Taglines and tourism destination marketing

Aldoris, the choon- paan karaya, and his tuk-tuk made their way down the lane with the first stop on this rainy Thursday morning being our gate.

“Gallei inna magey nedaeyinta harima amarui gan-wathura nisa (My relatives in Galle are having a hard time with the floods),” he said while dishing out maalu-paans and bunis to the trio who had gathered outside the gate.

“Mataradi gan-wathura nisa wee idam akkara gananavakata hani siduwela. Govinta harima padui (In Matara, floodwaters have destroyed many acres of paddy land. Farmers have lost their produce),” noted Kussi Amma Sera.

“Aanduwen mae govinta nethivu wagawanta wandiyak gevai kiyala mama balaporoththu wenwa (I hope the government provides some compensation to farmers for lost crops),” said Serapina.

“Api hari wasanawanthai kolomba jeevathwena hinda, mokada apita dakune kattiyata wage karadara nae-ne (We are lucky to be living in Colombo as we don’t have the problems people in the south face),” added Mabel Rasthiyadu.

As I walked into the kitchen to look for my mug of tea, the home phone rang. Answering the call, I found it was my jolly-mood economist friend, Sammiya (short for Samson).

“I say I read some interesting news about Sri Lanka coming up with a new tagline for tourism,” he said.

“Yes…..but whether it would enhance our tourism product and increase arrivals remain to be seen,” I said. “We have had many taglines in the past but the highest we have reached in tourist arrivals was 2.5 million in 2018 and it was planned to reach 5 million arrivals in the next few years,” he said.

“Well that didn’t happen owing to the Easter Sunday bombings in 2019 followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis. This year’s target is 1.2-1.5 million arrivals,” I said.

Tourist arrivals in January-September 2023 surged to one million, a 93 per cent increase from 526,232 recorded in the same 2022 period. Earnings from tourism during this period were recorded at US$1.4 billion, up 67 per cent in 2023 from $873 million in the same 2022 period.

Back to the discussion on the new tagline: The new tagline or destination branding is: “You will come back for more.” It was marketed, for the first time after its launch, at a recent French tourism fair, the International French Market (IFTM) Top Resa in which 27 Sri Lankan companies took part along with Sri Lanka Tourism.

“We launched our first phase of the campaign ‘Seeing is believing’ which showed that the situation in the country is normal. We are now unveiling a new campaign, the slogan Sri Lanka ‘You will come back for more’ which we were presenting at IFTM to the trade visitors,’’ Chalaka Gajabahu, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau explained at the fair.

A media release said France is among the top seven tourist-generating markets for Sri Lanka with over 44,000 tourists accounted for in the first nine months of 2023, just behind the UK and Germany from Europe.

But is this the most attractive tagline following many other taglines, some which worked, some didn’t?

One of the most enticing taglines is by Kerala (India) tourism where it is referred to as “God’s own country”. In the past Sri Lanka had “A land like no other”, “So Sri Lanka” and “Sri Lanka – Wonder of Asia”.

Among other notable taglines in the region are ““Malaysia: Truly Asia”; “Incredible India” and “Visit India Year 2023”; “Visit Thailand Year: Amazing New Chapters”; “Maldives – Always Natural” which replaced the 11-year-old “Sunny Side of Life”; “It’s beautiful, it’s Pakistan”, “Imagine Your Korea” which replaced “Sparkling Korea” ; “Singapore - Passion Made Possible”; “Beautiful China” and “Experience Seychelles – One Big Wow”.

To the observer, the “You will come back for more” tagline might not be the best one we have to indicate an attractive tourism product in a very competitive region promoting tourism. You need something that in a jiffy captures the tourism product a country is promoting; the latest tagline might not be too exciting to draw attention.

Industry officials said what was more important than changing the tagline was getting a global promotion campaign off the ground quickly. “It’s not about changing or keeping the tagline. What is more important and a priority is to get the promotion campaign started quickly as this has not happened (for nearly a decade),” noted Hiran Cooray, Chairman of Jetwing Symphony Hotels and past chairman of the Hotels Association of Sri Lanka, in a recent comment .

In around August, Sri Lanka was expected to roll out its new destination marketing campaign in more than 10 key markets as it fasttracked the recovery from multiple crises including an economic downturn. The Sri Lanka presence at the Paris fair was also part of this campaign but the larger campaign is yet to get underway as it has been marred by alleged irregularities in the tender process which led to some officials being suspended.

The Rs. 1.45 billion worth campaign in 12 months targets markets including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, India, Ukraine, Russia, West Asia, Scandinavia, South Korea, Japan and Australia. This is the first major promotion campaign in 15 years, officials said.

Along with the new promotions, is the plan to offer free tourist visas to nationals of China, Russia, India, Thailand and Indonesia as a shot in the arm for tourist arrivals. It beats me as to why this was not considered for key markets in Western Europe while Indonesia and Thailand are not key source markets for Sri Lanka.

Back at home, some of the industry issues that have surfaced are the minimum room pricing rates for star-class hotels in Colombo which were launched in October, not going as planned, according to industry officials. The move, promoted by city hotels, is opposed by travel agents who say that minimum pricing will kill the market which should have its own benchmarks to market rooms in a competitive environment and in line with trends in other regional markets.

It was time to wind up my column and, right on cue, Kussi Amma Sera walked into the office room with my second mug of tea (which I often have while my column is nearing its end), saying: “Dakune janathawa duk vindinawa gan-wathura nisa (People in the south are suffering with the floods).”

I nodded my acknowledgement, having also read a news story where the popular tourist town of Mirissa was also affected by floodwaters dealing another blow to tourism.