Sri Lanka Tourism to launch global advertising campaign in September
Sri Lanka Tourism is to launch the proposed global advertising campaign in September this year with Cabinet approval set to be obtained this week, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) sources have told the local media.
The campaign, which has been in the pipeline for five to seven years under two governments, has been desperately awaited by the industry, particularly following the Easter Sunday attacks and more recently the coronavirus outbreak, The Sunday Morning Business has reported.
Scheduled to be conducted for a period of five years, the campaign is aimed at bringing in six million tourists by 2025, sources told The Sunday Morning Business.
While the campaign has received the approval of the Treasury, the total cost of it is yet to be revealed, the report states.
SLTDA Public Relations Director Madhubani Perera when contacted for further information, has said the procurement of agencies to conduct the campaign will commence soon and is expected to be completed within the next three to four months, despite any delays caused by the general election in April.
“We are going to call tenders very soon. All the necessary work for procurement has already been completed,” Perera has noted.
Bids will be called simultaneously for one Sri Lankan creative agency and for eight foreign market-specific companies to conduct destination representation campaigns.
According to the report, in planning this campaign, the SLTDA has analysed tourism data from the past five years and segregated the campaign into three categories: Mature Markets, Eastern and Middle Eastern Markets, and New Markets.
The Mature Markets category includes all the top tourism-generating markets of Sri Lanka such as Germany, the UK, France, India, and China.
The campaign is expected to increase the arrivals from these countries by 25%.
The Eastern and Middle Eastern Markets category includes countries such as Australia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and other countries in the region, while the New Markets category includes the US, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, and Spain.
Accordingly, the SLTDA will appoint destination representation agencies for the mature and Eastern and Middle Eastern markets and these agencies will conduct digital tourism marketing activities and public relations (PR) campaigns in the Eastern and Middle Eastern markets while in the mature markets, in addition to this, they will also conduct Above the Line (ATL) and Below the Line (BTL) marketing campaigns.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is on a continuous growth path despite external impacts like the coronavirus, etc. Sri Lanka continues to be listed as a must visit destination by many globally renowned travel publications resulting in many international brand names showing interest in entering the Sri Lankan market. All this has resulted in the expansion of business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s tourism industry. The proposed global campaign would also further boost the country’s tourism industry.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20200312/Z_1 |