Sri Lanka to unveil new tourism tagline next month

Tourism Minister Harin Fernando 

• Tourism Minister Harin Fernando says focus is on impactful, effective branding to boost destination over next 5 years
• Ogilvy wins tender for creative and strategy at Rs. 60 m for 1 year
• SL Tourism will roll out fully-fledged campaign starting early next year

By Charumini de Silva

Sri Lanka Tourism will unveil a new brand identity next month, to mark a fresh approach to destination marketing after five years.

“The current brand identity, ‘So Sri Lanka’ will be changed and the teaser of the new campaign will be unveiled in July. Work is underway for the digital marketing strategy and we hope that the main campaign will be launched towards the end of the year,” Tourism Minister Harin Fernando said.

Following a competitive bidding process where three companies pitched for the creative and strategy development, Phoenix Ogilvy has been awarded the tender at Rs. 60 million for one year. 

The Daily FT also learns that the evaluation process to select another company for digital marketing is also underway and upon finalising the two companies for the promotions, Sri Lanka Tourism will likely roll out its five-year destination marketing blitz.

Fernando said it was important for the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) to focus on an impactful and effective branding to boost the destination Sri Lanka in the next five years. On 5 November 2018, Sri Lanka Tourism launched its brand identity ‘So Sri Lanka’ coinciding with the World Travel Market (WTM). But thereafter, the country’s tourism sector was hit by multiple unprecedented events from the Easter Sunday attacks, the COVID pandemic and the economic crisis.

“Changing the tourism tagline has had no impactful outcome on Sri Lanka Tourism, against the competitive countries, without a proper tourism product mix. This time, we have considered all aspects for an effective marketing campaign,” Fernando added. 

It will roll out a fully-fledged campaign starting early next year. 

The Minister envisages that tourism will flourish to be the most significant sector contributing to the economy. 

Effective global promotion has been a long-felt need for the tourism industry since Sri Lanka last had a concerted exercise over eight years ago.

Although Cabinet approval was sought to conduct Sri Lanka’s first-ever integrated global campaign in 2021, due to the COVID pandemic and foreign exchange crisis the strategy was not possible to be executed.