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Tourism Minister Harin Fernando with Bollywood actress Chitrangada Singh
Tourism Minister Harin Fernando with Bollywood actor Dino Morea
By Charumini de Silva
Tourism Minister Harin Fernando has kicked off the ‘Sri Lanka Can’ campaign to boost arrivals, with the support from Bollywood actors who will speak positively on the atmosphere in destination Sri Lanka.
Bollywood actors Chitrangada Singh and Dino Morea have been selected to promote Sri Lanka in India, where Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) is planning to roll out three road shows in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore within a couple of weeks.
“A big thank you to Bollywood stars, Dino Morea and Chitrangada Singh for speaking on behalf of Sri Lanka and what a beautiful country we are #srilankacan,” Minister Fernando posted, as the latest pictures on his Instagram account. He also said it will help position Sri Lanka as an ideal film location for Indian cinema industry.
India is the biggest tourist source market for Sri Lanka with a share of 18% of total arrivals. The neighbouring giant remains strong, as the top tourist source market for Sri Lanka year-to-date with cumulative number of arrivals at 61,951 and the top country for tourist traffic with 5,562 travellers last month.
The two Bollywood stars were in Sri Lanka on a brief visit of 48 hours for the formalities and expressed their keenness to return soon for a longer round trip before promotions kick-off.
“Sri Lanka is one of the most beautiful counties I have been to,” Actor Dino Morea said in an Instagram story posted by the Tourism Minister Fernando. Morea said that he had visited Sri Lanka many times to shoot films, on holidays, for fashion shows and for other purposes.
“The country is wonderful to be in and it is fantastic. The people are lovely and the sense of hospitality is excellent. The food is great and everything is okay here,” he added. Morea also pointed out that what people hear often is little larger than what it is in actuality, insisting that Sri Lanka is a safe destination for travel.
“This was my second visit to Sri Lanka. It is a lovely country and naturally very beautiful. The people are friendly and the food is so good,” Actor Chitrangada Singh said. She also reiterated that Sri Lanka is very safe for travellers. “Sometimes things just get blown out of proportion and you have these assumptions. It is safe here and Sri Lanka is absolutely chilled,” Singh quipped.
Singh was also talking about the amazing weather conditions that travellers could experience within just a few hours apart from sunny beaches to misty cold hills and waterfalls. “I will come back for the full trip soon,” Singh said.
The push to woo Indian celebrities and tourists was among the 17-point ‘Revival for Survival’ plan submitted by the leading tourism industry associations to overcome the multiple crises.
In a meeting chaired by the Tourism Minister last month, it was agreed to immediately rollout a marketing campaign in risk averse markets such as India, Middle East, Russia and CIS countries. In addition, three road shows were also planned for June in India, as an immediate promotion.
On 20 May, Fernando first revealed the plans on the ‘Sri Lanka Can’ campaign on the day he was sworn in as the Tourism Minister, pointing out that the next few months were crucial for building the country’s image and winning international confidence again to overcome the crises.
“We hope to launch a campaign titled ‘Sri Lanka Can’ to spread positive vibes,” Fernando said last month.
In 2021, Sri Lanka entertained 56,268 Indian tourists and in 2020 the figure was 89,357 and in 2019 the figure was 355,002 whilst the highest was the tourism industry’s best year in 2018 which amounted to 424,887.
As per the latest data released by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), during the first five months, the country received 378,521 tourists, but the monthly arrivals fell to the lowest last month to 30,207 visitors, following multiple crises which led to unfortunate incidents.
However, the plans under a new leadership have led the industry to revise its earlier targets to a more practical expectation of around 800,000 travellers with an income of $ 800 million by year end.
This was the third downward revision from the original target announced in the beginning of the year on 2.3 million tourist arrivals and $ 4.5 billion income, which was again sized down following the spread of COVID Omicron variant by February to 1.3 million travellers with earnings of $ 2.4 billion.
Minister Fernando is a firm believer that tourism is a key industry that can generate foreign income easily.
“By mid-June, we will bring in tourists once again,” Fernando told journalists last month soon after swearing in as the new Tourism Minister.
