Govt. takes tourism by the horns

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is likely to make new appointments and revamp the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB). This is in the wake of allegations against delays in getting the tourism industry’s much-awaited digital marketing campaign off the ground on time.

Tourism Minister John Amaratunga told the Business Times earlier this week that the government wants an “expeditious job and can’t be hanging around” for the digital marketing campaign to get off the ground.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) had decided about two weeks back to suspend the bureau’s committee working on the digital marketing campaign due to delays.

The minister noted that in this context the government would be revamping the SLTPB in consultation with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. “He (PM) may be having someone in mind,” the minister said.

He noted that the government needs to be able to work with someone who would know the government processes and system well.

Following the CCEM decision to disband the committee, the SLTPB’s Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara and Managing Director Sutheash Balasubramaniam have been working together with the government appointed Public Private Partnership (PPP) Unit to carry out the digital campaign.

Mr. Balasubramaniam said that this would expedite the current process by linking up the two phases that had been worked on for the digital campaign previously which was to market to the Western European market under phase one and secondly to take up markets like India, China and the Middle East.

However, the PPP Unit headed by Thilan Wijesinghe would be combing the two phases and ensure the government could market the destination in all markets simultaneously.

He also noted that they would be having another round of discussions in the course of the next 10 days when they would work out a timeline for the digital marketing.

In the meantime, the global promotion campaign for tourism is currently been worked out with the authorities having submitted the paper on the campaign to the CCEM.

The global advertising is set to take place on some of the internationally popular channels like the CNN, Al Jazeera and the BBC.

The Cabinet was likely to take up the global promotion campaign paper for discussion , the Minister said. SLTPB Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara was not contactable at time of going to press.