Sri Lanka should urgently focus on increasing female participation in the tourism field or the country will lose its competitive edge to attract global high end travelers, said Director Dilmah Ceylon Tea Company PLC, Malik Fernando.
He opined this at The Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance (SLTA), together with Australia’s Market Development Facility (MDF), hosted the ‘Women in Tourism: Advocate Engage Achieve’ event at Colombo Hilton on Wednesday.
While the global ratio in women participation in the tourism sector is around 40% and in Europe even more in Sri Lanka it’s less than 9%. He said that when high end solo female travelers visit Sri Lanka they sometimes hardly see any female staff and this discourages them. This also may reduce Gulf female traveler’s coming to Sri Lanka. Shiromal Cooray, Managing Director Jetwing Travels;General Manager, Hilton Colombo Manesh Fernando said that It’s very strange to note that Sri Lankan women can go overseas to the Gulf and engage in a slimier profession (house maid) but not get involved in the tourism sector.
“I must emphasize that it’s the colonial labour laws as the main reason for the lesser number of female participation in the tourism sector and theseshould change even now.”
Chief People Officer Dialog Axiata PLC Chandi Dharmaratne, said that in the ICT sector the ratio is better and one could even see nearly 49% of the females working in the BPO sector and around 35% in the ICT sector. “However we need to see more middle level female employees in the ICT sector.”
Managing Director Jetwing Travels, Shiromal Cooray, said that there are hardly any female tour guides in Sri Lanka mainly because they cannot move away and come back home when there is a long tour that stretches for around 7 to 14 days. She also said that there was a cultural stigma and thankfully this is now reducing.
“Women also lack general awareness of available opportunities and benefits in the travel trade.” Guest of Honour Dr. Paul Zeccola, First Secretary (Political and Economic) Australian High Commission in Sri Lanka said that the local tourism sector holds much potential for investment and growth.
“Among the women working in the tourism industry that were surveyed, only 10% possessed an educational qualification beyond A/Ls, consisting of either university or technical college education.”
He further added that the longstanding partnership between Australia and Sri Lanka is to build inclusive business models that strengthen women’s economic participation. The event also featured a panel discussion examining challenges to and solutions for integrating more women into the industry.
Shirajiv Sirimane