Mr Udaya Nanayakkara
Chairman
Sri Lanka Tourist Board
Mr Udaya Nanayakkara is the quintessential travel and tourism specialist. It is, in a manner of speaking, in his genes. His father, the late Mr Charles Nanayakkara, is to this day acknowledged as the patriarch of tourism in Sri Lanka, a visionary industry pioneer who long ago judged how important tourism was going to be for this little island nation.
As the current Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, Mr Udaya Nanayakkara has set himself and the Board some exceptional goals. For starters, he is transforming the country's tourism offer to make it the number one foreign income generator by 2010.
The strategy is to attract the traveller looking for a unique experience from traditional markets such as the United Kingdom, Europe and India and emerging markets notably China, Australia, Japan , Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. It is not a numbers game. It is about a quality destination attracting high spending tourists which will result in higher yields per visitor to our industry, Mr Nanayakkara rationalises.
His own vision is to take Sri Lanka's tourism industry on a path of high, sustainable growth that will also lead to significant employment generation, both directly and indirectly.
Mr Nanayakkara brings to his mission the spirit and energy of an entrepreneur. Ever since he graduated from the island's prestigious St. Thomas's College and Bournmouth College in the United Kingdom where he obtained the National Diploma in Business Management, Mr Nanayakkara dropped anchor in the world of business.
As Chairman of DUT Holdings Ltd., an investment vehicle with significant shareholdings in publicly quoted and private companies in Sri Lanka, a position he held before accepting the Tourist Board challenge, Mr Nanayakkara earned the respect of his peers as a savvy businessmen.
Recognition of his entrepreneurial instincts and organisational abilities has come thick and fast. He has distinguished himself as a member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and National Chamber of Commerce. He was also a founder President of the IATA Agents Association of Sri Lanka, Past President of the Travel Agents Association of Sri Lanka, Past President of Sri Lanka Association of Airline Representatives and the current Chairman of the United Federation of Travel Agents Association [UFTAA].
Given his passionate involvement in travel and tourism. Mr Nanayakkara has predictably been called upon to share his experience as a key member of several tourism-related bodies. These include:
• The Tourism Think Tank of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board responsible for making recommendations on all aspects of the tourism industry.
• The South Asia Tourism Secretariat based in Colombo.
• The Advisory Committee on Aviation of the Ministry of Aviation.
• The Tourism Council of the South Asian Association [SARRC] for Regional Co-operation charged with the task of developing South Asia as a travel destination and promoting Inter and Intra Regional tourism and aviation.
• The Market Development Programme in Aviation designed to regulate airfares and marketing policies of all airlines operating and represented in Sri Lanka, to regulate Travel Agency operations and marketing policies in order to protect the consumer.
• The Ministry of Policy Planning's Task Force on Tourism [2002-2004] responsible for the development of Tourism Policy and Reforms.
• The Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, a quasi-government body organising and promoting Meetings Incentives Conferences & Exhibitions [MICE] Tourism. A member since 1996 to date.
Mr Nanayakkara is also the Honorary Consul in Sri Lanka for Serbia and Montenegro and the Vice Chairman of the Honorary Consuls Association of Sri Lanka
Mr Seenivasagam Kalaiselvam
Director General
sri lanka Tourist Borad
Mr Seenivasagam Kalaiselvam is an accountant turned administrator as if to the manner born. In December 2002, he was named Director General and has since been responsible for the overall supervision of the Sri Lanka Tourism Board.
Mr Kalaiselvam's journey to tourism's top administrative office began a full 24 years ago. Armed with a degree in accountancy from the University of Jaffna, he obtained his Licentiate Certificate from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka in 1986.
Early on, Mr Kalaiselvam was quickly attracted to the prospect of a career in the tourism industry. It came as no surprise when Selvam, as he is known affectionately to his colleagues and close friends, tiptoed into tourism as a Research Assistant for the International Development Research Centre, Canada in January 1980. His assignment was to collect data from all tourism establishments in Sri Lanka and assist economists to prepare an input-output table to calculate tourism linkage effects then as now a critical tool in tourism development planning.
In May 1981,Mr Kalaiselvam joined the Sri Lanka Tourist Board as a Market Intelligence Officer. Here his brief was to collect and collate tourism related market intelligence and publish a monthly report intended for use by the travel industry. This was a five-year stint, a necessary grounding in the complex world of tourism investment, visitor flows, yields and emerging trends.
In quick succession, Mr Kalaiselvam moved to manage a national resort complex in Kalkudah, in the country's North East, took charge as Assistant Director Marketing driving the Tourist Board's promotional program in the North American and Australian markets and was Accountant for the Tourism Master Plan project from January to December 1991.
Mr Kalaiselvam's next move was a case of logical progression. He was named the Tourist Board's Assistant Director Plan Implementation charged with the responsibility for coordinating with line ministries to implement the recommendations of the Tourism Master Plan 1992-2001.
Mr Kaliselvam's professional background in accountancy found a niche when he became Acting Director of Finance of the Tourism Board in August 1993 and later Director Finance.
Ever willing to share his experience in and knowledge of an industry that had become his passion, Mr Kalaiselvam devoted three years from 1994 to 1997 as Acting Senior Lecturer on Tourism at the Ceylon Hotel School and School of Tourism and held the post of Director of Planning and Development from June 1995 to December 2002.
As one of Sri Lanka's dedicated tourism executives, Mr Kalaiselvam has over the years been an active and high profile participant in scores of travel related seminars, workshops, tourism lectures, travel exhibitions and fairs in many countries including the United States, Thailand, Korea, India, Japan, Egypt, Italy and Nepal.
Scholarship being his strong suit, Mr Kalaiselvam has also earned plaudits for several reports he authored between 1985 to 1994 and which were published, notably the study on The Economic Impact of Tourism in Sri Lanka funded by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific [ESCAP].
Today as Director General of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board, Mr Kalaiselvam brings to his job a wealth of experience and boundless energy at a time Sri Lanka's tourism offer and promise moves into high gear. Striking a modest note Mr Kalaiselvam notes: I am privileged to be part of all the exciting new developments in tourism in this country. Tourism's potential contribution to the economy and people of Sri Lanka is enormous. To be part of what is happening is enormously rewarding.