To compete with regional destinations:

Upgrade expertise in hospitality industry

The country should focus attention on skills development in the hospitality industry to compete with regional destinations.

An essential ingredient in this regard is to upgrade the expertise in the industry in all sectors and provide professional training and exposure, Galle Face Hotel General Manager and Galle Face Hotel Management Co. Ltd. Leisure Division Vice President, Chandra Mohotti told Daily News Business. Sri Lanka is a relatively new destination in the market.

Although Sri Lanka was at one time, the most sought after destination, it is necessary that we maintain high professionalism in services in all sectors comparable or exceeding the standards of other high profile popular destinations in this region, he said.

There was major impediment in tourist arrivals over the past 25 years. The fear caused by terrorists resulted in the security situation deteriorating. Whatever efforts made to propagate tourism and increase the number of arrivals, which could have also included corporate business travellers, were not possible. Recurrent security concerns such as bomb attacks gave Sri Lanka a bad reputation.

There were also other relatively minor impediments such as non-development of infrastructure such as roads, gradual decline of expertise in the hospitality industry due to people going for more lucrative markets for higher management category and entrepreneurs being reluctant to invest money in new projects and upgrading the existing projects and lowering of the standards in infrastructure, buildings, human resources and training, he said.

Since terrorism has been successfully eliminated there has been a euphoria in the industry and gradual building of confidence. The results are already being felt over the past six months with the upward trend in hotel occupancy and increase in the number of arrivals, he said.

However, a great deal of work remains to be done to consolidate this new found freedom which will have a positive effect on the industry. Upgrading the tourism related infrastructure such as roads, hotels and lodging facilities, transport system including domestic air travel, entertainment and other facilities that add to value is vital, he said.

Steps should be taken to improve the quality of services provided by all tourism related institutions such as airport, immigration, transport, hotels, travel agents and even Government institutions, police and healthcare. There should be a change of attitude in these institutions to be helpful and friendly.

It is also necessary to target high profile travellers and with these enhancements. Regional and budget travellers should also be catered to as a value for money destination, he said. SJ