Tourism promo roadshows cancelled
Sri Lanka Tourism has cancelled all roadshows following a face-off between the board and officials of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) that have been continuously blamed for the delay in implementing the recovery plan and promotional campaign post 4/21.
A group of Australian travel agents during a recent tour of Sri Lanka.
Following cabinet approval obtained for the implementation of the promotional campaign and recovery plan by JWT, the PR agency, the authorities at the SLTPB have been blamed for not getting these off the ground three months since the attacks were carried out on Easter Sunday.
The industry has pointed out that officials need to carry out these plans as they require more priority and since the authorities were not effective enough in implementing roadshows.
In January the industry had provided criteria based on which the roadshows could be managed in order to introduce new tour operators and travel agents to the country without simply bringing back the same organisations that are already selling Sri Lanka, industry sources said.
In fact in Eastern Europe, which was one of the last roadshows carried out, industry persons called it a “disaster” since authorities had organised meals for about 100 but only five turned up for the event.
They blamed authorities for selecting PR companies from these markets at the last moment and pointed out that most of the officials required to carry out the recovery plan and the global campaign were found to be “always travelling.”
This they pointed out led to more issues, since they were not available back home for approvals and getting things on track for what needed to be focused on.
At the last SLTPB board meeting as well it was learnt that board members representing the private sector had refused to listen to the officials who were asked to make a presentation on the roadshows to be carried out. This was because the private sector had insisted that these need to be cancelled altogether as they were not productive.
“Proper criteria are important since we spend a lot of money to go for a roadshow,” one industry person stated.
ASMET (small tourism providers) General Secretary Rasika Rajapakse pointed out however, that the roadshows were vital to them as they were unable to spend large sums to participate in trade fairs as they were small businesses.
In this respect, ASMET will be writing to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Tourism Development Minister John Amaratunga to ensure that the roadshows needed to get back on track.
“At this moment we have to be in the market for the guests to come and see,” he said adding that it was uncertain whether the JWT campaign would be effective or not since they have not done anything yet.
Mr. Rajapakse pointed out that officials at the bureau needed to manage their workload and think of a recovery campaign and do the promotions at the same time.
However, he too insisted that the roadshows needed to be planned properly by the bureau since in certain markets they are not effective while in some others they are effective.
Bureau Chairman Kishu Gomes told the Business Times that the promotional campaign is still being worked out as the agreement with the JWT is still being vetted by the agency and the draft is being sent to the AG’s Department for vetting.
He noted that once the vetting is completed then the agency would need about two weeks to get something physically done.
Total costs incurred would be Rs.416 million for the PR campaign and Rs.500 million for the marketing campaign, Mr. Gomes said.
Commenting on the cancellation of roadshows he noted that road shows are vital but that some of the stakeholders felt that they are less effective and as a result were not a priority at this stage.
However this is affecting the small businesses in tourism, Mr. Gomes said pointing out that they are deprived of promotional opportunities.