Sri Lanka Tourism seeks stakeholder support to boost talent

• Tourism Chief writes to Skills Development Ministry and private sector for ideas to ensure required skillset for 2022 and beyond
• Intends to access demand forecast per category and required skillset 
• Low salary scales, female participation, awareness programs, rebranding occupation names are on cards to be addressed 

By Charumini de Silva 

Sri Lanka Tourism has called on stakeholder support to address underlying issues in attracting new talent while retaining the best skills to make the sector a viable career path in the future.

Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando

“The need for talented employees in the hospitality industry is crucial for its development and for decades we have struggled to retain and attract necessary skill sets. 

The need for right talent is a concern that the industry has been lamenting and this is why Sri Lanka Tourism have stepped in to seek their views to address the matter collectively. The exercise aims to attract new talent whilst retaining the best ones,” Sri Lanka Tourism Chairperson Kimarli Fernando told the Daily FT.

She said that she had already written to the Skills Development Ministry as well as to stakeholders seeking their suggestions to ensure that the required skills set of employees are trained and available to meet the needs of the tourism industry 2022 and beyond.

“Often we hear stakeholders lament that they are running short of staff, but have not formally informed us in which categories of skill sets. Post-pandemic we also heard that many had moved to different sectors due to the Therefore, with the support of Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (SLITHM) we are willing to conduct short courses, balancing theory and practical skills as well as reposition brand image of working in the industry,” she explained.

The initiative intends to develop short term programs to cater to industry demand in — waiter, housekeeping, butler, address the low salary scales, female participation, recruit students through hotels, conduct rural area awareness programs to attract new students and consider changing or rebranding names for the occupation.

Fernando said that they intend to access the demand forecast per category and skills set.

Although this is not the best time to address the low salary scales in the sector, she pointed out that this underlying issue had not been addressed well enough and a key reason why best talent leave for greener pastures.

“The basic salary of the hotel employees are quite low and it is the service charges which keeps them going. Hospitality employees face a lot of challenges to seek credit facilities via financial institutions. Working conditions in the hospitality industry may not always seem attractive, and we have also seen that students from hospitality schools are also choosing a different career path. Proactive innovative measures or incentives to attract new talent and to retain them needs to be addressed more than ever,” she said.

The Tourism Chief also noted that the social stigma about female participation in the sector needs to be addressed, pointing out that in Sri Lanka it is below 10%, while in other countries it is around 60%.

“I believe that the pandemic has presented tourism with an opportunity to redefine its gender balance and to build on the huge strides forward with more female participation and empowerment,” Fernando said.

Highlighting that fundamental standards of the natural environment, economic growth, stability, safety, quality education, and so on, are strong arguments to encourage long term engagement, she said now more than ever, there is a need for the industry to attract and retain talented employees for their businesses.

“Offering incentives that provide value to an employee’s life should be a priority for every entrepreneur,” she added.