Abstract:
Skilled labour plays an essential role in the service industry. The hotel industry, as a
labour-incentive industry skilled manpower is vital, to alive the sector. There, is a lack
of study on skilled labour migration in the hotel industry relating to the Sri Lankan
context. Hence, the research involved studying skilled labour migration in the Sri
Lankan hotel industry. The study is driven by three objectives; first to identify the
factors that affected skilled labour migration in the hotel industry; second, to identify
the issues and challenges faced by the hotel sector due to skilled labour migration; and
finally, to identify the appropriate strategies to decrease skilled labour migration in the
hotel industry. Data were collected from 10 skilled migrants in the hotel industry and 5
HR-related persons in 5-star hotels using face-to-face and telephone semi-structured
interviews. Among non-probability sampling methods, snowball, convenient, and
purposive sampling were used as sampling techniques. The findings of the first
objective revealed the industry-related factors, employee-related factors, beneficial
factors, social and personal factors, and finally instability of the local hotel industry
from a two-way approach. As findings of the second objective, increased organizational
cost, deterioration of reputation and brand value, HR issues, marketing issues, and
managerial issues and challenges were identified. As per the third objective, appropriate
strategies were identified under the dimensions of skilled labour retention, manpower
building, and government plans, policies, and programs in order to address the issue of
skilled labour migration in the hotel industry. As the core of the study, the importance
of keeping a skilled workforce is highlighted while introducing the facts that have been
revealed apart from the objectives. Finally, emphasizes the continuous focus and
stakeholder collaboration in the case of promoting Sri Lanka as a tourist destination.
