Aitken Spence boosts arrivals, attracts charters for 2016
View(s):Aitken Spence, which has attracted the highest arrivals as a company, has been carrying out an intensive marketing in India and has been able to attract a number of charters this year. The travel arm of the company has been able to attract more charters to the destination this year with TUI planning three charters, two from Scandinavia and one from the UK. Both are scheduled to arrive in November this year that is expected to be a boost and major endorsement for the destination with each charter expected to attract at least 250 persons.
In addition the company has been able to attract the Italian market that had seen a dip in arrivals for some time and at present there has been charter operating with about 150 persons on a weekly basis from a leading travel company Alpi Tours. The charter is being operated from December 2015 to March this year. This travel company is also looking at the possibility of operating charters weekly from next winter to Matttala since they have a club for their tourists in Dickwella.
Aitken Spence has attracted the highest arrivals handled by any Destination Management Company (DMC) bringing down about 125, 000 visitors to the country for the financial year ending March 2016, the company said. An India based promotional campaign just concluded last month investing Rs.12 million on television promotions together with a further cash infusion from joint partner in the promotion SriLankan Airlines, the company said in an interview with the Business Times.
It was noted that the television campaign carried out on four Indian channels namely TLC, Star World, NDTV Good Times and Discovery just concluded last month in addition to presentations being carried out in three key cities of Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi to all top travel agents.
In addition, advertisements were carried out at the key attractions in the India cinema multiplexes covering eight in Mumbai, seven in Karnataka and Bangalore, eight in Tamil Nadu and Chennai, seven in West Bengal and Kolkata, seven in Delhi and 14 in Cochin and Kerala. The campaign was aimed at targeting tourists with a disposable income that would travel once a year and live in an apartment and travel using their own mode of transport.
uring the campaign the Ramayana Trail was also highlighted as a key attraction, the company noted. In the past Sri Lanka was reputed for its charter market which dropped and has now seen it being picked up lately, Aitken Spence said. In this regard, the company would be targeting promotions in North America for the US market as there has been a surge in arrivals from that market due to the positive aspects highlighted of destination Sri Lanka with the New York Times spotlighting the island as one of the best destinations to travel to. In addition there would be a focus on attracting increasing numbers from the Middle East as well.