Jean-Marc Flambert Views & Interviews 15 June 2009 147 views 2 Comments  Print This Post  Email This Post

The frenzy has started to develop the Eastern coastal belt as the better beaches (many argue) are on the East coast. Whilst properties will no doubt be built in months not years, staffing may be another issue.  The local communities need to be engaged about the benefits of tourism, and they need to be won over. It is hard enough getting parents to agree to their daughters joining the hospitality industry on the West coast so why will it be any easy on the East coast ?

One short term solution is to twin East coast with West coast hotels. The West coast of Sri Lanka has a limited season (November – April) and then 30-60% of their staff are laid off as the off season sets in. Come November, the hotel has to find new staff, and re-train which is a time consuming and expensive affair ! Imagine what business sense it would make and how it would help reconciliation and peace building, if residents from the East could come over during the peaks, and those from the West could spend a few months of the year in the East !

The big assumption here, is that the island will see an increase in development in terms of hotels on the West coast as well. Workers from the East taking jobs from the unemployed in the West would naturally cause its own set of problems. To think that this is an easy solution is naive, but none-the-less, some thing worth considering.

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