuesday, 16 August 2016 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

New change will have a huge positive impact on industry
Urges private sector to focus on people, training, technology to combat global competition
Says international players would be beneficial for businesses

With the tourism sector preparing itself to welcome a number of global hospitality brands into the country, embracing change would be a great positive for the industry, a top expert said. BUP_DFTnew-DFT-12-13-03

“Embrace the competition and change of international companies coming in to the country. It is actually a huge positive and would help tourism as they have a great distribution network around the world,” Louis T Collection CEO Grant Healy said at a panel discussion at the Sri Lanka Human Capital Summit.

From a resource point of view he said the new competition coming in would help the industry as a whole in terms of promotion, and in return it will help to increase the room rates for all hoteliers. “Actually the business will benefit from the change coming in. The key focal point is to embrace all of the competition that is going to have a huge positive impact.” Noting that it is going to be an exciting time he urged the private sector to invest more on training its human capital via training schools adding that most of the international firms have their own skill training centres.

"Actually the business will benefit from the change coming. The key focal point is to embrace all of the competition that is going to have a huge positive impact At the end of the day the key to the hospitality industry’s success will be its people"

“At the end of the day, the key to the hospitality industry’s success will be its people. Although the finance people always say to cut on the training budget, I think we must first invest money in our people and training. That is something we are definitely focused on doing at Galle Face Hotel,” he explained. Healy also said to focus on investing in technology for future growth in the industry.

During the last six months he has been involved with many local independent operators and has recommended them to mainly focus on people, training and technology to combat the global competition coming into the country.

Sharing his global experience Healy said: “I have been lucky to be involved in two different countries, where there was significant tourism growth. One was Japan in the late 1990’s and the other one was China in late 2005. Both countries faced significant challenges in hospitality, but today they have been able to overcome them successfully.”

Giving some background about Louis T Collection he said the company supports small independent groups of boutique hotels and its mission is to provide soul and systems to these beautiful hotels.