Director General

Mr. Seenivasagam Kalaiselvam

Mr. Seenivasagam Kalaiselvam was appointed Director General of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) in December 2002 and continued to hold the same position after it was converted into an Authority, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), in September 2007. He graduated from the University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka in 1980 with a degree in mathematics. Armed with many titles to his credit, Selvam obtained the Certificate in Tourism Marketing from the International Centre for Advanced Tourism Studies in Spain in March 1985. He also obtained the Licentiate Certificate from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka in September 1986. Further, he obtained a Post Graduate Certificate in Advanced Tourism Planning from the George Washington University, USA, in August 1989.

His journey into the top management position in tourism began about 30 years ago when he entered the tourism field as a Research Assistant to a major research project on the Impact of Tourism on the Economy Sri Lanka funded by the International Development Research Center (IDRC) of Canada. After the completion of this project, he was recruited to the Research & Statistics Division of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board as Market Intelligence Officer, in May 1981. After working in this position for five years, he moved into the Development Division of the Board to work as the Manager of the Passikudha National Holiday Resort in the Batticaloa District and from there he moved again to the Marketing Division of the Board as Assistant Director/ Marketing to handle the tourist promotional programmes in North America and Australia. In addition to this substantive position, he also acted as the Accountant to the Second Tourism Master Plan Project Team from January to December 1991. After the completion of the master plan project, he moved out of the Marketing Division and functioned as an Assistant Director in the Master Plan Implementation Unit from 1992 to 1993 by taking over the responsibility of coordinating project implementation with the line ministries

He moved up the ladder again in 1993 when he was appointed as the Acting Director of Finance of the Board because of his professional qualifications in accountancy. While functioning in this substantive post he was also appointed as a part-time Senior Lecturer in the Ceylon Hotel School and School of Tourism because of his wide educational qualifications and experience in different disciplines in tourism for a period of three years.

In June 1995, he moved up again when he was appointed as the Director of Planning and Development of the Board, a prestigious position held by many of his predecessors. His biggest breakthrough in his tourism carrier came when he was appointed Director General of Tourism in December 2002.

Selvam also has authored several reports on tourism, the most noteworthy being “The Economic Impact of Tourism in Sri Lanka” funded by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP); and the report on “Religious Tourism in Sri Lanka” for the UNWTO in 2009. He is a member of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, and Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association.

One of the most recent initiatives of Selvam is the Ramayana Project aimed at attracting the affluent Indian tourists to Sri Lanka. He has carried out extensive research on this subject and discovered nearly fifty sites in Sri Lanka associated with Rama-Sita legend which are now being used to promote religious tourism from India. Already, large numbers of such tourists have started visiting the country.