Sri Lanka Tourism search for top Global Ad agency
View(s):Sri Lanka Tourism announced a Rs. 200 million Expression of Interest (EOI) to search for a global ad agency after a lapse of five years, a media release issued by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) stated.
According to the release, as at now the Sri Lankan Tourism strategy has been essentially driven by a ‘PUSH’ marketing strategy with a multipronged initiative in key markets such as B2B road shows with the private sector; visiting journalist programmes; travel trade fairs and high profile media interviews. Given the strengths of the SLTPB marketing team with 31 mid-career professionals selected purely on merit as per the government regulation, are now ready to launch the aggressive multimedia campaign, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Rohantha Athukorala said.
While the formal private sector has been pushing for an above the line campaign the Chairman accepted that the PUSH strategy was not sufficient to build a strong ‘ Tourism destination brand.’ However, given the reality where the organisation was dogged with financial irregularity and human resource constraints they had to first get the house in order before going global, Mr. Athukorala said in the release adding that they were yet to pay almost US$3 million for media advertising called for previously.
One of the key objectives of the strategic communication partner would be how the unique Sri Lankan culture and people could be made aware via each of the countries’ diversified product portfolio, Mr. Athukorala said.
He explained that the driver of tourism in a country is its heritage and culture adding, “We were just communicating ‘ 8 wonderful experiences in 8 wonderful days” forgetting the DNA of the brand.”
Nine professionals will constitute the Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) committee, appointed by the Ministry and approved by the board which will be powered with strong governance and independence of decision making the Chairman stated in the release. The Chairperson of the committee is the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the release stated.