Sri Lanka Tourism welcomed, by far the biggest international travel influencers and journalists group this year to promote Sri Lanka as a tourist destination.
Representing the key source markets for Sri Lanka, this delegation arrived from the United Kingdom, France, Russia, India, Italy, Netherlands, Australia, Spain, USA, and Indonesia. Overall, the group of travel influencers and media carried a global audience of 5.5 million via mainstream social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tik Tok), travel news websites, and traditional media publications. The total advertising value expected to be gained from this earned media promotion will be over Rs. 71 million.
Prior to starting the 10-day Destination Promotional Press Trip Series covering some of the most exciting tourism highlights on the island, the delegation was warmly welcomed by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, followed by a reception organised by the Mount Lavinia Hotel to mark their arrival, under the patronage of Minister of Tourism, Harin Fernando, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Chalaka Gajabahu and SLTPB officials.
The tour kicked off on March 21 to March 29, 2023 covering Colombo, Seethawaka, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Ella, Udawalawa, Galle, and Kosgoda.
This timely important destination promotional project was organised by the SLTPB, under the Visiting Journalist and Blogger Programs 2023 (VJP/VBP-2023) with the focus to promote the island as the ideal South Asian tropical holidaymaker for 2023.
During this destination, a promotional Familiarisation Tour, current situational updates about Sri Lankan economic recovery, and progress made within the tourism industry were also given to the media delegation to share with their millions of travel audiences.
Some of their highlighted experiences included taking part in a cooking demonstration done by world-renowned chef Pubilis Silva at The Mount Lavinia Hotel, holding Sea turtles at the Sheraton Kosgoda Turtle Beach Resort, hiking at the Hantana Mountain range, visit to Elephant Transit Home Udawalawe, and enjoying the panoramic view etc. Several Tourism Industry stakeholders supported in making this national tourism industry promotional initiative a success. These included Mount Lavinia Hotel, Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts, Sheraton Kosgoda Turtle Beach Resort, Walkers Tours Sri Lanka, Ebert Silva Holidays, and other tourism industry stakeholders.
Italian travel influencer and travel journalist, Anna Pernese has over 50,000 readers for her blog posts and two lakhs people on Pinterest and Instagram accounts. This is what she said about her visit to Sri Lanka.
‘’This is my first visit to Sri Lanka. Many people in some parts of Italy know about Sri Lanka. When I came to Sri Lanka, I realised how beautiful this country is. People are very nice here and friendly.”
Sunday Observer