By Uwin Lugoda
The tourism campaign aimed at spurring domestic tourism in the absence of international tourists has been postponed due to the current unstable environment created by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, The Sunday Morning Business learns.
Speaking to us, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) Director of Marketing Madhubani Perera stated that the campaign which was earlier planned to promote local tourism has now been postponed by one or two months, and the SLTPB is waiting for the right time to launch it.
However, she explained that they have selected a public relations (PR) company, which is currently doing research on the domestic tourism interest.
“The campaign has not started yet; we were thinking of promoting it earlier but with the current situation we have decided to postpone it. In the meantime, the organisation we have selected is doing research for the campaign.”
The promotional campaign was first reported by us on 25 October, after a conversation with Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Chairperson Kimarli Fernando, who stated that Sri Lanka Tourism was planning a campaign to promote local destinations to domestic tourists.
During that time, the SLTDA was still in the process of selecting a PR company to undertake the promotional campaign, and was set to conduct the promotional campaign despite it being after the second wave of Covid, which began on 4 October with the detection of the Minuwangoda cluster and the subsequent curfews, paralysing local tourism.
The local tourism sector had just begun to pick up following the lifting of the initial seven-week long islandwide lockdown, when the second wave hit. Between the end of the lockdown and the end of September, occupancy rates of most of the hotels were around 20%, according to The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President Sanath Ukwatte.
During the time of the initial article, Fernando stated that the tourism authorities together with the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services had prepared a detailed health protocol for local travellers, and the PR firm would play a vital role in educating the general public to follow this protocol.
The local tourism campaign was set to come amidst the absence of the global tourism campaign. The airport closure necessitated further delays to the already long-delayed global tourism campaign of Sri Lanka. After years of delays under consecutive governments, the campaign which was scheduled to be launched in January 2021 is now expected to also be delayed further by several months.
Following the closure of the airport in March for international travellers and the subsequent islandwide lockdown after the local outbreak of the virus, tourism businesses were facing severe financial issues as neither international nor local travellers could travel within the country.
Sri Lanka’s tourism sector is among the top three foreign exchange-earning sources of the country. Even before the closure of the airport, Sri Lanka was struggling to attract tourists, mainly due to stringent travel restrictions imposed in China, which is among the top five tourism-generating markets of Sri Lanka, in the early weeks of this year to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Tourism arrivals had been gradually recovering after the Easter attacks last year and the reported arrivals into the country stood at 1.9 million in 2019, compared to 2.3 million in 2018. This year, January arrivals were 228,434, a year-on-year drop of 6.5%, while February arrivals were 207,507, a year-on-year drop of 17.7%. March arrivals dropped to 71,370 compared to the 244,328 arrivals during the same period last year.
However, she explained that they have selected a public relations (PR) company, which is currently doing research on the domestic tourism interest.
“The campaign has not started yet; we were thinking of promoting it earlier but with the current situation we have decided to postpone it. In the meantime, the organisation we have selected is doing research for the campaign.”
The promotional campaign was first reported by us on 25 October, after a conversation with Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Chairperson Kimarli Fernando, who stated that Sri Lanka Tourism was planning a campaign to promote local destinations to domestic tourists.
During that time, the SLTDA was still in the process of selecting a PR company to undertake the promotional campaign, and was set to conduct the promotional campaign despite it being after the second wave of Covid, which began on 4 October with the detection of the Minuwangoda cluster and the subsequent curfews, paralysing local tourism.
The local tourism sector had just begun to pick up following the lifting of the initial seven-week long islandwide lockdown, when the second wave hit. Between the end of the lockdown and the end of September, occupancy rates of most of the hotels were around 20%, according to The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President Sanath Ukwatte.
During the time of the initial article, Fernando stated that the tourism authorities together with the Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medical Services had prepared a detailed health protocol for local travellers, and the PR firm would play a vital role in educating the general public to follow this protocol.
The local tourism campaign was set to come amidst the absence of the global tourism campaign. The airport closure necessitated further delays to the already long-delayed global tourism campaign of Sri Lanka. After years of delays under consecutive governments, the campaign which was scheduled to be launched in January 2021 is now expected to also be delayed further by several months.
Following the closure of the airport in March for international travellers and the subsequent islandwide lockdown after the local outbreak of the virus, tourism businesses were facing severe financial issues as neither international nor local travellers could travel within the country.
Sri Lanka’s tourism sector is among the top three foreign exchange-earning sources of the country. Even before the closure of the airport, Sri Lanka was struggling to attract tourists, mainly due to stringent travel restrictions imposed in China, which is among the top five tourism-generating markets of Sri Lanka, in the early weeks of this year to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Tourism arrivals had been gradually recovering after the Easter attacks last year and the reported arrivals into the country stood at 1.9 million in 2019, compared to 2.3 million in 2018. This year, January arrivals were 228,434, a year-on-year drop of 6.5%, while February arrivals were 207,507, a year-on-year drop of 17.7%. March arrivals dropped to 71,370 compared to the 244,328 arrivals during the same period last year.