Tourism and Sports Minister Navin Dissanayake in conversation with TFI Director Production Jack Thomas Richard. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Chairman Rohantha Athukorala is also present

The new Minister for Tourism and Sports Navin Dissanayake has invited the leading French TV channel NT 1 from France to film the prime time TV program ‘Bachelor’ (French version) in Sri Lanka in line with the global trend of marketing tourist destinations via film tourism.

TFI Director Production Jack Thomas Richard commended the new direction that Sri Lanka Tourism is charting given that New Zealand was able to appeal to a wider audience globally when the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie was filmed in New Zealand.
The initiative also projected New Zealand as an innovative and creative nation and a great place to make films and do business apart from boosting the tourism industry.
Latest insight from the New Zealand institute for economic research reveals that when the film epic ‘Lord of the Rings’ was filmed in New Zealand, almost 6% of the tourists who came to New Zealand attributed the reason for visiting the country being due to the film.
Another study revealed that almost 1% of the visitors wanted to see the exact locations that the film depicted, which explains the worldwide phenomenon of film marketing to develop a country’s tourism.
Minister Dissanayake stated: “The popular TV series Bachelor that will be aired in France will be filmed across the world and I am happy that we have been able to get Sri Lanka into the choice set.”
“Episode 1-2 is to be filmed in Spain, 4-5 in Paris, 6-8 in the Alps and episode 9-10 in Sri Lanka. This is a big win for the country and we must pursue this strategy as a Public-Private Partnership project as the beneficiaries must be the private sector,” said Dissanayake.
Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau Chairman Rohantha Athukorala commented: “The program Bachelor (French version) attracts a viewership of 1.3 million in France and as the Minister said, it commands a prime time belt. The three-hour program can feature some unique locations across Sri Lanka. Given the content of the program being very youth-led, it will reach a new set of potential visitors from France which is the type of quality traveller Sri Lanka must attract.”
In 2014, 78,883 visitors were recorded into Sri Lanka from France. Sri Lanka is targeting 100,000 visitors from France in 2015. The above initiative is one such strategies to achieve the targeted number.

Source :http://www.ft.lk/2015/02/06/navin-advocates-marketing-sri-lanka-via-film-tourism/