SL Tourism gears to capitalise on first-mover advantage launching global marketing blitz

• Says new normal made it “mandatory’ for SL to expedite campaign launch
• Call for tenders already started; awarding of contracts expected by end-June

The ‘Global Communication Campaign’, conceptualized to promote Sri Lanka as a tourism destination, will see its launch expedited as the island nation eyes to capitalize on first-mover advantage in being among the first countries to open doors to international visitors.

According to Sri Lanka Tourism, the new normal has made it “mandatory” for the country to launch the campaign so that it remains competitive in the global tourism market and make the most of the innovative re-opening model adopted by the country, which has been hailed internationally. 

“An integrated global communication campaign is a dream the tourism Industry of Sri Lanka always had but was not able to materialise pertaining to many reasons such as financial barriers, bureaucratic obstacles, lack of competency and strategic drive to initiate the project. 

However, despite all these hindrance factors and barriers, Sri Lanka Tourism has taken a bold step in materialising the long awaited ‘Global Communication Campaign’ for Sri Lanka,” Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) said in a statement to the media yesterday.

It added that the news of the launch of the five-year Global Communication Campaign has been taken “very well” by the industry and is a key milestone and delivery for the government.

Call for tenders have already kicked off for the campaign with the SLTDA inviting bid proposals from digital agencies, creative agencies, and campaign management agencies. A pre-bid meeting, chaired by the SLTDA Chairperson Kimarli Fernando was also held recently. The awarding of contracts for tenders is expected to take place by the end of June this year, SLTDA said. As part of the implementation structure, a campaign management agency, research agency, digital marketing agency and a creative agency will be appointed locally. Furthermore, eight destination representative companies (DRCs) in eight key markets and eight public relations companies (PRCs) in eight emerging markets will be appointed.  SLTDA shared that DRCs and PRCs will be responsible for implementing the communication campaign strategy locally in their respective markets. 

“A 20 agency framework is to be appointed to manage and to deliver the campaign. This framework was proposed after much analysis and debate to avoid gaps and barriers that prevented Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka Tourism from implementing such a holistic global communication campaign,” SLTDA said.

It added that the methodology adopted would ensure the delivery of the campaign is in line with the procurement guidelines and requirements, while ensuring the campaign is designed and delivered to benefit the destination and industry as a whole. Meanwhile, the second stage of the project was the development of RFPs (request for proposals) to secure and to appoint the proposed agency structure to implement the campaign, SLTDA shared.

The first phase was the development of local tenders (RFPs), which has been published. The research tender will be advertised within the coming months, following which the international tenders for the eight DRCs and PRCs will be rolled out.