‘Visiting Blogger’ programme continues to attract world’s top travel influencers
Having received over ten million combined social media reach in 2017, SLTPB Visiting Blogger programme continues to progress with aggressive social media promotion in 2018 by collaborating with world top virtual travel influencers.
One of the most popular bloggers among the group was Janet Newham from Ireland who runs her blog called ‘Journalist on the run’. Her most recent blog post about Sri Lanka was referred as: “I never expected to find some of the most beautiful hotels in the world in this small, but perfectly formed South Asian nation.”
Karolina Coenenfrom ‘around the globe’, Laurane Philippot from ‘Web escapes SASU’ (France) and Nina Soentgerath from ‘Reisehappen.de’ (Germany) are also popular bloggers from among the group.
The group of bloggers and social media influencers included some of the world’s renowned high profile international travel bloggers and Instagrammers. The visit of international travel bloggers group to Sri Lanka concluded in Colombo with networking sessions organised with the collaboration of Movenpick Hotel Colombo, where Tourism Development and Christian Affairs Minister John Amaratunga offered his most profound gratitude for the bloggers as well as industry partners for the support given to promote destination Sri Lanka within the popular virtual platforms.
On her blog ‘Reisehappen. de’, Nina Soentgerath stated: “In the North of Sri Lanka you will find the beautiful, still undiscovered city of Jaffna. In Sri Lanka a civil war raged for a long time, which was particularly intense in the north of the country. The civil war only ended in 2009 and Jaffna has only been open to tourists for a few years now. Jaffna is therefore not as touristy as other places in Sri Lanka and is therefore a must for people who want to see the ‘real Sri Lanka’.”
As part of SLTPB Blogger Familiarisation Tour, a group of popular Instagrammers also joined to create a virtual holiday dream about destination Sri Lanka.the group included Stefano Ferro from Australia, and Loic Lagarde and Saul Aguilar from France, some of the most talented first generation Instagrammers. Another key promotional objective of Sri Lanka Tourism is to popularise ‘emerging attractions’ which has been given priority as an important focus area.in this regard, the group of travel bloggers went to the Northern Capital ‘Jaffna’ to explore nature, culture, wildlife and most importantly to witness postwar progress made by both locals and the region.
Apart from Northern exploration, bloggers were further taken to tourism areas, attractions and activities, where the inbound tourism industry is expected to further grow and establish including Anuradhapura, Kadulla National Park, Parawiyan Ella at Badalkumbura, Uva Province, Ayurveda, Meditation, and more. The island exploration ended for the bloggers from the calm Southern Sea by taking part of whale watching in Mirissa and witnessing range of whales including the most popular blue whale.