Youth to be trained in hospitality industry

The Ministries of Tourism and Foreign Employment together with the Hotel School launched a program to train youth in the hospitality industry.

The objectives of the program are orientation of youth in numbers, help government coffers, have a pool of trained youth to be sent abroad for jobs in the hospitality industry and obtain their services when needed.

The program was designed, planned and implemented within one and a half months due to the commitment of all stakeholders involved in the program including Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, Deputy Minister Faiz Musthapha, Hotel School principal Kamal Hapuwatta and Secretary, Foreign Employment Ministry Brigadier Jayawardena, said chairman Tropical Group Prasanna Jayewardene.

The youth will be taught Arabic, Mandarin and other languages and skills. Expressing his views on tourism, he said that compared to the previous months there has been a marginal improvement in July, August and September which are considered lean months for tourism. We don't discount our rates as we don't believe in it and it also affects our bottom line. Therefore we have not discounted our rates at the luxurious Elephant Corridor Hotel where the rates are US$ 400-1300 per day.

Our potential as a country in tourism is ten times what we have now. Therefore we should never look at anything in the short term but in decades which will help us grow and tap our potential for the future.

Jayewardene said that Sri Lanka is in the centre of the biggest tourism generating region in the world, the fastest growing economies the world has ever seen.

He said that Sri Lanka has a very conducive environment for tourism with all the goods and supplies, an intelligent workforce, and a good climate while being positioned in the best region.

The beauty of the country and its people should be tapped to service the future of the tourism industry as tourism is an industry that can help people overcome poverty, but it needs systematic planning.

The government and the Ceylon Tourist Board is doing everything possible to improve the situation so that it will help boost tourism but they never promised us to fill the hotel rooms and it depends on every individual on how good or bad he or she fares.

SG