Women-run hotel breaks down barriers

(AFP) Time for the daily staff meeting at Sri Lanka’s Hotel Amba Yaalu where woman manager Jeewanthi Adhikari jokes: “This won’t look very serious, there are only girls around the table.”

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The hotel, on the shores of Lake Kandalama in the green hills of central Sri Lanka, opened in January with a unique selling point – its staff are exclusively women.

It is a first in the country, designed to promote women in a tourism sector where men hold up to 90 percent of hotel jobs.

“The chairman wanted to start a new hotel with a new concept,” said Adhikari.

She explained how the idea sprouted from twin blows that hammered the island’s tourism industry – first Covid-19, then the 2022 financial crisis and subsequent political unrest that toppled the president.

“It has been really a bad time,” the 42-year-old said, noting that when there were employment vacancies, only men got the job. “We wanted to give opportunity and attract more women.”

Owner Chandra Wickramasinghe, president of the Nalin Jayasundera Collection group which runs showcase what women can do if given the chance.

“Unfortunately, in Sri Lanka in the hotels, there is no gender equality,” he said.

The blame rests on a mix of factors – lack of training, a culture where women are seen first and foremost as mothers, and very low wages which lead to the perception that women may as well stay at home.