Abstract:
The tourism industry is one of the most emerging sectors in Sri Lankan economy. By
naming it as one of the six major hubs under the recent policy framework it has been focused
to make Sri Lanka the foremost leisure destination in the South Asian region. The recent trend
of Sri Lankan labour market highlights that the hotel industry nourished by the tourism sector
has considerably high demand in the local labour market. But the industry is facing problem
with finding qualified staff for the industry. Having this situation in mind, the study was
conducted to assess the needs for qualified staff for the hospitality industry and supporting
possibilities in the North and East in Sri Lanka. The objective of this study is to identify the
skills and knowledge needed to be able to find employment in the hospitality sector. Total
sample of the survey is 50 by covering both provinces. Face to face interviews were
conducted based on structured questionnaire in order to gather primary data of the research
while Secondary data was gathered through the relevant data sources. Key findings of the
research elaborate that the skilled level manpower has high demand within the industry.
Moreover, the social stigma is one of the main barriers, especially to have access to the
industry in North and East. Lack of English language capacity is seen as a major challenge
and equally urgent to address is the lack of soft skills and social skills. By the supply side,
vocational training should not stand-alone for skills development and it's needed to be
linked with the industry demands.
