New dimension to promote Sri Lanka as a destination

Sri Lanka Tourism collaborated with Cinnamon Hotels to encourage local and foreign photographers to highlight their talent and capture unique locations of Sri Lanka, to fascinate the world, by providing prize money to winners of the Cinnamon Photography Contest 2017. The Cinnamon Photography Contest, which was initiated in 2016 at the World Travel Market, (WTM) London, highlighted more than 3,000 images of Sri Lanka, photographed with excellent skill and patience. The Cinnamon Travel Photography & Videography Awards is a bi-annual competition, celebrating the best photography and Videography captured in Sri Lanka by an individual of any nationality and at any level of experience. The participants contested under several categories. 

The ceremony was held under the patronage of Minister of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs John Amaratunga, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Managing Director Sutheash Balasubramaniam, John Keels Group Vice President and Head of Brand Marketing Dileep Mudadeniya, along with distinguished officials from respective organisations. A large number of amateur and professionals in photographers were also present at this occasion.

The prize awards included grand prize of $ 5,000, category winners $ 3,500, videography winner $ 2,500. Contestants from all over the island represented six categories, including the Grand Award, which was the Sri Lanka Tourism Photographic Grand Award, won by Raveendra Siriwardene. The other categories included the Sri Lanka Tourism Landscape Cityscapes photography award, won by Chamika Janith Perera, Sri Lanka Tourism Interior Photography award, won by Kaveen Jayawardene, Sri Lanka Tourism Nature, Wildlife and Marine Photography award, which was won by Raveendra Siriwardene, Sri Lanka Tourism activity and Adventure Photography award by Yamuni Perera, and Sri Lanka Tourism Photo Essay award won by Riddhi Parekh and Sri Lanka Tourism Culture and People photography award won by Shehan Trek. 

The judging panel consisted of renowned international and local photography professionals including Karl Taylor, Ami Vitale, Paul Goldstein, Chitral Jayathilake, Gehan Desilva Wijeyrathne and Dinesh Khanna. The selection criteria included two segments including the local and international judging process. 

This effort by Sri Lanka Tourism will encourage photographers across Sri Lanka to take tourism towards a new dimension by highlighting vibrant images of Sri Lanka to the global spotlight.  

The ceremony proceeded with the welcome address made by Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Managing Director Sutheash Balasubramaniam, and the speech of Minister of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs John Amaratunga, who expressed the importance of such events to establish a vivid and a colourful image of Sri Lanka as an exciting holiday destination with so much to see and explore. John Keels Group Vice President and Head of Brand Marketing Dileep Mudadeniya also addressed the gathering. 

This tourism promoting event was first launched at the World Travel Mart (WTM) London in 2016. With the island becoming a favourite tourism hotspot and a fast developing holiday destination, this will be an exclusive opportunity for Sri Lanka Tourism to be a part of an event which strongly promotes Sri Lanka as a must visit destination. The contest will be given wide publicity through local and international media channels, which will provide an opportunity for promoting Sri Lanka Tourism all across the globe. 

The outcome of this event proved to be an extremely fruitful one, not only creating greater social engagement among travellers, but also establishing relationships with the leading photographers and videographers of the world. International competitions of this nature will fulfil many national tourism and hospitality industry goals, adding a signature event in the Sri Lanka Hospitality and Tourism Event calendar, and most importantly, creating an inbuilt, cost effective travel and tourism awareness aspect among a larger global audience, and thereby expanding the Sri Lankan portfolio across the globe through a simple capture of a camera lens.