Episode 262 - Thushni de Silva, Magical Isle Holidays & Women in Travel Collective

Jul 28

Thushni de Silva, Director at Magical Isle Holidays, joins Christine for this week’s soulful conversation as a guest in our Trailblazer Series, produced in collaboration with Strictly Jane Austen Tours.

Words of Wisdom

I feel like we can walk through a space, but when you get that kind of opening, you kind of sink into that space and become one with it for a minute. And I think that those are the things that stay with you and really make lasting experiences.
– THUSHNI DE SILVA

Thushni de Silva is a Sri Lankan travel professional with a deep appreciation for culture, heritage, and meaningful connections. With a passion for crafting authentic travel experiences, she is dedicated to showcasing the beauty, diversity, and stories that make Sri Lanka so special. Known for her thoughtful approach and genuine enthusiasm for people and places, Thushni believes that travel is not simply about visiting destinations, but about creating lasting memories and fostering a deeper understanding of the world around us. Through her work, she continues to inspire travellers to experience Sri Lanka with curiosity, respect, and wonder.

Thushni de Silva shares that she was “never supposed to be in travel,” with a graphic design degree a freelance photography career already underway, and When her brother made a persuasive case that her lifelong knowledge of Sri Lanka might translate into something she hadn't considered, she gave working with Magical Isle Tours a try, and it has meant working in the travel space for Thushni ever since.

Thushni was also a development team member for the Pico Trail, Sri Lanka's first long-distance hiking trail, and founding director of the Pico Trail Organization, the destination management company established to steward it. Thushni is most comfortable traveling, building relationships with farmers, Kurdish families, and local craftspeople alongside her network of industry colleagues, and who carries all of that depth into her work.

In 2022, alongside Irstel Jansen, Andrea Gunasekara, and Dee Gibson, she co-founded the Women in Travel Collective: a community-driven platform building visibility, opportunity, and sisterhood for women across Sri Lanka's tourism industry. She also serves as a trainer in the Collective's flagship Female Guide Training Program.

“Tourism is less of a vocation, and more of a passion, and I am always grateful to be here … and to explore.”

Travel as a Force for Good, No Matter the Season

Thushni describes the momentum of her time in the industry and her increasing realization of how much she doesn't know. Working across Sri Lanka's diverse regions has taught her that the country cannot be understood through blanket assumptions. Weather, for instance, is far more than recognizing and planning for monsoons, since there are so many different patterns to get to know in each area of the country, even though it’s small in area. "If every little pocket has such a different kind of understanding of weather," Thushni says, "I think if we are to be experts, we should really spend time on getting to know those small weather patterns." Seasonal tourism — the idea that the country shuts down between peak windows — collapses under that level of local knowledge, and with it breaks down the over-concentration of tourism dollars that would normally funnel into one or two destinations or moments throughout the year. “It’s about how to make things work so that tourism spreads all over the country…and still give clients a great experience.”

The same principle extends to how tourism touches communities. Thushni describes the travel industry's relationship with Sri Lankan craftspeople as something that works best when it steps into their day rather than pulling them out of it. This yes-and approach offers income and a form of recognition, rather than a wholesale pivot or over-reliance on tourism. "Tourism has such a wonderful power to really help so many other industries," she reflects. "Like we work with craftspeople to whom it's just a reminder that their daily struggle is not the be all and end all, that someone from the outside is coming just to appreciate what you do."

That kind of travel does not happen by accident. It requires operators who have done the slower, less glamorous work of building trust across communities, and who understand that the most meaningful experiences cannot be packaged from the outside, but are always grown from within.

Visibility and Pathways: The Female Guide Training Program

Thushni has spent years arriving to industry events and counting those present. At tour operator AGMs, for example: “I sometimes watch the door. And I kid you not, on a good day, it’s about 300 men and about 12 women.” Inside travel companies: a very different picture. Women are present throughout the industry — in hotels, in sales, in operations — but the further up the structure you look, and the further out into the field, the more they disappear.

There is room to grow the journey of professional women in the industry reaching the higher tiers. “I think visibility is very important because for a lot of people, if you don't visibly see that this position for this woman is possible, they don't think it's possible for themselves.”

The Women in Travel Collective's Female Guide Training Program is a direct response to that gap. Developed in partnership with the Pico Trail Organization, it trains women from Tamil communities in the Central Highlands to become trail guides on the Pico Trail — work that had, until recently, been understood as exclusively male territory.

One story from the Hatton cohort has stayed with Thushni. A trainee shared that as a young girl, she had wanted to be a guide. When she told her mother, the response was simple and devastating: "What? Guiding isn't for women. Have you seen any female guides? You're going to be a teacher." So she became a teacher. But when two women joined the guiding team in her area, something shifted. The possibility, suddenly visible, became real. She joined the next training cohort, absorbed everything, and is now a working professional guide on the Pico Trail — already having led groups of travel agents through the trail she grew up walking.

Thushni is precise about what local female guides offer that even highly experienced travel designers cannot replicate. "And women have a way of including everyone. They welcome men, women, children, and they all feel safe, and they also make local connections a lot better as well."

Women in Travel Collective: Women Supporting Women

The Women in Travel Collective runs gatherings where women from across the industry come together, hear from a speaker, and sit at tables with people they don't yet know. Thushni's advice to anyone arriving for the first time is the same: "It's okay if you come alone. Just sit at a table, and every time you come, sit at a different table with different people — and you end up making friends."

What she has watched happen over the Collective's time in operation women who believed their struggles were theirs alone arrive to discover they are shared, and in that discovery, find solutions together. They leave with the courage to change their career paths, try new things, and make decisions they had been too isolated to reach before. "I think that's amazing," she says. "That is such a powerful thing to be able to witness."

When Christine asks what legacy the Women in Travel Collective might leave for women entering Sri Lanka's tourism industry in the next five, ten, or twenty years, Thushni's answer centers on belonging. She wants women to feel that whatever skills and strengths they carry, there is space for them in this industry. That, she says, is the legacy she hopes ripples outward — not just inside travel and tourism, but beyond it.

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Soul of Travel Episode 262 At a Glance

In this conversation, Christine and Thushni discuss:

· The power that travel has as a force for good and balancing positive and negative impact

· The importance of visibility and creating pathways for women in tourism in Sri Lanka, including the Female Guide Training Program offered by Women in Travel Collective

· Building a community in which women support women and creating generational pathways

Join Christine and Thushni de Silva now for this soulful conversation.

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Related UN Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goal #5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

Susta inable Development Goal #8: Promote sustained, inclusive an d sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

S ustainable Development Goal #10 : Reduce inequality within and a mong countries.

Sustainable D evelopment Goal #13 : Take urgent action to combat c limate c hange and its impacts.

Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode

Learn more about Magical Isle Holidays at https://m agicalisleholidays.com/.

Learn more about Women in Travel Collective at https://www.womenintravelcollective.org/.

Connect with Thushni: Instagram / Facebook / LinkedIn

Special thanks to Stri ctly Jane Austen Tours for your partnership in the production of our Trailblazer Series!

About the Soul Of Travel Podcast

Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of people making a positive impact in the tourism industry. In each episode, you’ll hear the stories of women who are industry professionals, seasoned travelers, and community leaders. Our expert guests represent social impact organizations, adventure-based community organizations, travel photography and videography, and entrepreneurs who know that travel is an opportunity for personal awareness and a vehicle for global change.

Join us to become a more educated and intentional traveler as you learn about new destinations, sustainable and regenerative travel, and community-based tourism. Industry professionals and those curious about a career in travel will also find value and purpose in our conversations.

We are thought leaders, action-takers, and heart-centered change-makers who inspire and create community. Join host Christine Winebrenner Irick for these soulful conversations with our global community of travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe.

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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor). GUEST NAME (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing, production, and content writing by Carly Oduardo.