By Zahara Zuhair
Tourism is an industry that is filled with endless opportunities. For example, being an experienced hotelier can guide a person to be an entrepreneur – to move into their own ventures such as to have five-star venues, boutique hotels and many more.
Although globally the negativity towards the profession is starting to diminish, in Sri Lanka, still it’s considered as an inappropriate profession for women, which makes them to hesitate to take up jobs linked to the industry.
To enlighten on this, the Tourism Development and Christian Affairs Ministry, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, together with the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, organised a panel discussion, commemorating the International Women’s Day.
The discussion raised the concerns over the negative perception related to the tourism and hospitality industry and how to get more women involved to the sector.
With women comprising more than half of Sri Lanka’s population, getting them engaged in the tourism industry, which is one of the largest industries in the world and the fourth largest in Sri Lanka, will help the country’s economy with Sri Lanka expecting 4.5 million tourists by 2020.
The industry already offers a vast number of opportunities with so many local and international hospitality brands are yet to embrace the shores.
Careers in tourism and hospitality offer many diverse roles, which provide the workers with an enjoyable atmosphere, flexible hours and an opportunity to meet new people.
Apart from hotel-related jobs (concierge, receptionist, public area attendant, room attendant, stewards, etc.) tourism jobs range from airline, holiday consulting, tour operating, tour guides, expanding up to diving deep sea, trekking guide training, etc.
A success story
Jetwing Colombo Seven General Manager Rookmanie Fernando’s is a success story of a woman in an industry where there is a negative perception of women choosing tourism and hospitality as a profession.
Starting off her career from being a hotel receptionist, Fernando today has reached the pinnacle of her career as she holds the position of General Manager at Jetwing Colombo Seven.
“I’m a people lover and I had a vision to serve people and I focused on it. I joined as a trainee receptionist at a hotel, that’s how I started my career. I was there for 22 years. Then I educated myself in Vienna to improve my German language. I made the correct decision then by moving to Sri Lanka. So many opportunities were there for me and I made the best decision by joining Jetwing as Public Relations Manager,” she said.
One of the main reasons for her success, according to her, is the support given to her by the heads of Jetwing, which encouraged her to do more as she was determined to contribute to the hotel and industry.
“I was thinking what I can contribute to Jetwing and the tourism industry.
Then I had the idea about Ayurveda, I learnt Ayurveda from a professional doctor. I thought why not introduce it to Jetwing,” she said.
Though it was initially a negative aspect, she said that she did not give up on her idea and finally she was happy when she got the green light from the hotel.
“I started the centre with two rooms. Today we have ended up with a purpose-built hotel with 35 rooms,” she said.
Her Ayurveda pavilion bagged the World Travel Mart (WTM) award for Best Ayurveda Spa in 2003 and 2006.
“The reason women won’t engage is the negative perception of the industry and in schools tourism is not shown as a profession. So, we have to change the mindset. Even in rural areas there is a negative understanding than positive understanding with regard to this profession.
We have to have awareness programmes to change the mindset. The mindset is very negative when it comes to the tourism industry,” Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism of Hospitality Director General Buddhika Hewawasam said.
He said through awareness programmes, it is needed to show that tourism is also a profession like healthcare, lawyering, engineering, etc.
“We plan to have celebrity endorsements to make awareness on this industry,” he said.
The primary and secondary school curriculum in Sri Lanka has nothing to support the tourism sector. However, degrees are being offered by a few government and private institutions in order to provide the required skills to the hospitality industry. It is estimated that the tourism industry can create 300,000 new jobs by 2020. However, concerns are being raised if Sri Lanka could meet this demand.
Need for support system
Sharing similar views, Tourism Development and Christian Affairs Minister John Amaratunga said that although today women are the majority in Sri Lanka, with around 10.9 million females, as opposed to 10.1 million males, the tourism industry is dominated by males.
The main reason cited for this is the negative perception related to this industry. This perception has to be destroyed, which is baseless.
(We need to encourage more women to join local tourism, which has the potential to boost the economy. Countries like the Philippine, women have overtaken the industry,” he said.
Some of the reasons shown with regard to the social stigma surrounded with this profession are: women having to deal with a lot of people and shift work, which sometimes come with inherent risks (structural and cultural issues).
William Angliness Institute Academic and Consultant Kasun Abeynanayaka said that the negative perception is mainly of traditional barriers, citing that there are instances where marriages are refused when known to be a hotelier.
“People say hotels are not a good place to work,” he said.
Talking about other barriers, he said that the lack of female trainers to train the young women is another barrier faced by
the industry.
“And working hours have to be worked on. Pay rates are low; you get peanuts compared to what you earn outside the country,” he said.
Work harassment is another aspect he talked of. “When a girl is working, it’s very sad, they are harassed. Some girls don’t like to go to operational-level jobs. That’s the fact. They are touched and harassed,” he said.
He also said that women should be recruited to top level jobs as well such as human resource and finance sectors.
In general, the female employees are mostly concentrated in the reception, guest room, cleaning and catering services and similar posts, whereas other hotel jobs, such as security, maintenance, etc. are mostly male dominated.
Though some of the hotels’ high level positions are occupied by women, in most cases, women are mostly employed in low-paid unskilled jobs.
Hence, Colombo Mayor Rosy Senanayake stressed that it is important to engage women in every level.
Sharing one of her experiences related to the industry, she said that being the judge of Rising Star Awards 2017, organised by the Hotel Association of Sri Lanka, she saw a lot of enthusiasm in women engaged in this profession, noting that there are instances where women come forward breaking traditional norms.
“I was a judge. There were very enthusiastic women working out of normal conventional jobs. For example, the best bartender was a woman. She was working in a rural guest house and then moved to Colombo to work in a five-star hotel. Now she is the best bartender,” she said.
She also said that while encouraging them to join the industry, it is important to bring in polices and laws to protect them in the workplace.
A proper support system, encouraging and guiding them and bringing in strict laws to secure them from harassments will motivate women to take up jobs linked to tourism.
