SLITHM Provincial College opens in Kandy

Boost for Sri Lanka's hospitality trade:

The Kandy Provincial College of Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (SLITHM) situated at Pallekele, the latest hospitality related project of the Ministry of Economic Development, was opened yesterday by Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa.

The Guest of Honour on this occasion was Nubihito Hobo, Ambassador of Japan in Sri Lanka. A representative and distinguished gathering including the Governor, Chief Minister of Central Province and leaders of the travel and tourism industry graced the occasion.

Chandra Mohotti Chairman (SLITHM)	Senaka Wijewardene Director General /CEO (SLITHM)

Speaking to Daily News Business, Chairman of SLITHM, Chandra Mohotti, said, "With the ending of the 30 year war of destruction, the tourist inflow to Sri Lanka has grown by leaps and bounds. The government has realized that tourism holds the biggest potential for the development of the country and is taking appropriate steps to develop the industry. This is very good news to the people in the hospitality trade and we also have to reciprocate in the government's drive to make Sri Lanka "the Miracle of Asia. We must establish world-class training facilities for people in the hospitality industry as they are in high demand not only in Sri Lanka but also in the other countries."

"This state-of-the-art facility comprises eight classrooms, auditorium, amphitheatre, training restaurant, training kitchen, bulk kitchen, banquet hall and five model rooms, built under the Tourism Resources Improvement Project funded by the Japanese Government. This facility could contain 360 students of different hospitality disciplines at any given time.

The construction of the Kandy Provincial College was done at the request of the Government of Sri Lanka with the purpose of enhancing the training capacity and the quality of hospitality employees in the country. This facility, built at a cost of Rs. 240 million and equipped at a cost of Rs. 100 million, took two years to complete," Mohotti said.

"This modern facility would supplement the existing other five Provincial Colleges of the SLITHM in Anuradhapura, Kandy, Koggala, Ratnapura and Bandarawela and was originally visualized for conducting of higher level courses for potential hospitality employees," he said.

"With the envisaged increase in tourist arrivals over the next few years, the management of the SLITHM is formulating sophisticated training programmes for middle and higher level employees for the industry with possible affiliations with international organizations. The Pallekelle Project becomes ideally suited for these enhanced programmes," Mohotti said.

Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management (SLITHM), also known as Ceylon Hotel School and School of Tourism, is the premier training institution for hoteliers at different levels established by the Government of Sri Lanka in 1966 by an Act of Parliament to train young men and women in the complex field of hospitality.

For the first 10 years since its establishment, the trend had been to focus on training personnel for top and middle management positions of the industry, supplemented with a programme of short courses at craft level. This provided the manpower for the various departments in hotels around the country and overseas at skilled level.

Due to the unfortunate 30 year civil war in the country, one of the industries that suffered most is the hospitality industry. Occupancies and revenues of hotels dropped dramatically with arrivals to the country dwindling each year until the year 2010.

The entire tourism industry suffered badly; thereby investments in the hotel sector eventually came to a standstill for nearly 10 years prior to 2009.Consequently, there was large scale exodus of trained hotel staff of all levels to different countries predominantly to the Middle East.

During this entire period, the main institute that continued to supply hospitality workers was the SLITHM.

Even to date, a majority of the senior managers of the local industry are products of the SLITHM.

SLITHM offered basically 3 tiered training facilities from its inception. They were: (a) A degree level management course

(b) A Diploma course (c) Craft level training of basic level employees such as stewards, cooks and receptionists.

Sri Lanka has witnessed an unprecedented economic growth in the past three years, following a three decade long civil war. A large part of this growth was in tourism with Sri Lanka again becoming one of the top tourist destinations in the world. The strong growth in tourist arrivals since 2010 and sustained activity in tourism related segments have fuelled the necessity for trained personnel at all levels in this vital segment.

In the Mahinda Chinthana- Vision for the Future -, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said, "I will introduce an accelerated development programme for the tourism industry. I will launch a programme to fulfil the infrastructure and other requirements to attract 2.5 million tourists annually by 2016," (MC p-94).

In keeping with the President's Vision, the SLITHM, identified the Human Resource requirements as its part of the contribution towards the success of the programme. The anticipated requirement is approximately 200,000 trained hotel employees to service the expected 25,000 hotel rooms that are due to begin operations within next 3 years. The process will be an ongoing one as the industry demand will be continuous in Sri Lanka as a path to becoming the Wonder of Asia.

In 2012, the SLITHM produced almost its full capacity of approximately 2,250 trained individuals at three levels, in its 6 hotel schools, having introduced double sessions wherever possible.

Maintaining high standards in service quality, comparable or, ideally exceeding those in competing destinations would be one of the greatest contributors in sustaining the gains that have been achieved in tourism development, repeat business and the country's reputation for providing high quality services.

In today's competitive market, international tourists demand quality standards and services along with hospitality. The Sri Lankan Hotel Industry needs to offer higher professionalism, though there seems to be inadequate interest even in the private sector, for training and exposure.

Regretfully, during the war many professionals at all levels, left the hotel/hospitality industry seeking foreign employment. Replacements were of less competence in almost each case over at least twenty years. Hardly anyone invested in any kind of professional training as gains were very low and income dwindled. Thereby service quality suffered heavily.