By: Staff Writer
Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) has launched an aggressive promotional campaign, within the selected potential markets including Korea to compete with the potential competitors in the region.
As part of the plans, the Public Relation division at SLTPB are planning to bring down high profile journalists from key markets under their Visiting Journalists Program (VJP) to increase global awareness on destination Sri Lanka.
Under this Plan Sri Lanka is targeting Korean high-end travellers and those interested in visiting Buddhist attractions.
However, most of the elite South Korean frequent travelers still give their first choice to Europe as the possible holiday destination making around one million out of the total of more than 14 million travelers.
Sri Lanka will be seeing to position itself in the middle of potential high-end clientele from South Korea. As a colorful and compact tropical nation carrying a greater influence of Buddhists Culture, Sri Lanka has all the comfort and relaxation of a paradise to offer the South Korean tourists.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, in collaboration with the Embassy of Sri Lanka in the Republic of Korea and SriLankan Airlines, hosted a Media familiarization (FAM) tour for 7 journalists belonging to 6 Media houses.
These institutions are BTN TV (Buddhist Television Network) , BBS TV ( Buddhist Broadcasting System ), Arirang TV, and Hyundai Bulgyo Newspaper, Beopeo Newspaper Bulgyo newspaper ). The group consisted of 3 TV channels and 3 newspaper publications.
Sri Lanka Tourism said that the main purpose of the tour was to focus on Sri Lankan tourist attractions with special emphasis on Buddhist attractions since there is an increasing interest from the Buddhist population in the Republic of Korea to explore Buddhist sites in overseas destinations, especially in South Asia,
The media crew focused on the Sri Lankan culture, heritage, cuisine, wildlife and nature. They travelled to areas such as Galle, Ella, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Sigiriya, Dambulla, and Colombo.
“Since Korea has similar cultural and religious aspects as Sri Lanka and these visits were considered as important to the journalists, who were able to gain some valuable information regarding Sri Lanka’s Buddhist values and principles,” Sri Lanka Tourism said.
Sri Lanka Tourism said that such visits are used to spread a positive message about Sri Lanka being safe and open to any traveller who wishes to have an interesting and amazing experience and encourage more tourists to visit Sri Lanka, especially from East Asian countries.
SLTPB will be hosting the Korean media team during their Familiarization Tour program in Sri Lanka covering most of the highly regarded national attractions including Heritage & Cultural sites, Beauty of Nature in Highlands, Safari, Whale Watching and traditional local lifestyle in different parts of the island.
With these promotional media familiarization activities, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) is focusing on getting access to the strong South Korean outbound tourism market which numbered over 14 million tourist departures during the previous years.
This is witnessing the possibility of every one in four of the South Korean citizens having the financial capability of traveling abroad for their holiday.
