John talks only about food
Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga was on Friday conspicuously silent on the CNN promotion kicking off this week and instead highlighted Sri Lanka’s hidden treasures found in the local cuisine.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the 18th Culinary Art Food Expo at the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorial Convention Hall, the normally talkative minister said that this was the forum to ensure Sri Lanka’s young chefs could be given the opportunity to showcase their capabilities in public. He noted that this is an event looked forward by the chefs in Sri Lanka and is a testing ground for a number of them. Over 600 chefs representing the star class hotels including those from the armed forces were battling it out for the championships.
Minister Amaratunga pointed out that listed among the world’s hidden secrets was Sri Lanka’s cuisine as well.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) Managing Director Sutheash Balasubramaniam told the Business Times on Wednesday that the commercials scheduled to be aired on CNN went live from Tuesday.
He noted that except in the US the Sri Lanka destination commercials had been aired on the CNN global media channel.
The commercial is expected to go live in the US and Frankfurt on Monday with peak and off peak hours selected to air these advertisements. He said that this has been spread out over the seven days of the week and it would be used on the channel’s social media sites as well. The commercials on Sri Lanka tourism would highlight the diversity, authenticity and compatibility focusing on heritage and culture, wildlife and nature.
Mr. Balasubramaniam noted that they were also “getting close to completion of the evaluation” of the digital marketing campaign and that cabinet approval was likely to be sought by mid-June.