Tourism boom fuels 20% annual growth
The Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel management (SLTHM) has opened a Laundry and Dry Cleaning Training Centre to provide courses in laundry and dry cleaning.
There in a huge potential for growth in the laundry and dry cleaning industry in Sri Lanka and the industry has been expanding by over 20% annually and the boom in the tourism industry has fuelled the growth further and it has become an important sector in the hospitality industry and the commercial sector in the country, where more job opportunities could be created. “However, one of the biggest challenges faced by the laundry industry is the lack of skilled professional staff.
A highly skilled workforce in required to match the needs of this growing industry,” Lecturer / Laundry Manager, SLITHM, Amaranath Cumaraswamy said. “SLTHM has come forward to bridge this gap. We need to ensure that there will be an adequate supply of skilled workers to meet the ever changing need in the industry by 2018.
There will be more than four five-star hotels opening in the city and other parts of the country,” he said.
“These projects alone will need 300 laundry staff; besides there the commercial laundry sector is also expanding and that too requires people with exposure and professional training,” Cumaraswamy said.
“In the hospitality industry, guest and customer services are always the first priority; this includes rendering the best laundry and dry cleaning services to them; the clothing of hotel guests and outside customers should be returned in the best condition and to do so the staff members who handle these processes should be well trained both in theory and practice,” he said.