Sri Lanka needs to ‘reboot’ its image in Norway
Sri Lanka needs to refurbish a battered profile if it is to attract significant tourist numbers as well as more investments from Norway, according to a top official from the Scandinavian country. Thorbjorn Gaustadsaether, Norway’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, believes “an awareness challenge” is the biggest hurdle facing the island nation as it bids to increase trading links and lure tourists from his country and the rest of the Nordic region. ”Make Sri Lanka known in Norway,” was the plea from Mr. Gaustadsaether as he addressed Sri Lanka’s business community this week at a meeting in Colombo organized by the Nordic Business Council of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
“Sri Lanka has been internationally seen for the last few decades as a land with conflict. That has changed luckily but for that to sink in back in my country in the business community, tourism and even among ordinary people it will take some time,” he added. ”It is important that Sri Lanka markets itself as a peaceful country, a beautiful country which has a good educated workforce with high ethical standards,” advised Mr Gaustadsaether. ”In the world there are so many countries that want to attract investments from our part of the world and there is competition. Some countries which have not been at war and conflict have an advantage. That is why Sri Lanka has to be active in getting the message across,” he added.
Norway had played a role as a mediator during the island’s civil conflict trying to get the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to hammer out a peaceful deal. This has left behind memories in Norway, according to the ambassador. ”People in Norway remember that there was conflict in Sri Lanka. All the news we get in the world daily (is mostly bad), you also have to get the good news through and that good news is that Sri Lanka is now at peace. But it is more difficult to get good news through and extra effort has to be made for you to say ‘listen . this country has changed and has a great potential’. You need to market it well,” the ambassador said. Tourist arrivals from Norway are modest currently.
Only 12,000 tourists arrived in the country last year, a 25 per cent increase from 2014. In the 1970s, Sri Lanka was one of the top three destinations in the world for tourists from the Nordic region who arrived on charter flights. Bobby Jordan Hansen, Managing Director at Columbus Tours, Tuli Cooray, Secretary-General of the Joint Apparel Association Forum, and Mohamed Hisham from the IT sector also addressed the meeting outlining the ties in each sector between the two countries. Mr. Gaustadsaether added: “Next week I will travel to Singapore to attend the Norway-Asia Business Summit. There I will meet people from the Norway-Singapore association, Norway-Thailand association, Norway-India association among others. My dream is that one day there will also be a Norway-Sri Lanka association.”