Priyal Perera appointed President of Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association

The Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association (CHSGA) announced Priyal Perera as its newly-elected President at the 48th AGM held at Cinnamon Resorts, Habarana. He is a veteran hotelier with over 30 years’ experience in the hotel and business sector.  

Priyal Perera

Perera becomes the 37th President of the CHSGA, succeeding Samantha Gunarathne, who served a term of two years as the President. CHSGA, which is the alumni of the Ceylon Hotel School (presently known as Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management [SLITHM]) is the leading representative tourism and hospitality sector in Sri Lanka, representing almost 1,000 hotels and guest houses, which employ over 60,000 people throughout the country.

The CHSGA has a membership of over 4,000 professional hoteliers who are Graduates of the Ceylon Hotel School (SLITHM), who are employed in senior management positions locally and overseas. 

A total of 300 members attended the event, including members from overseas and past presidents. The Chief Guest of the occasion was CHSGA Patron and SLITHM Chairman Dilip De Silva. The Guest of Honour was veteran hotelier and John Keels Holdings former Group Director Sumitra Gunasekara.  The members enjoyed the fabulous weekend and expressed their appreciation for a well-organised three days. The re-launch of the CHSGA Hotelier Magazine was a matter of great interest to the members. It is a hospitality and tourism news portal to serve the industry professionals, with Thakshila Galappaththy who is also the Chief Editor. Copies of the magazine were distributed at the AGM and are also available on the website. 

A special feature highlighting two major annual assignments of CHSGA were showcased. ‘Propel’ the soft skills development program and the ‘Hotel Show Colombo’ the annual exhibition for the trade are to be held in November.

The new President Priyal Perera outlined his vision and milestones for the association. He will prioritise and address the ongoing challenges faced by the industry, focusing and ensuring sustainable business environment to support overall aspects of Sri Lanka tourism, with the help of relevant authorities.  His key priorities include mitigating the risks posed to the industry from economic setbacks, tackling the high cost of doing business in Sri Lanka, increased marketing and product development support for tourism in the region and the continued expansion of skills and training support for the employees within the tourism and hospitality industry. 

His key priorities will include close cooperation with the SLITHM in order to upgrade and sustain professional standards of the Hotel School. Projects such as Development of Soft Skills, Curriculum development and obtain degree status for SLITHM. 

In addition a host of Development activities will be in place including HR, Social and CSR, Tourism progression, Training and Development, Competitions and Skills enhancement; Strategic planning and culinary exposure will be in place with specific timelines. 

Outgoing President Samantha Gunarathne stated: “There are serious challenges that need to be addressed to ensure the sustained growth of the tourism and hospitality sector.” Gunarathne pointed that his tenure was a challenging two years, and with the support and cooperation of everyone he was able to achieve success in his endeavours, specially the finalisation of Strategic direction for CHSGA. Further he expressed his appreciation to the outgoing executive committee, all CHSGA members, past presidents and the advisors.