Sri Lanka to cash in on Maldives’ crisis
Sri Lanka Tourism promotion authorities are likely to initiate a plan of action to take advantage of the current situation in the Maldives to attract tourists to the country while enjoying the sun on blogger posts that have sent the country viral.
“We want to create a reverse situation from the time when Sri Lanka lost out its tourists to the Maldives when the former was not doing well,” Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Managing Director Sutheash Balasubramaniam told the Business Times on Tuesday. He noted that currently the matter was under discussion.
However, some opine that despite the setbacks there in the nation of atolls bookings were unlikely to be cancelled since there wouldn’t be any refunds carried out.
Mr. Balasubramaniam added that they would continue to use the digital and social media space to campaign for Sri Lanka Tourism as the latter through its blogger post has in the last nine months attracted about 500 posts reaching out to about 10 million people.
“This is one way of spreading the message about Sri Lanka and this is where other talk about Sri Lanka,” he said adding that a couple of those posts had also viral.
Moreover, he pointed out that they have some plans to use the CNN campaign to divert some of the traffic, which is expected to get off the ground by March.
The CNN and the SLTPB would decide on the content of the campaign, Mr. Balasubramaniam said.
In the meantime, the digital marketing campaign expected to kick off round about the same time has now got delayed by another month and is likely to be get underway by end April or May. The campaign is to last for about six months.
He also explained that they would be targeting some special campaign and programmes in partnership with credit cards and Google as well in future.
Maldives was slapped with travel advisories from the UK, China, the US, Canada and India that has led to a drop in arrivals into the country that is famous for its white sandy beaches and clear turquoise waters. The advisories have called travellers to exercise “high degree of caution” when deciding to travel to the Maldives.
Sri Lanka Tourist Hotels Association President Sanath Ukwatte said that they as an industry hoped the state authorities would take up the task of taking advantage of the current problems on the island nation and look at diverting tourist traffic to Sri Lanka.
He explained that as an industry they were coming up with their own strategies to work out plans on diverting the tourists to Sri Lanka.
“We should be able to take advantage of the situation and promote Sri Lanka as a safe destination,” Mr. Ukwatte said.