Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau partners Aussie Boxing Day test match

Friday, 28 December 2012 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau launched a promotional campaign in Australia in parallel to the National Cricket Team’s tour to Australia, in a bid to attract a slice out of the growing Australian travellers’ market.

A section of the big crowd for the Boxing Day Test - Pic by Getty Images

The campaign, launched with the start of the historic ‘Boxing Day’ Test match played at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG) will be continued during the test series and the upcoming five one day international(ODI) matches between Sri Lanka and Australia.

Sri Lanka Tourism says the campaign will reach nearly 75 million TV viewers around the world, who will be glued to television sets, watching Cricket matches.

Sri Lanka Tourism identified Australia as a vital market and executes a series of promotional campaign under the advice and guidance of Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa.

The latest cricket based promotional campaign, which is the first of its kind in Australia by Sri Lanka, is a part of the overall program of Sri Lanka Tourism to attract the Australian travellers to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka Tourism is aiming to promote the county’s beaches, heritage, wildlife and also its various cultural festivals to the Australians. The ongoing campaign is using a number of promotional methods to target both the crowd in the stadium and millions of TV viewers watching cricket matches across the world.

Video vignettes and commercials are the tools being used to promote the country, which are displayed on the mega LED screen located at the ground. The Sri Lanka Tourism logo has also been placed on boundary signage at the ground.

Sri Lanka has only attracted just 0.5% out of the seven million Australians who have travelled out of their country annually. Sri Lanka Tourism targets to attract 50,000 Australian tourists during 2013 and already attracted 35,000 visitors this year.