Sri Lanka Tourism to support global nation brand building with Bloomberg

Friday, 13 February 2015 00:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

From left: Kundalini Bajaj – Bloomberg, Sri Lanka Tourism Director Marketing Madhubani Perera, Parry Ravindran – Bloomberg, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Rohantha Athukorala, Mark Froude – Bloomberg and Sri Lanka Tourism Director Dushan Wickramasooriya Sri Lanka Tourism is on the process of firming up a two million dollar one-year campaign to pep up the Sri Lanka brand worth 61 billion dollars with the respected media channel Bloomberg, said Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau Chairman Rohantha Athukorala. Bloomberg covers over 40 countries and touches 300 million households globally with eight million digital links. Initially the arrangement will be with a six-month contract where the content will be 20% nation brand building material. "The will be on driving the brand values of Sri Lanka Tourism among the top end global decision makers. We want the world to know the ‘positive transformation’ taking place in the country in the area of exports, investments, sports and the people element which will have a trickle down impact to tourism industry in the future,” said Athukorala. He stated that the first six-month contract will include free thinking editorial content, TV advertising and documentary exposure on the current tourism products and creating awareness of new tourism products. This will support the 47 travel and trade fairs that the private sector will participate in all over the world and highlight news extracts for global travellers. The initiative will be supported by many activities linking tourism stakeholders, he said. “Sri Lanka needs a coherent above-the-line digital media campaign covering exports and FDI and not only tourism so that the whole country can benefit on value chain development and the synergy impacts will ultimately benefit the stakeholders of the tourism industry, which has potential to be 24% of GDP of a country. We from the Ministry of Tourism under the leadership of Minister Navin Dissanayake are extremely pleased to champion this task for Sri Lanka and the real benefit will be seen in the near future when the key initiatives planned by Sri Lanka Tourism actually unfold,” added Athukorala. ‘The export community, including the top IT and BPO industry, reaching one billion dollars, Sri Lanka becoming a sought-after apparel ethical sourcing destination and Ceylon Tea being termed the first works ethical tea producer by the Kyoto Protocol are key success stories that can be linked to the Sri Lanka tourism industry.” The 80% exposure on Bloomberg on Sri Lanka Tourism will be backed with focused activity like film marketing of tourism and with the key tourism and travel shows Sri Lanka participates in such as ITB, the 200-odd media and trade facilitation visits will together spruce up ‘Brand Sri Lanka,’ he noted. “We must attract top quality tourists in the 2.5 million tourists target. The next challenge is to set up a steering committee on nation brand building together with different stakeholders, which includes the Central Bank, said Athukorala. “The good news is that the new Central Bank Governor has been a regular specialist featured on Bloomberg, hence the work has already begun”. Bloomberg has met top economists and policymakers of the country in the last week. “On the tourism front, the Bloomberg campaign will be linked to current strategy agreed with the trade and will be supported on media that will visit Sri Lanka to feature the current tourism products and new products we intend creating awareness about whilst also building the brand values of Sri Lanka Tourism.” “The new direction is commendable and this best practice has worked for many for other countries,” said Parry Ravindranathan of Group Media Bloomberg.