- Allegations of forging bid documents by officials
- Ministry probing allegations, temporary transfers
The launch of the long-awaited global advertising campaign for Sri Lanka Tourism is now facing uncertainty as the entire procurement process launched to select a suitable company is currently mired in controversy.
The controversy has arisen following the revelation of an alleged forging of a bid document by several top officials of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), The Sunday Morning reliably learns.
It is learnt that a group of officials had allegedly forged a bid document in favour of one bidding company out of two during an international tender and replaced documents.
When contacted by The Sunday Morning, SLTPB Chairman Chalaka Gajabahu stressed that an investigation was currently being conducted by the Tourism Ministry and therefore he could not divulge any further information regarding the alleged incident.
However, as learnt by The Sunday Morning, allegations have been levelled against a group of six top officials and three other officials involved with the tender.
As per the sources, the ministry has penalised the officials and they have been given temporary transfers until the investigations are completed.
The global advertising campaign has been delayed for years due to several reasons, but has been desperately awaited by the industry, especially in the backdrop of the ongoing economic crisis, with almost the entire industry suffering and the country being in dire need of foreign exchange.
Industry personnel charged that the delay in launching the campaign had caused a massive loss to the country as it would have attracted more tourists.
Arrivals have seen a decline since the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019, followed by the Covid-19 outbreak.
The campaign was scheduled to be conducted for a period of five years and was aimed at bringing in six million tourists by 2025. It has already received Cabinet approval and carries an estimated cost of around $ 1.3 million.
The campaign is expected to increase arrivals from the following countries by 25%: the Eastern and Middle Eastern Markets category, including countries such as Australia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and other countries in the region, and the New Markets category, including the US, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, and Spain.
The selected agencies were supposed to conduct digital tourism marketing activities and Public Relations (PR) campaigns in the Eastern and Middle Eastern mature markets while also carrying out Above the Line (ATL) and Below the Line (BTL) marketing campaigns.
Tourism marketing for new markets was to be conducted by PR agencies, showcasing PR activities to attract tourists from those markets.
All attempts by The Sunday Morning to contact Tourism Minister Harin Fernando and Secretary H.M.B.P. Herath were futile.
