This week, the tourism industry saw the official launch of the newest tagline ‘Sri Lanka – You’ll come back for more’, a renewed pitch to promote the island nation, as it looks to revive from the repeated impacts since mid-2019.
Although the new tagline made its debut earlier in October at the International French Market (IFTM) Top Resa, the concept was officially unveiled in Sri Lanka this week.
“Sri Lanka has done so well on its own, thanks to the industry, who have spearheaded all the campaigns on their own but I think Sri Lanka Tourism has done well through the campaign. What we have to realise is that all of us have to play a role to get people to visit Sri Lanka and to ensure the experience is such that they will come again,” said Tourism Minister Harin Fernando addressing the gathering.
“Sri Lanka has much more to offer than what people know about it. Though we are an island, we have so much to offer and with wide diversity,” he added.
Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau Chaiman Chalaka Gajabahu highlighted the importance of the 360-degree marketing campaign, which was put off for years by the relevant authorities.
Ogilvy conceptualised the new campaign. Ogilvy CEO Sudesh Sundhara Moorthy took the attendees through the process and strategies adopted for the campaign, which highlighted that the need was to “immediately” develop the campaign ‘Check In’, which communicates that Sri Lanka is safe and ready to welcome tourists.
This was followed by a brand positioning strategy and the brand campaign, which focused on three pillars – Sri Lanka as a compact island, Sri Lanka as a land of diversity and a land that offers authentic experiences.
“No other island of this size can match what we can offer. We also wanted to look at what the travellers were looking for and the perspective of the potential traveller,” said Moorthy.
The authorities at the event stressed that Sri Lanka tourism is on a “steadfast and positive” journey ahead with its rapid increase of tourist arrivals each month. It recently passed the target of one million tourist arrivals.
The authorities expressed confidence in the industry ending the year with over 1.55 million tourists as targeted
Sri Lanka Travel Feneteko