A MUCH-anticipated tourism campaign to increase Sri Lanka’s global visibility (TTG Asia e-Daily, July 20) has been postponed indefinitely in a dispute over costs and prioritisation.
The campaign was supposed to kick off this month, with efforts earmarked including promotional activities through traditional media, as well as the Internet and social media.
“Except for media advertising, we are proceeding with what we have been doing (previously) – web marketing, fam tours and social marketing,” said Sri Lanka Tourism chairman Nalaka Godahewa, adding that the country’s annual promotional budget, approximately 100 million rupees (less than US$1 million), was hardly enough for a media campaign.
One hotelier, who declined to be named, said: “The (Sri Lankan) Treasury says the product (infrastructure) needs to be developed before money is spent on promotion. The real reason is that the state is short of cash for promotion.”
“We are compelled to plough in our own money to promote our properties and also the destination,” the hotelier added.
Malin Hapugoda, managing director of Colombo-based Aitken Spence Hotels, is another lamenting Sri Lanka’s lack of overseas promotion since the end of the civil war.
“We need to be visible. We were seen as a cheap destination during the conflict—a perception we need to change,” he said. “While beach tourism will be our bread and butter since we are an island, we also need to attract the top end.”
