A Sri Lankan tourism promotion campaign in Japanwas launched under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Development, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Tokyo and the Nihon KeizaiAdvertising Company (ADEX) at on 14th December at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Tokyo.
The 15-month long tourism campaign under JICA funding will be executed by the ADEX advertising agency in Tokyo under close guidance of the Embassy of Sri Lanka.
The campaign will cover a range of areas which include a planned advertising campaign targeting consumers, event promotions, and promotional activities for travel agents and proposal based marketing andpromotional activities.
At the kick-off launch, Ambassador Admiral WasanthaKarannagoda cited that Sri Lanka is now one of the safest destinations in the world following the end of terrorism in 2009. The dawn of peace has paved the way for many travellers to visit Sri Lanka. Japanese travellers have shown an impressive increase of 43% in 2011 as compared to 2010 and Japanese tourists currently comprise the highest arrivals from the East Asian region.
The Ambassador also pointed out that the visit of the Japan Association for Travel Agents (JATA) President, Mr.Akira Kanai and the Executive Committee to Sri Lanka in November this year was a major landmark of Japanese visitor promotions, as the JATA Executive Committee is considered the most influential body of Japanese outbound travel. The visit paved the way for JATA members to familiarise themselves with Sri Lankan tourist products and to send a positive message to the travel trade in Japan on Sri Lanka as a lucrative travel destination.
The Ambassador also emphasized that the timely launch of this tourism campaign will coincide with the commemoration of 60 years of diplomatic relations between our two nations, inviting more Japanese travellers to Sri Lanka.
Embassy of Sri Lanka
Tokyo
15th December 2011
