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| Sunday, 22 December 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Personality Plus : Taking tourism to the top
Name: Anuruddha Kumar Mallimaratchi The ambition of Kumar Mallimaratchi, President Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka(THASL) and Managing Director Associated Hotels Co Ltd, is to make tourism the number one revenue earner for Sri Lanka in the near future. Education Born to a family of three boys, Mallimaratchi had his primary education at St Benedict's College. Though the school was doing well in sports and education his mother was keen to send him to a Buddhist school which resulted in him moving to Ananda College for his secondary education. Career "Though my family was engaged in politics, my father, the late Weerasinghe Mallimaratchi wanted me to move to the field of catering and hotel management as he thought that tourism will make a difference for the country as well as for me," he said. After completing the Advanced Level examination, he joined Claremont Hotel School and obtained a diploma in Catering and Hotel Management. On his return to Sri Lanka, he joined the Ceylon Hotels Corporation (CHC) as Airport Catering Manager and moved up the career ladder to become Sales Manager. In addition to his duties as Sales Manager, he also functioned as Manager of the Travel Bureau. From then on, there was no turning back with him being promoted to the posts of Assistant General Manager (Operations), General Manager and finally CHC Chairman in January 1990. "I refused the latter promotion, but the late Cyril Gardiner gave me all the courage and strength to take it up." During his tenure at the CHC, he increased its turnover from Rs 20 million to Rs 100 million. The Corporation also recorded a profit of Rs 20 million during this period. "Upto now, nobody has been able to achieve the profit levels achieved by me," he said. In 1984, Mallimaratchi was offered a scholarship by the International School of Tourism, Italy to follow a post graduate course in Hotel Management, sponsored by the World Tourism Organisation. In 1992, he followed an Advanced Management program at the Cornell University, USA. He is a life member of Cornell Society of Hotelmen, a rare honour for a Sri Lankan. At present, he is the Managing Director of Associated Hotels Ltd, the manager of Lihiniya Surf Hotel, Bentota. Future plans for the hotel include refurbishment during the summer of 2003. Tourism industry "I took over the presidency of the Tourist Hotels Association Sri Lanka (THASL) in July last year, just before the attack on the Katunayake Airport, which was a major setback to the industry. The strategies adopted by the industry together with the Ministry of Tourism and the Sri Lanka Tourist Board saved the industry," he noted. Future of tourism "We need to refocus our strategy on where we want to be. At present, Sri Lanka is mostly known as a charter destination. The tourists who come on charter flights want low rates. "We have to get the infrastructure in place by upgrading hotel properties and slowly move upmarket . The late President J.R. Jayawardena said that Sri Lanka needs not one million cheap tourists, but 50,000 quality tourists. This saying is valid even now," he added. Once the 2002 winter season is completed, most hotel properties will go for refurbishments. In this regard, he said, some duty concessions are most welcome to purchase things that are needed to move the properties upmarket. Future The THASL appointed a Marketing Subcommittee to explore ways and means to increase the value of Sri Lanka's product and the committee members have agreed on some measures to be adopted for the winter of 2003. These measures include all tourism-related entities adopting the winter pricing from November 1 to April 30, 2004, no companies offering last minute offers before October 15, limiting the maximum discount given on such offers to 20 per cent, making the maximum discount for early bookings 10 per cent and attempting to increase hotel prices by 10 per cent. The trade, in consultation with the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourist Board, has decided to avoid participating at trade fairs which will not benefit the country. Instead, it will concentrate more on trade fairs that generate traffic to Sri Lanka. This will help save money and time. Under the SAARC Tourism Council, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka are looking at joint promotions as well as promoting regional tourism. New markets "Sri Lanka should look at new markets as we are loosing our traditional markets. There is vast potential in India and China, but tourists from these countries cannot be treated the same way we treat Western tourists as their needs and wants are different. Next year, we are targeting around 50,000 tourists including the Indians and Chinese." He said that Sri Lanka at present is not ready to attract tourists from China on a large scale although there is potential. "If we get our act together, we can attract more than 100,000 tourists from China," said a confident Mallimaratchi. Family A father of one son, Mallimaratchi said that his recipe for success consists of being in the right place at the right time, good advice and luck in addition to hard work and discipline. (SG) |
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