“Tourism industry ‘no no’s’ John on CNN campaign”

Tourism Minister John Amaratunga has sent the following response to the news item under the above heading published in the Business Times last week:

“The entire report is based on the superfluous comments of unnamed ‘industry leaders’ and thereby lacks credibility. It smacks of efforts by a few disgruntled elements to portray the proposed campaign as one that would not benefit the country.

It is somewhat strange that the majority of the ‘industry leaders’ who I meet on a regular basis are in fact fully supportive of this move. It must be noted that this is not the first time that Sri Lanka Tourism will be using CNN for a destination promotion campaign. In fact a similar campaign was aired on CNN in 2014 and was hailed as highly successful by the very same ‘industry leaders.’

The only reason we could not execute a similar campaign earlier was because the bills for the 2014 campaign remained unpaid until a few months ago when we took measures to settle the arrears.

Therefore I fail to comprehend how CNN, which was the platform of choice in 2014 has suddenly become ‘not proper for the destination’, when the top five source markets remain the same as before. It is also quite puzzling that the so called ‘industry leaders’ who now supposedly lament over spending on a global TV campaign remained mute when SLTPB funds were being spent on election campaigns of the ruling party in 2014.

There is also no truth to the statement that the digital campaign is at a standstill when in fact the procurement process for same is well underway. It is just that the bureaucratic procedures such as specified time frames for applications cannot be expedited and this is what is perceived as delay. The CNN campaign is therefore an interim measure that has received the endorsement of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management.”