The South Asian Digital Travel Conversation is a digital conversation organized by the South Asian Travel Awards to discuss in-depth, to create awareness and to voice the challenges that are being faced in the Travel Trade & Hospitality Industry of the South Asian region.
The conversation has been purposefully designed as a series, spread across multiple episodes of 60 minutes each, with special guests from the South Asian region’s Travel Trade & Hospitality Industry. Each episode will highlight a specific topic, and industry professionals will be sharing their voice with regional factual data.
The conversation will be guided by a moderator who will ask questions based on the topic of the day, and the guests will share their views, experiences, opinions and hindrances. The show will be viewed live on Facebook (https://web.facebook.com/SATAawards). Different episodes will be presented with diverse industry stakeholders and moderators.
Episode Twelve will be hosted by the VP of South Asian Travel Awards (SATA) Mr Suraj Khan. The topic of episode 12 is; Wellness Tourism
Guests for Episode 12 are:
Ushan Edirisinghe - Senior Marketing Manager, Siddhalepa Ayurveda Health Resort
Having work experience at Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (GVT) for 17 years represented Sri Lanka at International Travel forums and conventions, started career at Siddhalepa Ayurveda in 2012. Played a leading role in organizing Siddhalepa Ayurveda International Symposium, the first of its kind Ayurveda Symposium held in Sri Lanka with the participation of International speakers and media in 2019. Has participated many key international Wellness, Medical and Health travel forums. Nature lover and carrying out healthy cooking sessions in countries such as Japan, Germany, Austria , China, Lithuania and in Poland.
Shreya Krishnan- IBNII Marketing Advisor
At a professional level, Shreya is SVP Marketing and Communications at Anviti Insurance Brokers, CSR specialist and a Corporate Grooming Consultant. She’s on the advisory boards of four organizations and four NGO’s. That’s just one facet of who she is. This former Corporate Diva and Mrs India Universe 2017 also dabbles in Activism, Dance, Theatre, Poetry, Blogging, Modelling, Acting. She considers herself an Earth Warrior and is an Event Anchor and Trainer. She recently co-authored a book titled, ‘Words Matter, the language that girls need to speak’ The book is a compilation of forty words that help the reader to choose their vocabulary in a way that allows them to redefine how human beings are treated.
Abdulla Shareef - Head of Spa Operation, Araamu Spa
Working as the current Head of Spa Operations of Villa Hotel and resorts, one of the biggest companies in the Maldives tourism industry. Started career at Villa Shipping and Tours in 2000. Together the knowledge acquired and the hands on and valuable experience helped to grow both personally and boost the career facilitating to slowly move up the ladder leading to the opportunity to join the Wellness and Spa Operations of Villa as an Assistant Manager of Operations. After spending nearly, a decade working in Spa Operations, He has learned how important of an sector it is for this industry is and what truly drives this portion of the industry. Today, as the Head of Spa Operations, his ultimate goal is to connect with his clients at a deeper level and provide the best services available in the region.
Marisol Cerniaz - Director of Spa, Sun Siyam
A well rounded spa and wellness director with 14 years of experience in the spa industry. with 5 pre openings spa experienced. Highly trained and specialized in different modalities and operation. managing wellness, fitness and outdoor recreational activities. certifies water shiatsu practitioner and yoga instructor. Experience in 4-star and 5-star resort with LHW, QA and LRA background.
Dr Tom Shannon - Consultant Surgeon and Founder Iaso Medispa, Heritance Aarah
Consultant surgeon in Perth, Australia, with over 20 years of experience as a cancer surgeon. Over a decade ago, he began looking at a more holistic view to cancer care, developing pre and post-operative programs to improve heath and prevent illness. Using bespoke software, they were able predict future disease risk and use this to motivate people to make the changes they needed. The concept of Iaso Medispa at Heritance Aarah is to use time away from home and work commitments to do something for the person.