Sri Lanka Tourism joins Hong Kong’s top TV corporation to create celebrity travelogue

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) the nation’s catalyst for tourism promotions and development, together with i-Cable TV Entertainment – Hong Kong, which happens to be one of the top TV corporations in Hong Kong, has taken the initiatives of promoting Destination Sri Lanka in Hong Kong by hosting for a media team of their latest travelogue called ‘Travel With My Guitar’. Hong Kong based popular female singer duo ‘Robynn & Kendy’ had been part of this travel and leisure program as the main hosts. Through the participation of this popular celebrity figures, Sri Lankan Tourism will be expecting to achieve higher viewers reach to this travelogue by creating a bridge between Destination Sri Lanka and potential Hong Kong travellers. 

As a media company which owns over 50 of their channels and further in partnership with many other both local and foreign TV channels in mainland China, Singapore and New Zealand, i-Cable TV Entertainment is one of the oldest TV corporations based in Hong Kong. The travelogue, Travel with My Guitar will be an inducement for potential Hong Kong travellers to visit destination Sri Lanka as their key choice when planning the next holiday. The content of this travelogue consists of Sri Lankan music trends, values of local culture and heritage, wildlife, nature, beach and luxury accommodation covering various part of the island.

Popular celebrities in the local music scene, including Umaria Sinhawansha and Iraj Weerarathne have offered their fullest support to this destination promotion exercise together with Colombo City Tour provider Ebert Silva Touring Co. Ltd. Also, members of Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) and The Hotel Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) have given their support to succeed with this destination promotional program.

Sri Lanka will be featured in two episodes of Travel with My Guitar program (one hour on each episode) and it is expected to broadcast during the same month of May in Hong Kong and later in mainland China as well. This travelogue will be broadcasted through several channels that belong to i-Cable TV Entertainment in Cantonese and also will be subtitled in English.

With this promotional media familiarisation activity under the Visiting Journalist Program (VJP), Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) is focusing to gain greater access to Hong Kong with its over seven million population and the outbound tourism market numbered over 4.8 million tourists departures during the 2001. It has grown rapidly over the years to become one of the largest outbound tourist generators in the Asia-Pacific region. Through such promotional media programs, SLTPB is targeting to attract high end holiday seekers from Hong Kong; those who are able make a vital impact to tourism base local economy. 

During the next several years, Sri Lanka will be targeting to position itself within the high end international outbound clientele with a minimum expenditure of $ 250 per night, simultaneously maximising the number of nights to over 10 days per holiday experience. As a colourful and compact tropical nation carrying a greater influence of culture and tradition, Sri Lanka has the comfort and relaxation of a paradise to offer the potential Hong Kong tourists.

Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) has setup various strategic plans to launch aggressive promotional campaigns during the year 2016 and so far the progress that has been made by Sri Lanka Tourism under its Visiting Journalist Program (VJP) is tremendous. Apart from the above celebrity travel program targeting on Hong Kong outbound travel sector, SLTPB-VJP has also undertaken both TV and press related promotional media campaigns in France, Australia, USA, UK, Belgium, South Korea and Sweden. Also, further arrangements have been made to touch down the rest of the important markets as well including UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, Middle East, etc.