Sri Lanka will host IATA summit

Colombo – Tapping into a booming tourism sector and promoting human capital in the aviation sector, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) will host a three- day Global Aviation Human Capital Summit in Sri Lanka.

The summit, which could include over 53 countries and regions, would be held from 13 to 15 November in Colombo, SriLankan Airlines Head of Human Resource Pradeepa Kekulawala noted.“The summit is designed to bring together key decision makers in the aviation industry to share best practices in human capital management and development. Creating a forum to discuss challenges, explore synergies, and identify solutions that can be tailored to match the needs of the industry,” he said.

The event is also a part of IATA’s continuing efforts to meet the exceptional human capital challenges faced by the industry.The summit is expected to attract a large number of global heads of human capital, their deputies and the global heads of training and development from airlines, airports and aviation authorities.

The summit held last year in Singapore attracted some 150 delegates from 53 countries and regions.Sri Lanka is also attempting to promote itself as a venue for conventions and summits in a bid to increase its tourism revenue.

The country is targeting one million arrivals this year to add to the post-war tourism boom being experienced over the last three years. In the first half of this year, a total of 452,867 people including 85,000 from India, visited the island nation, government data shows.

This is an all-time high and an 18.7 per cent growth over the same period last year, Xinhua reported. The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said the highest number of tourists – 172,602—in the first six months arrived from Western Europe.

The government has set a target of 2.5 million tourist arrivals by 2015 but industry’s stakeholders believe that the sector is not expanding fast enough to absorb such high numbers, said expert Sampath Siriwardena, who is also general manager of Galadari, a top hotel in Colombo titled. “The industry as a whole is not ready to achieve this target. There are many areas that need intervention and focus. Besides, at the present level, there is a possibility of the country out- pricing itself from the market as well,” he said.Source: Xinhua