The gathering at the conference was addressed by SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe at the opening session. On behalf of Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts, Ajit Gunewardene – the Deputy Chairman of John Keells Holdings welcomed the gathering and stated that “The idea to host this conference has been under discussion for about a year and many thought it was too ambitious considering the fact that a conference of this nature has never been done before. That was exactly what we needed to hear to go ahead and do it!”

Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts presented this novel concept to the Professional Travel Bloggers Association (PTBA) which convinced them to organise the event together with their members. Thereafter SriLankan airlines hosted the 45 selected bloggers from all over the world, making this conference a unique landmark in the sphere of Travel Blogging.

The keynote address was given by the Global Editor of BBC Travel, Alison Busacca on the topic “Content isn’t King, Good content is – an Insight to Travel Media and. Blogging”.

A total of 250 people attended the conference which operated in two simultaneous tracks. One track was dedicated for the Travel Bloggers where topics relevant to developing their respective blogs were discussed and the other catered to the Hospitality and Travel Industry professionals in Sri Lanka. The industry participants were also offered a unique opportunity to network one-on-one with all the bloggers through a Speed Networking session at the end of the conference.

Among the elite group of speakers at the conference key representatives of Google South Asia, TripAdvisor, Times of London, Four GB PR, Revinate and TravelClick were present together with the Professional Travel Bloggers and Digital marketing experts.

Ajit concluded his speech which captures the objective of Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts for TBCasia 2014 by saying “throughout the course of the day we will be learning more of how Travel Blogging and Digital Marketing will play a part in the success of our Brands and Sri Lanka as a destination.

I hope this will give you a greater understanding on how to use these tools effectively in order to create synergies across the Sri Lankan Travel and Tourism Industry”.