Sri Lanka hotels struggle under worker crisis
Sri Lanka's tourism industry is facing a crisis as its skilled workforce is leaving in droves and authorities are now implementing desperate measures to retain them.
Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (SLITHM) Chairman Shirantha Peiris told a media briefing in Colombo that the industry is faced with a crisis as hotels are running with less than 40 per cent of skilled staff.
This clearly indicates that Sri Lanka's hotels needs to train their staff as almost all hotels are compelled to hire unskilled workers and provide on-the-job training, it was noted.
In this respect a one month training programme funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be provided to unskilled workers free of charge with their certificates awarded at the end of 12 months of service in the industry in the country, Mr. Peiris said.
He pointed out that in a bid to overcome the brain drain they are compelled to take on these measures and thereby ensure workers are retained which will also give them a better opportunity to seek jobs that call for experienced staff.
This short term course will be carried out in 25 districts with 100 per district commencing this month and scheduled to complete in December, Mr. Peiris said.
Following this training programme authorities expect at least 1600-1700 to rejoin the sector, the SLITHM Chairman said.
In the meantime, the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) Chairman Chalaka Gajabahu was confident of achieving 1.5 million tourists this year and is planning to launch their first stage of the global campaign ‘Check-In’ that will showcase Sri Lanka is ready to welcome tourists starting with China.
This campaign will be launched according to booking patterns of the different markets by end January and early February in nine countries that include India, China, Russia, UK, France, Germany and Scandinavia.