‘Ceylon’ or ‘Sri Lanka’? Destination branding questioned – Hiran Cooray

While Sri Lanka is aiming at 1.5 million tourists by the end of year 2023, one of the pertinent decisions all stakeholders of the country must focus is to resolve on which name you want to brand the destination. Sri Lankan tea is branded as 'Ceylon Tea' and tourism is branded as 'Sri Lanka Tourism'. “Branding your product using the country's name, should we call it 'Ceylon' or 'Sri Lanka'?” questioned Hiran Cooray, Chairman of Jetwing Symphony PLC.

Mr. Cooray made these remarks during the 64th Annual General Meeting of the National Chamber of Commerce held at the

Kingsbury Hotel recently. He said, "Sri Lanka has 60 years of planning in tourism. Since the end of the civil war in 2009, we didn't position the destination at that time beginning 2010. The country has an image problem. All stakeholders must decide on which name you want to brand the destination. 'Ceylon Tea' is a well-known brand around the world and here we are trying to promote 'Sri Lanka Tourism'. Brand your product using the country's name, should we call our country 'Ceylon' or 'Sri Lanka'."

He also reiterated, what is more important for tourism is safety and security. Unless there is safety and security it's very difficult to promote tourism in any country. “The moment you have it tourism will boom on its own.”

Mr. Cooray also pointed out that no one is doing anything to stop all the talented people leaving this country. "We will have a dearth of talent in every sector, be it tourism, agriculture or energy. All our talented people are spread across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and West Asia."

Tourism is one sector that will help recover Sri Lanka from the crisis while all ministries need to work together in unison to get things done. The private sector has to bring that confidence back and get their act together so that foreigners will want to invest here, he added.