Sri Lanka is planning a full-fledged marketing and promotional campaign to lure tourists from the Middle East with "a terrorism-free destination" slogan.

The country suffered 30 years of conflict but the hostilities finally ended in May with the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). It is now opening up to a new era of foreign investment and increased tourist traffic.

The Sri Lankan Government has commissioned branding consultants in the UAE and Sri Lanka for that purpose. It has also set up a marketing office in the UAE that works closely with the embassy and the UAE tourism authorities to promote Sri Lanka as a diverse value-for-money destination.

And it is establishing tie-ups with stakeholders in the region to develop its tourism infrastructure and achieve the target of 2.5 million tourists per year by 2016.

Faiszer Musthapha, Sri Lanka Minister of Tourism Promotion, spoke to Emirates Business about the plans and challenges facing the sector in the country.

Sri Lanka has established a destination marketing office in Dubai. Does this mean you are focusing on the Middle East?

The Middle East is an important focus for us and a promising market. On the one side it is less sensitive than Europe when it comes to understanding the past situation in Sri Lanka, and on the other it is a virgin market for us. Since we started focusing on the Middle East we have seen record growth of tourism traffic from this region.

In August, the number of tourists from the region increased by 104 per cent compared to the same period last year. We have posted a growth of 41 per cent in the past nine months from the Middle East alone. Not only that, we are trying to woo investors from the region as well. To reach our target of 2.5 million tourists by 2016, we need 50,000 hotel rooms. We have currently between 14,000 and 17,000 rooms and are looking at opportunities to draw tourism investments to Sri Lanka. Most of the world regards the Middle East as a promising investment pool, and we are also eyeing this region for investment, especially as Sri Lanka is a virgin markets for investor from the region and can offer vast opportunities. There are not many international hotel chains in Sri Lanka. The Six Senses chain recently started operations in Sri Lanka and there is still a lot of room for international investment, we are noticing the growing interest. In that sense, we have to go where the investment money is. At the moment, the Middle East is the only region where people have disposable income.

What is the destination marketing office and what is its mandate in the UAE?

Now that Sri Lanka has overcome terrorism across every inch of its land, we are seeking to promote our country. We were previously sceptical about investing in destination promotion but are now increasing our budget. We set up the office last October to liase with the embassy and the tourism authorities in the UAE. Together they work on attracting tourists, promoting our messages and co-operating with local authorities.

Dubai has agreed to use events to promote Sri Lanka as a tourism destination. We have also appointed a PR agency, BizCom, to promote the island country, in addition to a country branding agency in Sri Lanka.

Do you intend to use platforms such as the Dubai Shopping Festival and Dubai Summer Surprises to promote tourism in Sri Lanka?

We are looking into the possibility of tying up with such events and other similar ones. I have met the Director-General of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing and am positive.

What is your marketing budget?

As a government we have had a minimal marketing budget. I cannot reveal the figures but I can tell you that we have been increasing this budget between 20 and 30 per cent on an annual basis.

With peace established in our country, we will be able to increase our budgets more, although I believe that it will be easy to promote Sri Lanka now even with small budgets, given the beauty of the country, the hospitality of the people and the high quality tourism human resources. We are planning to launch a new marketing and advertising campaign that will include ads in international TV channels such as BBC World and CNN, with whom we have co-operated before. In the region, we are working with Al Jazeera TV to promote Sri Lanka to the GCC audience and this campaign will also be launched next month.

Are you targeting the GCC in particular or the Middle East as a whole?

At the moment we are focusing on the GCC countries. Our office in Dubai also serves this purpose, but we are looking towards expanding to the rest of the Middle East including the Levant at a later stage. In addition, we are currently developing an Arabic website for the Ministry of Tourism because we believe it will allow us to communicate much more easily with our target audience in the region, especially as it is going to be one of our major focal points going forward. The content has been ready since August and we are waiting for the design to be finalised. Our plan is to have this website ready and launched before the end of the year.

Sri Lanka has faced many challenges in past years – tsunami and the long conflict with the Tamil Tigers. How does your country plan to recover from this trauma and attract tourists?

Sri Lanka has suffered from internal war for the past 30 years. The situation has changed and we have liberated every inch of our land, showing the world that we had the might and the power to fight terrorism and defeat it after three decades. The sector that suffered the most during the war was tourism but it will now be the one that benefits most. The government is currently placing a major stress on developing tourism in Sri Lanka and promoting the country as a diverse, culture-rich destination. Despite Sri Lanka's attractions, people have been sceptical about visiting our country due to the conflict. Our main aim right now is to inform them that the reason for being afraid to visit the country has now disappeared. As a part of this effort, our government has named 2011 as 'Visit Sri Lanka Year'.

How will the global financial crisis affect your plans to promote Sri Lanka as a tourism and investment destination, and what challenges are you facing?

As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, the crisis has not had a major impact on our economy. While the rest of the world has seen a decline in the past year, since the beginning of the crisis our country has shown positive signs of growth. We believe Sri Lanka currently offers a value-for-money destination. We do not like to promote it as a cheap country, but with top quality amenities our country is a relatively less expensive destination. For example, a five-star hotel room that is $2,500 [Dh9,180] anywhere else is $500 in Sri Lanka. As part of our promotional campaign we are offering a VFM package – a value for money experience. We are targeting tourism operators as well as journalists who will be effective in promoting the country.


Major influx of Arab visitors

Sri Lanka has reported a major influx of Arab travellers, with Middle East tourist arrivals to the island country surging by 41 per cent in the first nine months of 2009 compared to the same period last year.

ºThe Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau's Middle East office said the strongest growth was from the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,

Bahrain and Kuwait followed by France, Finland, Norway, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, India, Australia and New Zealand.

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