US$6 mln for tourism global promo push
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry’s long overdue global promotion campaign will get a further boost with the planned investment doubling to US$6 million. The original budget for the global campaign was US$3 million but Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (sltpb) Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara told the Business Times that they would increase this figure as the current amount is not sufficient.
In this respect, he pointed out that they were adjusting the SLTPB budget by pruning down on certain areas and enhancing the allocation for promotion. The global promotion campaign is being worked out but is still at the early stage and it was noted that they were yet to obtain a consultant to work on this project as well.
Authorities were also involved in working on achieving three million arrivals by 2020 with spending $210 per day from a current $164 per day. With 2500 new rooms in the offing this year another 3000 was expected to come up within the next two years, it was stated.
“While positioning the country as a destination we are now looking at positioning Colombo as a destination for short stays for regional markets,” he said.
The government is readying to present the request for global proposals for the digital marketing campaign of the tourism industry.
The Tourism and Christian Affairs Ministry’s procurement committee is currently finalising details on the terms of reference before calling for global offers, Mr. Nanayakkara said.
He noted that international consultant McKinsey, appointed as consultants in this regard, was assisting the authorities in the formulation of the Request for Proposals (RFPs) to be released any time soon. By the end of November the contract should be awarded to the selected agency to handle the digital marketing campaign for Sri Lanka Tourism, he explained.
The tourism industry continues to be concerned about the money spent on tourism promotional campaign which is blamed on the authorities for their lackadaisical attitude. In addition, industry experts note that during the previous government the monies accumulated for promotions were spent haphazardly and today the authorities were ‘shivering in their boots’ to make any bold decisions.
The stringent bureaucratic measures that is the key bone of contention within the state service hampering speedy delivery has held back authorities from fast tracking proposals, fearing reprisals.
| Govt. retains minimum rates in city hotels Minimum room rates that help Colombo city hoteliers to sustain their profits are here to stay. The minimum room rates will be retained, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara said. He noted that it was due to the minimum rates that investor confidence came into the city and in this respect authorities would look to retain this vital aspect of pricing rooms in city hotels as opposed to previous plans to remove it from April 2018. However, this time there would be a different system adopted in that Mr. Nanayakkara explained that they would have to adjust the pricing according to the peak or seasonal trends and demand. “When we are trying to look for investors to come in the decision of the government on the minimum rate is a good decision,” he said adding that a majority of city hoteliers was not in favour of its removal. Commenting on whether Sri Lanka was comparatively expensive against other destinations in the region, he noted that there was a “big difference.” He pointed out that Sri Lanka was not interested in cheap tourism and added that though “we should let anyone come, allowing everyone in would ruin our culture and our way of life and our religion. Thailand is certainly looking down that road but not Sri Lanka”. | |