Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau to target future promotions in India to increase Indian tourists to the country
The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau has stated that it hoped to target future promotions in three states in neighbouring India.
The ‘Island Escapes’ campaign, offering 3-4 night budget tour packages, ran from September to November 2018, focusing on Middle East, China, India, and Sri Lankans living abroad.
The local media has reported that the Bureau was able to monitor holiday booking patterns of Indians residing in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu during the campaign.
Around 65 percent of bookings came from India, an official from the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau has been quoted as saying.
In total, the campaign had brought in around 10,000 bookings.
The campaign may have brought in around Rs. 1.3 billion in foreign exchange for Sri Lanka.
He said the state would decide whether to continue the off-season campaign in April and September 2019.
OSL take:
Most of the tourists arriving in Sri Lanka are from India and given the close proximity of the countries and strong bilateral relations, promoting Sri Lanka tourism in the Indian market seems a practical and productive move. Given the many Indian investments in Sri Lanka’s tourism sector, promoting Sri Lanka tourism in India is bound to be fruitful. This would provide the opportunity for Indian companies engaged in the leisure and hospitality sectors to explore investment opportunities in Sri Lanka given the continuous growth recorded by the country’s tourism industry.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/13022019/Z_3 |