Sri Lanka’s premier hospitality leadership forum to convene 200+ senior industry leaders at Cinnamon Grand Colombo
The Institute of Hospitality (IOH) Sri Lanka Chapter has confirmed the speaker lineup for the International Hospitality Leaders’ Conference (IHLC) 2026, a leadership forum designed to produce a definitive, industry-wide roadmap for 2030.
Backed by IOH UK’s global network and more than 80 years of international standing, the conference will take place on Tuesday, 29 September at Cinnamon Grand Colombo, bringing together over 200 senior hospitality leaders, owners, developers, and policymakers.
The conference brings together an international faculty with expertise spanning hospitality leadership, destination development, tourism strategy, workforce transformation, technology and artificial intelligence, commercial performance, consumer trends and sustainable tourism. Among the confirmed international speakers are Sherin Francis, Principal Secretary for Tourism at the Seychelles’ Department of Tourism; Sudeep Jain, Managing Director for South West Asia at IHG Hotels & Resorts; Giampaolo Ottazzi, Interim Managing Director and General Manager of Raffles Singapore; Herman Konings, Trend Analyst and Change Psychologist at Pocket Marketing/nXt in Belgium; Dr. Harsha Subasinghe, President and CEO of CodeGen Group of Companies and Founder of Vega Innovations in Sri Lanka; Faisal Murtaza, hospitality revenue management expert and more.
“As IHLC 2026 comes together, the response from our speaker community has reinforced what we set out to do, bring the right people into the same room to have the honest conversations our industry needs. With voices like these joining us from across the region and beyond, I’m confident this conference will deliver more than dialogue; it will deliver direction for where Sri Lankan hospitality goes from here,” said Ramesh Dassanayake, Chairman of Institute of Hospitality – Sri Lanka Chapter.
Convened under the global banner of the Institute of Hospitality, IHLC 2026 stands as the only event of its kind in Sri Lanka, placing the nation’s hospitality sector on the world stage. The forum is built to produce commitments rather than conversations and will culminate in the Vision 2030 Whitepaper, the sector’s first collective industry roadmap for the years ahead.
The programme is structured around six strategic pillars: future-ready leadership and governance; commercial strategy and business performance; innovation and digital transformation; sustainability and responsible tourism; talent development and workforce readiness; and destination competitiveness and global positioning.
Registration is open at LKR 25,000 per delegate, with a full day of sessions, networking, and hospitality experiences included. Seats are limited, and early registration is encouraged given the scale of interest the conference has drawn since its announcement.
For registrations, visit https://vision2030.ihsrilanka.com/ or contact Sugath on +94 77 599 1575.
