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Sri Lanka becomes first South Asian country to be added in Mastercard’s Priceless Cities programme

Sri Lanka becomes first South Asian country to be added in Mastercard’s Priceless Cities programme

Leading global payments and technology services provider, Mastercard, has reportedly bestowed Sri Lanka the honour of becoming the first market in South Asia to be added to its prestigious Priceless Cities programme.
Priceless Cities is a programme exclusively available to Mastercard cardholders and provides customers access to unique unforgettable experiences to cardholders and their families, local media reports state.
The Priceless Cities programme was first launched in New York City in 2011, and the privilege has only been shared with just over 40 cities globally, including London, Singapore, Melbourne, Sao Paulo, Toronto, Dubai and others.
Sri Lanka is the latest addition to this prestigious list, and is the first and only South Asian destination on the list.
Mastercard Vice President and Head of Marketing and Communications, South Asia Mansi Narasimhan has told the local media, “Priceless Cities is a global platform. So what it does is it opens up Sri Lanka as a destination to our cardholders everywhere in the world. A lot of people don’t know about Sri Lanka and what it offers. This will generate a lot on interest in Sri Lanka as a destination and showcase the variety available here. Overtime that will start physically driving traffic into the country. Initially we expect it will probably come from Asia like India, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. This is just the start, and as we go along we hope to partner with the Tourism Board and our service partners and keep creating more and more experiences. It’s a win-win partnership overall. This is a commitment we are making that we will continue to invest in and continue to generate priceless experiences in Sri Lanka.”
The criteria for Priceless Cities are experiences that are truly exclusive which money can’t buy and are custom created for Mastercard cardholders.
“So that’s the criteria for Priceless experiences, and for a city to qualify you need to have minimum thresholds, you can’t have just one great experience, and it has to be around multiple passion points. In Sri Lanka, we have a couple around tea and food, wild life and photography and one around adventure. All of those have an element which is not available in the market,” Narasimhan has told Daily FT.
The Priceless Cities programme is available exclusively to Mastercard Cardholders around the world, and provides access to unique and unforgettable experiences across over 40 iconic cities.

OSL take:

The inclusion of Sri Lanka as the first South Asian country in Mastercard’s Priceless Cities Programme is yet another indication of the strength and growth of the country. Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian Ocean, the ease of doing business environment in the country and the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country have made it an attractive business destination in the South Asian region. Foreign businesses/investors could therefore confidently explore business opportunities in Sri Lanka.

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Article Code : VBS/AT/20200131/Z_4

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