Tourism Alliance announces winners of Transformational Travel Designer Scholarship
View(s):The Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance, together with the US based Transformational Travel Council, on Thursday announced the winners of the scholarship for the ‘Transformational Travel Designer Programme’.
Andrea Goonesekera
Dilsiri Welikala
Chandika Jayaratne
Due to the overwhelming response received, the Tourism Alliance has decided to award not one but three scholarships to Andrea Goonesekera – The Fabulous Getaway, Dilsiri Welikala – Kitesurfing Lanka and Chandika Jayaratne – Vayu Mannar. Each scholarship is valued at $2000.
“The Tourism Alliance has taken time to think about how best we can support the SME sector. We understand the importance of building the knowledge and experience required to deliver quality visitor experiences throughout Sri Lanka. This is why we partnered with the Transformation Travel Council to provide this great opportunity to the SME sector. We hope the three participants will be able to take away skills, tools, and connections to bring Transformational Travel to the forefront of Sri Lanka’s tourism structure,” said Malik Fernando, Co-Chair, Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance, in a media release.
Sharing her views on why she applied for the Transformational Travel Designer Programme, Ms. Goonesekera highlighted that transformational travel has really been gaining traction over the last decade and her team at The Fabulous Getaway have actively been seeking to increase their understanding on curating meaningful transformational experiences that really resonate with the modern day travellers. She hopes that this programme will give her the opportunity to drive change, inspire and guide her team to bring transformational travel to the forefront here in Sri Lanka.
Mr. Welikala is the Co-Founder and owner of Kitesurfing Lanka, one of the first kiting companies in Sri Lanka. With no background in tourism, he relied on his ability to listen to consumers and observe what others were doing to create immersive, unique, and amazing experiences. He is focussed on building a holistic ecosystem through tourism that would benefit the whole community.
Mr. Jayaratne is part of the team at Vayu Mannar and hopes to gain more insights into the practical aspects of transformational travel. He hopes this programme will really help him get a better understanding on how to enhance their product offering while also helping local communities.