Sri Lanka tourism industry in drive to fill 100,000 worker shortfall

ECONOMYNEXT- Sri Lanka’s leisure industry says it will carry out a five year program to boost the output of skilled trainees and make the sector attractive to school leavers and females as a worker shortfall worsens amid a tourism boom. 

Sri Lanka Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Competitiveness Roadmap 2018-2023, devised by a skills development committee made up of key leisure sector companies said there is an annual shortfall of up to 20,000 workers. 

“[W]e need more and better trained people entering the industry,” Malik Fernando, from Sri Lanka’s Dilmah group, who chairs the Private Sector Tourism Skills Committee, which devised the 5-year plan. 

“We need 100,000. The Tourist Board thinks it’s closer to 90,000, but that doesn’t include the informal sector.” 

According to the roadmap, only 10,000 trainees come out of hotel schools in the country annually.

But about 25,000 to 30,000 are needed each year to staff new hotels and related businesses and also to fill positions falling vacant as older workers retire and others migrate to greener pastures.

Sri Lanka has a falling rupee, making foreign jobs in countries with sounder central banks which provide stronger currencies such as the Maldives and the Middle East, more attractive. 

“We cannot standby and watch anymore. Our complacency will kill the industry,” Fernando said.

“We hope others will join us, but we don’t intend to wait.” 

The skills committee which includes tourism player like Jetwing, John Keells, Dilmah, and Shangri-La is backed by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), the Ceylon Hotel School, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the Technical and Vocational Education Commission and the US Agency for International Development. 

Sri Lanka’s tourism sector is growing rapidly, with the tourism authority estimating that 20,720 rooms will be added to Sri Lanka’s inventory by 2020. 

By end 2017, 35,986 rooms were officially registered with the tourism authority in graded hotels and supplementary units such as guest houses. There are also hundreds of unregistered hotels and guest houses 

A quarter of the tourists visiting the country stayed at unregistered properties, the SLTDA said.

The 5-year plan developed by the skills committee, will revamp curricula in hotel schools and start more three and six month courses to churn out workers faster. 

Additional modules can then be taken while working creating an environment of flexible carreer development and training. 

A train-the-trainers programme on the new curricula will train 200 instructors in vocational training institutes. 

A 4-6 week internship program will be introduced. 

Fernando said that the plan will also increase training on niche areas such as naturalists and wellness professionals, who are increasingly in demand. 

Secondary school teachers will also be trained to provide tourism and hospitality training in such schools under the roadmap. 

Fernando says some young people are not joining the industry due to negative perceptions and some parents oppose female children in particular from joining the industry, which will be adressed by increasing awareness. 

“We want to reach out to the youth, parents and the community,” he said. 

There is also a potential pool of workers in the military who may want to leave and join the hospitality industry, officials said. 

A research unit will also be set up to get up to date information on local and international trends to help better decision-making.

“A lot of our statistics are guesstimates and many of them are plain wrong,” Fernando said. “The data is simply not available and speculative.” (Colombo/July02/2018) 

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Sri Lanka's tourist arrivals grow 15.3 pct up to June

COLOMBO, July 4 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka has recorded a growth of 15.3 percent in tourist arrivals during the first half of 2018 compared to the same period last year, statistics from the Tourism Ministry showed here Wednesday. 

From January to June, 1,164,647 tourists arrived in Sri Lanka compared to the 1,010,444 tourists who visited the country during the same period last year. 

In June, 146,828 tourists arrived in the island country, 19 percent increase from the arrivals recorded in June 2017. 

India remained the largest market for Sri Lanka in June, followed by China and Britain.

Tourism Minister John Amaratunga told Xinhua that tourism was one of the highest growing sectors in the island. 

"We can reach our target this year. We need to expand the capacity of our airports. Currently, 98 percent of tourists arrive by air," he said. 

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ADB, China leads Sri Lanka foreign financing in early 2018

ECONOMYNEXT – The Asian Development Bank and China were the biggest lenders to Sri Lanka's in the first four months of 2018 followed by Japan, while China also made most of the new commitments, official data shows. 

Out of 512.12 million dollars of bilateral and multilateral financing used in public investment in the first four months of the year, ADB disbursed 228.85 million dollars in loans and 0.74 million in grants. 

China disbursed 90.83 million dollars, Japan 54.9 million dollars and the World Bank 48.83 million dollars. 

China also pledged most of the new project loans, comitting 79.8 million dollars out of a total of 266.2 million US dollars where 10 new agreements were signed. 

After the reporting period, China Development Bank also won a bid to syndicate a billion dollar loan to Sri Lasnka. 

The Asian Development Bank committed 75 millon US dollars followed by India with 45.3 million dollars. 

A total of 219.2 million dollars were pledged as and 46.9 million as grants and technical assistance in the first four month of 2018.

Others who committed new loans were were Australia (25.0 million dollars), USA (17.9 million), Austria (13.0 million), International Fund for Agricultural Development (6.2 million), United Nations Population Fund (4.0 million) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (0.01 million).

Of the commitments made the highest amount was committed for the railway sector with 79.8 million. 

The small and medium enterprises sector received the second highest commitment of 75.0 million.

Separately Sri Lanka also raised 2.5 billion US dollars thorugh international sovereign bonds. 

Sri Lanka is now raising foreign loans mostly to repay maturing older loans, as part of a debt re-structuring effort. In the first four months, Sri Lanka had settled 715.6 million US dollars out of which 325.4 million dollars was interest. (COLOMBO, July 02, 2018)

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Sri Lanka private sector to facilitate skills supply in tourism sector with launch of TSC

Jul 02, 2018 (LBO) – The Private Sector Tourism Skills Committee (TSC) launched Tourism Workforce Competitiveness Road-map in collaboration with the private tourism industry to take on the challenge of demonstrating to Sri Lanka’s young women and men that a career in the fast-growing tourism and hospitality industry can be safe, stimulating, well-compensated and full of opportunities for growth. 

“Please don’t call it a strategy. We have too many of those and no one ever seems to act on them,” Malik Fernando, chairman, TSC and managing director of Dilmah Tea’s leisure arm Resplendent Ceylon said. 

“This road-map is a call to action. We hope others will join us, but we don’t intend to wait.”

Formulated under special request from TVEC and the Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training to urgently respond to the critical workforce challenges and skills supply in tourism, TSC also plans to ensure that the courses available in training institutes are practical, aligned with market needs, and taught according to global best practices. 

PTSC was formulated under special request from TVEC and the Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training to urgently respond to the critical workforce challenges and skills supply in tourism. 

TSC is explicitly private sector-led and voluntary. 

It has already prioritized a list of entry-level courses they intend to update with the assistance of TVEC and SLITHM, as well as new courses Sri Lanka needs to introduce to keep pace with global trends. 

Speaking at the launch, USAID’s Mission Director to Sri Lanka and Maldives, Reed Aeschliman said, “This road-map demonstrates the kind of vision, leadership, and cooperation from the private sector that is needed to ensure Sri Lanka gets the most from its incredibly talented young women and men.” 

The road-map was facilitated by renowned team of international experts including James MacGregor and Srilal Miththapala and brought together by some of the leading minds in the industry; Malik Fernando, Angeline Ondaatjie, Shiromal Cooray, Jayantissa Kehelpannala, Sanath Ukwatte, Chamin Wickramasinghe, Dileep Mudadeniya, Timothy Wright , Steven Bradie-Miles, Preshan Dissanayake, Buddhika Hewawasam, Kavan Ratnayake, Manjula Vidanapathirana, Chandra Vithanage. 

Hiran Cooray, Prema Cooray, and Abbas Esufally acted as senior advisors to PTSC. 

One theme in TSC’s roadmap is to encourage more women to enter the industry. 

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Colombo Stock Exchange decides to delist Kalpitiya Beach Resort

Board of Directors of the Colombo Stock Exchange has decided to delist the securities of Kalpitiya Beach Resort subject to the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission.


 In an announcement, Colombo Stock Exchange said the decision to delist the company is based on the following reasons.

 1. The shareholders of the Company have been issued with shares of Hikkaduwa Beach Resort pursuant to the Amalgamation

 2. The company does not exist at present subsequent to the amalgamation since the Registrar of Companies has removed all particulars relating to the company from the Register

 3. Trading of the securities of the Company has been suspended The announcement further said that any person aggrieved by the aforesaid decision of them may appeal to the Securities and Exchange Commission within 14 days.


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