Emerging Leaders Program

Amjad has over 10 years experience in the tourism industry and has played a key role in leading Destination Management Companies in Sri Lanka. He holds a MBA in Logistics & Supply Chain Management from Edinburgh Napier University in the UK. Amjad joined the Diethelm Travel Sri Lanka team in July 2017 taking on the role of handling Key Source Markets including Specialized Tours.

Chamindra Goonewardene is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Resplendent Ceylon. He has over 10 years of experience in marketing and leadership roles, primarily in the hospitality industry. He holds a degree in Economics from Duke University, an MBA from the University of Leicester, and has studied strategic hospitality marketing at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University and Digital Strategy at the INSEAD Business School.

Hasajith is an experienced hotelier who has been in the hospitality industry for over 10 years with prestigious hotel chains locally and internationally. He is a graduate from Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management and currently works as the Assistant Food & Beverage Manager in Shangri-La Colombo. He is an expert in leading teams, creating new promotions & concepts.

With over a decade of experience, Irshad has been part of luxury international tour operators, where he has handled major international accounts with exposure to high-end travel agents.
Irshad graduated with an MBA from University of Wales Trinity Saint David and has worked across the DMC space as well as handling Sales & Marketing for Luxury Boutique properties. He is currently part of Acorn Ventures, where he provides his expertise to Diethelm Travel Sri Lanka and Acorn Leisure Management Services.

Lakshan joined the tourism industry because he loves meeting new clients and travellers as well as colleagues from other departments. He has a diverse background including some experience in banking. Lakshan currently serves as the Cluster Assistant Director of Sales for Minor Hotels Sri Lanka ( Anantara Peace Haven Tangalle Resort Sri Lanka | Anantara Kalutara Resort Sri Lanka | Avani Kalutara Resort Sri Lanka ).

Lasitha Rajapakse currently serves as the Head of Events at Shangri La Hotel in Colombo and is part of Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance’s inaugural Emerging Leaders Program which kicked off in July 2021. We spoke to Lasitha to get to know him better and to understand what his journey in tourism has been like so far.

In school Lasitha’s favourite subjects were math and pure math however an interest in the tourism sector, stemming from a passion for meeting new people from different cultures, propelled Lasitha into choosing tourism as his career. In order to step into the tourism path, Lasitha completed a Certificate in Hospitality Management from Cornell University.

His first job in the industry was F&B / Events coordinator at San Remo Ballroom in Melbourne, Australia and prior to his current role, he has also served as Head of Groups & Events at DoubleTree by Hilton Dubai Business Bay, which all gave him important international experience. What he loves most about his current role is that it is vibrant, dynamic and that it provides the opportunity to analyze market trends and create packages to cater to different customer segments. His current workday consists mainly of organising a 4-7 day event schedule with the help of his team who he meets with daily to coach, overcome obstacles and provide constructive feedback on the previous day’s activities. As the Head of Events a large portion of his time is also spent on analysing business and market trends for the next 12 months and setting the strategy to drive revenue for the company. Lasitha’s long term aspiration is to becomeGeneral Manager of Events within the next 5 years.

He agrees that Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is a great place to work and that it's an industry with great potential. The country’s diverse attractions, heritage, culture, wildlife, water sports and scenic beauty is unparalleled and he thinks with better regulations and improved standards, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry would be unstoppable.

Lasitha sees great potential for Sri Lanka in the area of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) Tourism. He believes Sri Lanka should compete head to head with MICE markets such as Indian (Delhi, Mumbai, Bengalaru, ets) and have a strategy in place to compete with destinations such as Dubai. “Sri Lanka should focus on creating high end MICE packages that include wildlife, wellness, scenic beauty, etc to target cosmopolitan cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Tokyo as these cities are not able to offer what Sri Lanka can offer.”

Mustafa Adamaly is the Marketing Manager for Teardrop Hotels. He joined the industry due to his love for travel and to make travellers from all over the world fall in love with Sri Lanka. He is passionate about wildlife and environmental conservation as well as finding the right balance between luxury travel and leaving a positive impact on the environment.

Niranga Gunaratna has been the Director of Communications for Shangri-La Colombo and Shangri-La Hambantota for over four years. Her role includes formulating marketing and communications strategy in line with a fast evolving consumer landscape, and crafting new-age campaigns for local and international markets. Her personal passions include reading, an interest that carries to the workplace for effective storytelling as a crucial part of content creation for digital marketing.

Rashmal is a Senior Sales Executive at Jetwing Hotels Ltd. He is passionate about the tourism industry in Sri Lanka as it gives him an opportunity to share his love for Sri Lanka, it's uniqueness and rich cultural values with others. He strongly believes in the long term benefits of conservation and the importance of embracing sustainability not only in business but in day to day life as well.

Through the Alliance's emerging leaders program he hopes to enhance his knowledge and contribute towards the development of Sri Lanka's tourism industry.

Sajith has experience developing strong management teams that ensure service excellence, financial success, associate engagement, and owner satisfaction. He is an operational leader that is personally involved with sales and marketing strategies, and revenue optimization.

Vimukthi is currently the Group Human Resources Manager at Teardrop Hotels and his 5 year goal is to be VP in Human Resources. He stepped into tourism because he loves meeting new people from different cultures and he likes the fun and challenging environment of the tourism industry.

Growing up, his passions were travelling, cooking and cricket and at school his favourite subjects were Science and History. However he chose to do his A/L studies in the Commerce stream and later completed his MSc in Strategic Management and Professional Qualification in Human Resource Management (PQHRM) from Chartered Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka (CIPM). These professional qualifications enabled him to step into Human Resources as a speciality within the tourism industry. He has served as the Human Resources Manager and Safety Manager over the course of his tourism career so far.

In speaking about Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, Vimukthi has this to say “Sri Lanka is a great tourist destination due to various reasons like culture, diversity of attractions and the innate hospitality of Sri Lankan people. I think the highlight of our local tourism industry is our people. Tourism in Sri Lanka has a lot of potential as there are so many untouched areas still, that will enhance our position on the global platform, if marketed properly. I feel we let ourselves down in how we market our country as well as in basic tourism infrastructure, like public transport.”

What motivates Vimukthi each day are all the different elements that make Human Resources challenging and rewarding. He loved the opportunity to help others achieve their career milestones as well as the chance to work with people from different generations. His passion for people as well as new challenges, will no doubt serve him well on his tourism career and we wish Vimukthi the best of luck in achieving his career aspirations.