“CNN media blitz to get 3% increase in footfalls”

My attention was drawn to a newspaper article published in the Business Times last week under the above headline where the current managing director of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau has said that “No campaign had been carried out during the last four years”.

I would like to draw your attention further that, as claimed in the newspaper article the period should have been stated by the managing director as three years, starting from 2015 not 2014 as the current year (2018) could not be counted as we are in the early part of the year. There were many international destination promotional campaigns in progress till January 2015, when I relinquished office as Managing Director.

Some of the mega global marketing campaigns in 2014 were: 1) UK - 300 taxis’ branding campaigns in London, Manchester and Birmingham cities and outdoor advertising (OOH) 25 numbers in underground tube stations in London.

2) CHINA - 200 buses branding campaign in four cities namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu; Beijing - mega outdoor events such as Sri Lanka Tourism forum, Sri Lanka Trade Forum, Shopping mall activation and Sri Lanka night with gala dinner; Shanghai - mega outdoor events such as Sri Lanka Tourism forum, Sri Lanka Trade Forum; and Shopping mall activation and Sri Lanka night with gala dinner – Shanghai.

3) German – 300 taxis’ branding campaign in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt; 100 buses branding campaign in Berlin and Frankfurt.

4) France - 100 Taxis branding campaign in Paris; 100 buses branding campaigns in Paris. Global television advertising campaigns: Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau carried out TV advertising campaigns on CNN, Bloomberg, Al – Jazeera (Arabic and English) channels, Sky News (UK) and Sky Sports.

The former Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa presented a cabinet memorandum, bearing number 14/0174/519/002 dated 2014-02-03 to the Cabinet of ministers titled ‘Simulation of Tourism Development through a comprehensive Global Mega Promotional Campaign’. The Cabinet of ministers approved the same of US $ 15 million for year 2014/2015 for the promotion of Sri Lanka as a tourist destination.

Apart from the few above stated international destination promotional campaigns such as many road shows, consumer awareness campaigns, print media advertising, digital advertising on many digital platforms such as CNN, AlJazeera, BBC, Sky news and Bloomberg were carried out.