The hospitality industry is facing many challenges and needs to build human capital at a rapid pace to cater to the growing number of tourist arrivals.
Renuka City Hotels, Joint Managing Director, Ms. Arnila Thambiayah told the press recently at a launch of a hospitality management programme by Cross Border Academy, that the industry was facing much difficulties in catering to the rising demands of tourism.
The industry has an average growth of 47 percent compared to the previous year. The total number of arrivals for the first eight months increased from 229, 958 to 397,889 compared to the previous year.
Ms. Thambiayah said that to cater to a single tourist, it required four employees and the industry is in constant search for suitable candidates. Further, the quality of service was vital for sustainability of the industry.
However, the number of rooms in the country was insufficient to cater to the rising number of tourists, which was the primary concern.
The country has around 14,000 rooms and hopes to develop 35,000 more by 2016 to achieve the goal of 2.5 million tourist arrivals.
However the country is focusing on 800,000 tourists next year where it can only provide lodging facilities to 600,000 tourists, industry analysts said.
However, there are two large projects that were announced recently. AitkenSpence Hotels would invest Rs. 6 billion for eight hotel projects while Taj Group hopes to invest Rs. 50 billion towards their capacity building.
Western Academy, President, Breyvan Tan said, the hotel industry was improving at a rapid pace. The room rates were increasing constantly.
He said a year earlier, the room rates where somewhere around US$ 50 and now nearly US$ 100.
"Much needed infrastructure is not yet in place to cater to the rising numbers. In the previous year, the airport of Sri Lanka only witnessed little traffic, unlike today, it is packed,
"Sri Lanka has become a favourite tourist destination despite not having an affective marketing plan with numbers increasing significantly," he said.
Courtesy: The Island Online
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