Sri Lanka Tourism gears up for post-conflict scenario with a new brand strategy

Company Brief

Sri Lanka, April 29, 2009

Sri Lanka Tourism is gearing up for a global communication campaign which will include a local activation process involving the citizens of Sri Lanka in the making of the new brand.

As the conflict with the LTTE is rapidly nearing its end, the re-branding of Sri Lanka could not come at a better time. The new brand of Sri Lanka Tourism will be launched in June along with a well planned communication campaign.

The new brand strategy will see the revamping of all communication material including the website, brochures, posters, and audio visual material. A range of memorabilia would also be introduced.

Sri Lanka Tourism would also embark upon a global electronic media branding campaign via key television stations such as CNN, BBC, Discovery, Travel & Living, and Al Jazeera.

Making of the new brand

Leading up to the launch, a unique local activation process for the new branding exercise, involving Sri Lankans to provide pictures, artifacts, curios, collectables, or just about anything that they believe is a good example of Sri Lanka will be carried out island-wide.

The theme of the local activation campaign aptly named “Making of the Small Miracle” will engage locals and encourage them to interpret Sri Lanka and what it means to them. The local campaign will also fuel hopes of the people - engage, mobilize, and activate them to feel part of the initiative of reviving tourism in Sri Lanka.

The activation will commence in May, while town storming will commence towards the latter part of May starting from Panadura and extending to more than 40 towns within Sri Lanka including, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Kurunegala, Chilaw, Negambo, Galle, Matara, Trincomalee, Ampara, Pollonnaruwa and Anuradhapura.

A supervisor will visit all main towns to arrange a place for the truck to park and cultural centers to put up materials prior to the activation.

There will be two teams going on two different routs to collect items for 15 days.

Team one will visit the main towns where one truck will be parked in a prominent location in the town and a van will go into the interior areas in the vicinity. There will be one supervisor and a photographer for each vehicle and there will be three assistants in the truck with a DJ and an announcer.

Team two will visit the interior areas with one supervisor and a photographer as well.

There will also be an additional van which will go in-between to take the items to Colombo.

The call to action will be in four stages Blank Canvas – inviting contribution, Exhibit – contributions collected, Reminder – urging contribution, and Finished Communication with the print campaign.

Local and International marketing activities

As part of the post conflict plan, Sri Lanka Tourism also launched an exclusive events calendar where several key events are held to attract more tourists to the country. There are some exciting events coming up including the annual Hikkaduwa Beach Fest, Negombo Beach Festival, the Jazz Festival, the Tea Festival and the Kandy Festival. Apart from events organized by Sri Lanka Tourism, a number of key events which fall under the purview of the strategy, such as the Galle Literary Festival, the Colombo Fashion Week, the Colombo to Galle Regatta, and the Colombo Marathon are also supported.

A post card campaign launched parallel to the brand launch, where 250,000 post cards will be distributed among visitors while a discount booklet will also be simultaneously distributed with over 50 discount offers from a range of hotels, shopping malls, spas, etc.

For the overseas market, Sri Lanka Tourism is looking at promotional activities with hotels and the national carrier SriLankan Airlines, aimed at primary markets such as France, Germany, and UK for the summer, which is a tactical offer introduced to those markets.

The 2for1 offer launched in the UK this month has already resulted in 2,500 plus bookings to Sri Lanka. The offer which goes on till June this year includes free airfare, free hotel stay, free transfers, and free entry to selected UNESCO World Heritage Sites and the Elephant Orphanage, for the 2nd person.

Domestic tourism

Meanwhile the domestic tourism initiative, ‘Narambamu Sri Lanka’ campaign will create the necessary hype among Sri Lankans to visit places of interest and the newspaper advertisements, radio and television programmes that are being carried out will create awareness for local tourists to wander ‘off the beaten track’ to explore the country in depth.

For further information, please contact:

Sri Lanka Tourism

Tel: +94 (0) 112437055

Email: gaya@srilanka.travel