Sri Lankan tourism sector is facing a major Human Resource issue and the industry will have no other option other than to import HR from overseas, said Area Vice-President, Cinnamon, City Hotels, Kamal Munasinghe.
Speaking to ‘Daily News Business’ at the opening of ‘SEQUEL’ cocktail bar at Cinnamon Grand, Colombo he said that many staff who were engaged in the leisure industry found alternative employment during the C-19 pandemic when hotels were closed.
“Subsequently others have found high paying hospitality jobs overseas and these have resulted in creating a major vacuum for trained staff for the industry.
He said that with the C-19 pandemic subsiding and Sri Lanka’s political unrest settling, they forecast good forward booking from India as well as all over the world for Sri Lanka.
“With Sri Lankan hotels re-opening to their original capacity and high number of tourists arriving, the industry is now looking for staff. Since the local hospitality industry HR demand cannot be met we will have to import tourism staff from overseas.”
He said that as a remedy to this Cinnamon hotels are looking at creating their own ‘tourism school’ to train youth and feed them to their hotels.”
He also said that the re-deployment of the ‘Minimum Room Rate’ rule would be welcome. He also said that tourism still remains a ‘taboo’ among women as only very few females venture into the industry mainly due to cultural myths. Commenting on the ‘SEQUEL’ he said this venue was re-branded and reopened after almost five years. “The SEQUEL will be a novel addition to Colombo’s nightlife and fills a major void in this segment,” he said. (SS)
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