“Island Escapes” promo targets millennials in low season

Tourism authorities will be launching “bite-sized curated holidays” to attract visitors during the low occupancy months investing Rs.65 million in a campaign titled “Island Escapes” scheduled to kick off on Saturday (September 15).

Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga said that their aim is to ensure Sri Lanka is a 365 day destination thereby increasing the numbers and insisted on a target of three million to the country by the end of this year.

“If we can’t reach three million by the end of this year we can’t compare with other countries in the region,” he told reporters earlier in the week.

He noted that the current attraction of about 2.5 million travellers to the island was not sufficient in comparison to the number of visitors that frequent destinations in the region.

Sri Lanka Conventions Bureau Chairman Kumar De Silva said that the regionally competitive package will attract holidaymakers to visit Sri Lanka during the months of September – November and April to June.

In fact, he pointed out that this would remove the perception that Colombo is an expensive destination to visit.

The package would include transfers, breakfast and city tours to travellers willing to take on any of the nine selected packages made available namely: Zen- Sational Escapes, Vintage Escapes, Wanderlust Escapes, Adrenaline Escapes and Mouthwatering Escapes. Offers available are 4 days/ 3 nights; 5 days/ 4 nights; 6 days/ 5 nights; and 7 days/ 6 nights starting from US$ 99. Other participating airlines like SriLankan Airlines, Emirates and Qatar have also opted to provide discounted rates during this season.

JWT CEO Alyna Omar said that the offering would be for

“bite- sized curated holidays” from the ancient temples to the cold climes with the campaign expected to reach out to at least 10 million people in the three markets of India, China and West Asia. This advertising company prepared the campaign.

This is said to become a “tactical strategy to improve room occupancy” during the low season and in this respect, it was pointed out that while India and China would bring in the volume the West Asian traveller would be a key component in this mix.

In targeting the millennial travellers from long haul destinations the industry hopes to cash in on these visitors who are expected to account for over 50 per cent of the revenue in travel by 2020.

The campaign would be make available in English, Hindi, Mandarin and Arabic to make it easy to access the discerning the traveller.