The Embassy of Sri Lanka in partnership with the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau participated at Travel News Market 2019 held at the Stockholm Waterfront on 07 November. Travel News Market is considered as the most influential B2B event for the travel industry representatives in Sweden. This provides an ideal platform for networking for the top decision-makers, experts and young professionals within the tourism value-added chain. The 2019 fair attracted 220 exhibitors with approximately 1500 business visitors. Five prominent travel companies represented the Sri Lanka tourism industry at the Sri Lanka pavilion. The Sri Lanka pavilion was declared open by the Ambassador Sudantha Ganegama Arachchi.
Most of the visitors to the Sri Lanka pavilion indicated that, despite an immediate decline in tourist arrivals following the Easter Sunday attacks, Sri Lanka is now emerging as a trendy destination. They expressed the necessity to have a dynamic promotional campaign with a particular focus on digital media, reaching out to the majority of Swedish travelers. Ambassador Sudantha Ganegama Arachchi was interviewed for the Travel News Market video and by leading travel writers in the industry. His message was that Sri Lanka remains an attractive and safe travel destination open to travelers from all corners of the world.
The Embassy officials also had one to one meetings with the leading airlines operating frequent flights to Sri Lanka to identify possibilities of organizing joint promotional campaigns including FAM trips for the year 2020. The proposal was well received by the airlines. Meetings were also held with the travel writers and travel agents to discuss how to showcase Sri Lanka as an exclusive travel destination standing out among other competing destinations.
Considering the views and suggestions of the stakeholders in the travel trade, the Embassy will design and launch its tourism promotional campaign for Sweden in 2020.
