Rs.350 mln tourism ad bill settled
Sri Lanka has settled its debts amounting to Rs.350 million in arrears to three international media channels following which the digital media campaign would kick off in January next year.
Christian Affairs and Tourism Minister John Amaratunga told the Business Times that the digital advertising campaign is expected to kick off in January and the global promotional campaign next year. The digital media campaign is worth Rs.200 million.
He said the authorities have to “now look for agencies and prepare the material” adding that “there were about Rs.350 million in arrears to Bloomberg, Al Jazeera and Sky News,” which has now been settled.
The previous regime owed millions of rupees to some of the international media organizations who had urged the new government to settle payments.
The authorities had settled the arrears in installments with the last payment made in the third week of August this year amounting to approximately Rs.2 million.
Moreover, the government is set to take a favourable stance in relation to the issues raised by the tourism industry regarding the liquor license at the next budget.
The minister said that the liquor license that was issued to hoteliers would be revised favourably based on the consideration from the Finance Ministry in this regard.
He pointed out that the issue of liquor license would be taken up as a budget proposal. There were complaints regarding the license and its rates and the hours when liquor could be served which were expected to be rectified.