DAMBULLA: After leaving school, Jeewanthi Adikari was determined to pursue her studies in accounting. But her life took a different path when she began a three-month training program in hospitality.
She has since worked in different hotels in a career spanning over two decades. Now 42, she is in charge of Sri Lanka’s first resort fully operated and managed by women. It’s an attempt to address gender disparities in a male-dominated tourism sector crucial for the country’s economic recovery after a major crisis.
“This is a place where women can realize their potential. They will not be inside the shell. Instead, they will come out and try to perform better,” said Adikari, who oversees the daily operations of Amba Yaalu, a resort located in Dambulla city that serves as a gateway to most of Sri Lanka’s tourist attractions.
Most Sri Lankan women don’t get a chance to work in the tourism industry, earn money and own a career. In a country where 52 percent of the 22 million people are women, they account for only about 10 percent of the 200,000-strong workforce in the hospitality sector.
Amba Yaalu wants to be the driver of change
Some 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Colombo, the resort is nestled in a mango plantation and all work is managed by 75 women staff who garden, work in the kitchens, clean the facility, address the guests and provide security in form of seven ex-military members. The resort’s facilities also include training programs for women to develop their skills in different areas of hospitality.
The resort opened in January and has been seen as a move unlocking women’s potential and driving the tourism economy in the debt-stricken nation.
The idea was conceived by seasoned hotelier Chandra Wickramasinghe, who said he was “inspired by the power of women,” especially that of his mother who raised him and and his seven siblings as a single parent.
“I knew what these ladies can do. I got the idea and put my team to work on it. We got a strong team to run it and it worked very well,” said Wickramasinghe, adding that the resort would enable women to thrive as leaders.
Social stigma, language barrier, work-life balance, lack of training facilities and low salaries have long kept majority of Sri Lankan women away from the hospitality industry, especially those in the rural areas, said Suranga Silva, professor of tourism economics in the University of Colombo.
Much of this stems from a patriarchal structure and traditional gender roles deeply embedded in Sri Lanka’s society, even though many women have made their mark in the country’s politics and have held key positions in the government. The island nation’s current prime minister, Harini Amarasuriya, is a woman.
“Tourism industry can’t be isolated from women,” said Silva, adding that women employment in Sri Lanka’s tourism is very low compared to the global and regional levels.
Lack of women professionals
Sri Lanka’s tourism and hospitality sector contributed 2.3 percent to the country’s economy in 2023 — down from 5 percent in 2018 — and the industry has traditionally been the country’s third largest foreign exchange earner. But the shortage of skilled women and some of them leaving jobs after getting married have challenges faced by the industry since the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings and the coronavirus pandemic.
Kaushalya Batagoda, the executive chef at the resort, said the industry faces a shortage of female professionals to serve in the kitchen and as a result, most the staff recruited to the resort’s kitchen were freshers who are still in training.
“But, the new generation has a passion for working in the kitchen,” she said, adding that she gets a lot of applications from women seeking jobs in the kitchen.
The resort has been lauded by women rights activists who have long been concerned about limited career choices of women and their mobility in Sri Lanka.
Women rights activist Sepali Kottegoda said such business enterprises can “open up more safe employment opportunities for women.”
Silva, the professor, said that “a dramatic change” is taking place as more young women are eager to join the industry, but suggested that the government and the sector must jointly provide training programs for women to improve their skills and employability.
At Amba Yaalu resort, some of these concerns are already being tackled.
“This is purely to empower women,” Adikari said. “We invite women to come and join us, see whether they can perform better in the career, sharpen their capacities and skills and contribute to the industry.”