1st Industry-Interactive Annual Research Symposium in Tourism Economics and Hotel Management

Front row from left: Mermaid Hotel General Manager Ajith Weerasinghe, Aitken Spence Hotels Plc DGM Corporate Housekeeping Nihal Mohandiram, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology Senior Lecturer Dr. Sharmini Perera, Asia Pacific Management Institute, Sri Lanka Kanthi Basnayake, Praguna Management Consultants Director Operations T.B.B. Sumith, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Director Upali Ratnayake, University of Colombo Department of Economics Tourism Programs Founder/Coordinator Dr. D.A.C. Suranga Silva,  University of Colombo ,

University of Colombo Department of Zoology Retired Prof. Sarath Kotagama in Environmental Science, LOLC Leisure Consultant Director Project Development Ajit Jayemanne, Serendib Leisure Management Manager Planning Dilisha Tennakoon, Cinnamon Village Hotel General Manager Lankesh Ponnamperuma, Ozo Colombo Area Manager Training and Development Viraj Wijeratne, William Angliss Institute, Sri Lanka Events and Sales and Marketing Senior Lecturer/Assessor in Hospitality Management KasunAbeynayaka, Back row from left: Students of the 1st Masters Batch: Namal Wijesundara, Saman Hathurusinghe, Dileepa Siriwardena, Shashikala Bandara, Kanishka Jayathunga, Nalin Kahatapitigama, Chandima Kanakaratne, Indika Mohotti, Lakkhana Kalawana, Tiran Nanayakkara, Kasun Premachandra, Chaman Perera, Amal Nanayakkara, Manoj Samarathunga

The Department of Economics, Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo together with the students of Masters in Tourism Economics and Hotel Management (MTEHM) successfully concluded the 1st Industry Interactive Research-Based Symposium on 5 April at the Senate Hall (College House), University of Colombo under the theme of ‘Enlightening and Integrating Sustainable Tourism Development through Industry-Interactive Tourism Research’.

This symposium provided an application-oriented research-based knowledge contribution in the disciplines of Tourism Economics, Human Resources Development in Tourism and Hotel Industry, ICT and Tourism Development, Tourism and Destination Management, Service Quality Improvement, Tourist Behaviours in Modern Tourism Demand, Sustainable Tourism Development, Community Tourism and many other areas of interest.

The occasion was graced by the Chief Guest University of Colombo Vice Chancellor Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake, Guest of Honour Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority Chairman Paddy Withana, University of Colombo Faculty of Arts Dean Prof. Athula Ranasinghe, University of Colombo Department of Economics Head Prof. (Rev). Wijithapure Wimalaratana, University of Colombo Department of Economics Masters in Tourism Economics and Hotel Management (MTEHM) Course Coordinator Dr. D.A.C. Suranga Silva and many industry experts. The keynote speech was delivered by University of Colombo Department of Zoology Environmental Science Retired Prof. Sarath Kotagama.

Delivering the opening address, Dr. Suranga Silva thanked all the distinguished guests, industry experts, representatives from industry associations and media for their participation for the first ever Industry Interactive Research Symposium in Tourism Economics and Hotel Management. He pointed out that Sri Lanka is in a crucial stage of tourism development and the need of trained manpower plays a major role in fulfilling the demands of international hotel chains investing in the country.

Dr. Silva stressed that the success and sustainability of this industry will be determined only through; (1) creative decision making, (2) innovative management, (3) effective marketing, (4) competent human resources and (5) through a responsible leadership where industry professionals and decision makers, who must combine their industry expertise with scientific academic wisdom in achieving this goal. 

He highlighted that the University of Colombo has understood the burning need of transforming manpower into human capital and launched many academic programs focusing the tourism sector at the right time as human capital plays a major role in delivering a quality tourism product and it is important in facing the competition while positioning Sri Lanka an attractive tourist destination in the world.

Addressing the gathering, Prof. (Rev.) Wimalaratana drew attention to the behaviour of modern travellers and pointed out that they are much more interested in experiencing the local community. It was also highlighted that the tourists’ movements are no more confined to hotels and tourist sites thus infrastructure development and community awareness plays a major role in welcoming modern travellers to Sri Lanka.

Prof. Athula Ranasinghe addressing the gathering highlighted that a symposium of this nature had been a call of appeal from the industry since many years. He stated that the findings of most researches are confined on to the shelves and industry interactive, application oriented research symposiums of this nature will create the right synergy to make use of the research findings thus Dr. Silva as the course coordinator and students of the first batch of Masters in Tourism Economics and Hotel Management 2014/15 deserve special thank from academia for organising this valuable event.

Guest of Honour of the event Paddy Withana pointed out in his speech that the University of Colombo has taken a timely decision to contribute Sri Lanka tourism development through research. A symposium themed ‘Enlightening and Integrating Sustainable Tourism Development through Industry Interactive Tourism Research’ is of utmost importance for Sri Lanka tourism while celebrating 50 years of service as a tourist destination. He stressed that the success of Sri Lanka tourism development will depend on well informed data-based decisions and tourism research would be an essential part of it. 

According to Withana, the desired outcome of tourism research in the present context is to highlight the gaps in the present systems and to recommend viable means of innovating new products. Further, he highlighted that woman in tourism, Sri Lankan food, nature and tourism, employee satisfaction and modern traveller behaviour as key areas where tourism research should focus.

Retired Prof. Sarath Kotagama delivering his keynote speech on ‘Responsible product challenges for tomorrow’s tourism’ highlighted how human activities have negatively impacted the nature since past few decades. It was also explained with statistics that the international tourist arrivals had shown a steady increase despite all natural disasters and health and safety concerns. He stressed that all human activities should be bound with the principles of sustainability where Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations has elaborated the guidelines for the same. 

A snapshot of international tourist arrivals provided an understanding on the diversification of tourist generating markets since past few decades. Explaining the changed behaviour of travellers in this information age, Prof. Kotagama pointed out that their spirit of adventure could be hazardous to themselves and also to the host communities unless regulated by suitable laws. 

Therefore, Prof. Kotagama suggested that the future Sri Lankan tourism products should be an innovation developed from and within the nature. The keynote speech was concluded by making recommendations to tackle leakage and to create a 365 day tourism product while having the host communities included in order to create a sustainable future.

Chief Guest Prof. Lakshman Dissanayake delivering his speech explained the importance of research and how it helped him to develop and enjoy his career. In contrast to the pure research, he highlighted that the applied research are useful for practitioners and policy planners thus, symposiums of this type provide a mechanism for individual researchers to influence them. He commended the involvement of Dr. Silva in research projects and programmes specially focusing sustainable tourism development in Sri Lanka. 

Prof. Dissanayake stressed how research can be useful in innovative tourism product development for a country like Sri Lanka with high density of attractions and shared one of his experiences in Japan where the remoteness of tourist a destination created the competitive advantage for them.

Following the inauguration, four concurrent sessions were held in the Department of Economics where 17 students from the first Masters batch in Tourism Economics and Hotel Management 2014/15 presented their research papers. 

There were four evaluation panels of industry experts and academics who reviewed the finding of the researches. The evaluation panels were represented by Prof. (Rev.) Wijithapure Wimalaratana – University of Colombo, Dr. S.R.S.N. Sudasinghe – Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration, Dr. Sharmini Perera – Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Dr. Rohantha Athukorala, Former Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotional Bureau, Upali Ratnayake, and Udana Wickramasinghe – Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, Kanthi Basnayake – Asia Pacific Management Institute, Sri Lanka, T.B.B. Sumith – Praguna Management Consultants, Ajit Jayemanne, Consultant Director Project Development of LOLC Leisure Ltd., Sri Lanka, Gamunu Goonawardena and ZaharineHameen – Aitken Spence Travels and Nalin Gunasekara – Arkansas Ceylon Fund Ltd., Sri Lanka. Proceedings of this symposium are now available for the public through the Department of Economics, University of Colombo.