Tourism has always been a key foreign exchange earner for Sri Lanka with the industry growing in leaps and bounds following the civil war and reaching 2.3 million tourist arrivals in 2018 – the country’s best year yet.

However, tourism has taken multiple hits with the Easter Sunday bombings, COVID-19, and the economic crisis and negative global positioning that stemmed from it, resulting in Sri Lanka recording only 720,000 tourist arrivals in 2022.

With the country gradually emerging from its economic, social and political woes, promoting ‘Destination Sri Lanka’ has never been more crucial.

“Sri Lanka is an all in one capsule minus snow,” stated the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) Chalaka Gajabahu, sharing how he views his homeland in a recent LMDtv interview.

“However, most people who know Sri Lanka are those who have been here or know people who’ve been here,” he revealed. And he observed that statistically, around 35 percent of travellers are repeat visitors, which has been the underlying insight for the country’s new tag line – ‘You will come back for more.’

Gajabahu explained the gap in awareness: “When you look at our big markets – like China and certain parts of Europe – some people [still] don’t know where Sri Lanka is. Also, a lot of people think we have only sun and sea, which is not the case.”

He noted: “Sri Lanka has not engaged in proper brand positioning for the last 15-20 years or even longer. If you look at other competing markets – for example, Incredible India, Amazing Thailand or Malaysia Truly Asia – they have never changed their brand strategy.”

Gajabahu cited the example of India: “A brand strategy is not merely a tag line. When India did the Incredible India campaign, there was a 360 degree planning session behind it and they never changed the strategy – they had a 20 year plan to build the brand.”

Sri Lanka will also be launching its new campaign in February to promote the island’s global positioning.

“This new global positioning will be a brand footprint for the next 10 years or even more,” he said, adding that the country’s positioning shouldn’t change despite changes in governments, ministers or chairpersons of the bureau.

“With the global campaign, we need to position all our categories, not [only] one,” Gajabahu stressed while mentioning that many novelties will be added to the country’s tourism basket.

He explained: “There are many hidden treasures in Sri Lanka. For instance, we have over 140 shipwrecks from World War II that a lot of people don’t know about.”

“At the same time, we will be targeting market segments like digital nomads. We’re creating a new platform for them to come to Sri Lanka and spend three to six months working while enjoying an amazing holiday whether it’s on top of a hill, in a camp or at a beachside resort,” he revealed.

Gajabahu elaborated on the targeting strategy: “When we have a limited budget, we need to go for low hanging fruits.”

“Our new global campaign will concentrate on key markets including India, China, the UK, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, three countries in the Middle East, Scandinavia, Japan and South Korea. In these markets, we will spend most of our money on digital and above the line advertising, and PR dri­ven marketing,” he disclosed.

“This does not mean that we’re not going to target countries like Italy, the Netherlands and the US,” he added, explaining that promotions for these markets will mostly be done through influencer marketing, trade and travel fairs, and road shows in collaboration with the private sector.

Along with the global campaign, SLTPB will also be launching a domestic campaign. Gajabahu explained: “We need to educate our people on who we are because Sri Lankans are 22 million lovely people with beautiful smiles who are very hospitable. So we need to remind Sri Lankans that whether [they are] white, brown, black or whatever, tourists are tourists.”