Sunday Times 2
How Germany helped Lanka’s tourism industry
View(s):I refer to the excellent article written by our former Ambassador to Germany Mr.S.B Atugoda (Sunday Times feb.14) on Sri Lanka – German relations. He may not have had enough space to highlight the contribution Federal Republic of Germany or FRG (West Germany) made to the Sri Lanka’s Hotel industry which employs hundreds of thousands Sri Lankans.
The financial support extended by Germany and Canada to the then newly established Ceylon Hotel School – revitalised by the Jayewardene government — became the cornerstone of the tourism master plan. The school as successful as it was speaks volumes about the products serving as outstanding employees in the hospitality industry.
West Germany government under its overseas assistance programme provided not only equipment but also the principal — Rheinhold Sterner – and some lecturers. Besides, successful final year students were sent to West Germany on well-funded scholarships for them to become Hotel School lecturers. Work visas were offered to other successful students to work in West Germany. Personally, as a Hotel School student, I have benefited by attending German language classes at the Goethe Institute in Colombo .I was fortunate to be one of the students to be trained in Germany with an International hotel chain. Sadly due to some bureaucratic bungling, the Ceylon Hotel School at present is not the same institution it was. It does not produce the same calibre of students as in the past but boxing along just as another educational institution to please the politicians in power.
Ranjith Samaranayake
Mount Lavinia
(Former Student Representative to the Board of Management of the Ceylon Hotel School – 1970 Batch)