Saturday Oct 24, 2026
Saturday Oct 24, 2026
Tuesday, 22 September 2026 05:19 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Institute of Hospitality (IOH) Sri Lanka Chapter has confirmed the speaker lineup for the International Hospitality Leaders’ Conference (IHLC) 2026, a leadership forum designed to produce a definitive, industry-wide roadmap for 2030.
Backed by IOH UK’s global network and more than 80 years of international standing, the conference will take place on Tuesday, 29 September at Cinnamon Grand Colombo, bringing together over 200 senior hospitality leaders, owners, developers, and policymakers.
The conference brings together an international faculty with expertise spanning hospitality leadership, destination development, tourism strategy, workforce transformation, technology and artificial intelligence, commercial performance, consumer trends and sustainable tourism.
Among the confirmed international speakers are Seychelles Department of Tourism Principal Secretary for Tourism Sherin Francis; IHG Hotels & Resorts Managing Director for South West Asia Sudeep Jain; Raffles Singapore Interim Managing Director and General Manager Giampaolo Ottazzi; Pocket Marketing/nXt Trend Analyst and Change Psychologist Herman Konings; CodeGen Group of Companies President and CEO and Vega Innovations Founder Dr. Harsha Subasinghe; hospitality revenue management expert Faisal Murtaza and more.
“As IHLC 2026 comes together, the response from our speaker community has reinforced what we set out to do, bring the right people into the same room to have the honest conversations our industry needs. With voices like these joining us from across the region and beyond, I’m confident this conference will deliver more than dialogue; it will deliver direction for where Sri Lankan hospitality goes from here,” said Institute of Hospitality – Sri Lanka Chapter Chairman Ramesh Dassanayake.
Convened under the global banner of the Institute of Hospitality, IHLC 2026 stands as the only event of its kind in Sri Lanka, placing the nation’s hospitality sector on the world stage. The forum is built to produce commitments rather than conversations and will culminate in the Vision 2030 Whitepaper, the sector’s first collective industry roadmap for the years ahead.
The program is structured around six strategic pillars: future-ready leadership and governance; commercial strategy and business performance; innovation and digital transformation; sustainability and responsible tourism; talent development and workforce readiness; and destination competitiveness and global positioning.
Registration is open at Rs. 25,000 per delegate, with a full day of sessions, networking, and hospitality experiences included. Seats are limited, and early registration is encouraged given the scale of interest the conference has drawn since its announcement. For registrations, visit https://vision2030.ihsrilanka.com/ or contact Sugath on +94 77 599 1575.
