Sri Lanka tourism authorities to float global tender for a two to three year tourism campaign
Tourism authorities in Sri Lanka are reportedly preparing to float a global tender for a two to three year tourism campaign commencing this September.
According to the country’s tourism authorities the ongoing as well as this proposed campaign worth a billion rupees is aimed at helping Sri Lanka recover from the Easter Sunday attacks.
“Two months from now, we are planning to float a global tender for the medium to long-term destination campaign,” Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau (SLTPB) Chairman Kishu Gomes has been quoted as saying.
“Before the terror attack, we were working on it.”
The tendering process is expected to take six months, which was not fast enough to help the country recover from the Easter Sunday bombings, Gomes has explained.
According to reports, the SLTPB is about to spend Rs. 416 million on a public relations campaign and Rs. 500 million on a short-term marketing campaign.
“These will help us to quickly change the sentiments and start marketing our tourism products and activities,” Gomes has stated.
Sri Lanka’s Cabinet of Ministers had approved the SLTPB board’s recommendation that the nearly Rs. 1 billion in business for the shorter campaigns be given to JWT, a private advertising agency.
“The cabinet had approved to forego the tender process due to the urgent need to come out with a campaign immediately,” Gomes has added.
OSL take:
The government of Sri Lanka along with the countries tourism authorities has taken many steps for the aggressive promotion of the island as a tourist destination. Sri Lanka continues to maintain the top slot in the list of destinations for the year 2019 in several leading global travel publications. Tourist arrivals to the country are already on the increase following the slump in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks. Foreign investments have also returned to the country’s tourism industry with new development projects in the offing. All these are indicative of the expanding business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism sector. The proposed promotional campaign also provides a business/investment opportunity for foreign advertising and PR firms to explore.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/22072019/Z_1 |