10 November 2016 12:00 am
Cinnamon team – Sunimal Senanayake, Rohan Karr, Krishan Balendran with Paddy Withana at the London WTM Cinnamon stall
Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts recently announced yet another exciting addition to its growing calendar of events. Launched at World Travel Market (WTM) in London, the Cinnamon Sri Lanka Photo Contest will celebrate the best travel photography captured in Sri Lanka in recent years.
The competition will in turn help increase the dialogue on Sri Lanka as one of the world’s top travel destinations and help capture new perspectives on the island and its unparalleled visual appeal.
The competition was launched at an event hosted by Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts at WTM, attended by Tourism Development and Christian Affairs Minister John Amaratunga, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Board Chairman, SriLankan Airlines Chairman, leading travel bloggers and other industry leaders recently.
The Cinnamon Sri Lanka Photo Contest is another groundbreaking initiative to promote the destination similar to the many initiatives such as the 45th Miss Intercontinental 2016, Cinnamon TBCasia (Travel Bloggers Conference), Future of Tourism Summit and a series of other events conceptualized and initiated by Cinnamon in recent years.
Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts has also continuously strived to acknowledge the supporting sectors that shape the travel industry. The first-ever Cinnamon Travel Blogger Awards held earlier this year celebrated the world’s top bloggers in many specialized areas of the craft from well-written travel stories to well strategized digital media. This latest addition, in the form of a photography competition will go on to acknowledge the power of visual storytelling and powerful travel imaging when it comes to a traveller picking Sri Lanka as his destination of choice.
The competition will be judged by an esteemed panel that includes National Geographic photographer Ami Vitale, award-winning wildlife photographer and Head of Cinnamon Nature Trails Chitral Jayatilake, winner of the ‘Wanderlust’ photographer of the year Paul Goldstein and wildlife enthusiast and author Gehan De S. Wijeyaratne among others.
A series of attractive prizes will be awarded to winners in a number of categories including Marine & Wildlife Photography, Landscapes & Cityscapes, Interiors, People & Culture and video-based Travel Shorts. A grand winner will also be selected and named Cinnamon Travel Photographer of the Year with a prize package that includes an all-expenses paid, three-week holiday in Sri Lanka. Photographers with any level of experience, working in SLR, DSLR, HD Video and Mobile Phone photography are welcome to enter and stand a chance to win.
Entries for the Cinnamon Sri Lanka Photo Contest will be open on January 1, 2017 and submissions can be uploaded directly on to the competition website at www.cinnamonhotels.com/photocontest until March 31, 2017. A grand final will be held in Colombo in April 2017, exhibiting the work of winners and finalists in each category.
The Cinnamon Sri Lanka Photo Contest is conceptualized by Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts in partnership with e-Marketing Eye, the Sri Lanka Tourist Promotion Board, Mobitel and SriLankan Airlines.