Sri Lanka Tourism launches Rs. 200m UK winter season marketing push

• 6 high profile travel journalists to savour ‘One Island – ThousandTreasures’
• UK arrivals grow by +9.8% to be No. 1 revenue earner for 2015
• Multi-city tourism road show with private sector
• Country profiling at ‘Over 50 Consumer Travel Fair’ in London
• One-to-one presentations to leading tour operators

The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) together with SriLankan Airlines hosted six travel journalists from Britain, Ireland and Scotland as part of a new Rs. 200 million winter marketing campaign in the United Kingdom.  

The journalists who represented leading British publications including Sunday Independent, Travel Extra, The Sun, Travel Trade Gazette, Selling Travel, Sunday Express , ABTA Magazine and the Herald will be taken on a tour of the island including destinations that highlight the country’s biodiversity, cultural heritage, Ayurvedic experiences, adventure tourism and sunny beaches in addition to highlighting Ceylon tea.

Included among the journalists’ stopovers are the costal belt, Kandy and Sri Lanka’s famed cultural triangle of Anuradhapura, Dambulla and Polonnaruwa – a city which features prominently in Disney Nature’s new film, Monkey Kingdom.

The United Kingdom is a major source of arrivals and revenue for the Sri Lankan tourisms sector with arrivals from the UK crossing 72,800 in the first half of 2015 and accounting for approximately 22.4% of tourism earnings according to SLTPB data.

Overall arrivals for 1H15 stood at 830,200 while total tourism earnings recorded 14.1% growth to cross $1 billion during the period according to statistics cited by SLTPB Chairman Rohantha Athukorala.  

Speaking to the group of journalists over tea, Athukorala claimed that Sri Lanka was targeting 190,000 arrivals in 2015 before promising the group “8 wonderful experiences in 8 wonderful days” in line with the standard Sri Lankan experience encountered by the average British, Irish or Scottish traveller in Sri Lanka.

“We are currently test marketing the concept in UK and if it comes through positively like in the US, we will create a media and travel agency hype at the launch which will benefit Sri Lanka Tourism,” he said.  

Meanwhile, SLTPB Marketing Head Chameera Peiris stated that following the winter media promotions campaign he would personally be visiting key tour operators in the UK to share information about new products in Sri Lanka and at the Over 50’s Travel Fair in July.