Sri Lanka to intensify tourism promotion in China

Sri Lanka's iconic rail network dates back to the period of British colonial rule.A trip on the train in Sri Lanka is unforgettable.[Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka's tourism promotion arm has tied up with China's "Travel Channel," to promote the island aggressively in China starting from next month, a statement from Sri Lanka Tourism said on Wednesday.

"The Travel Channel," which has an audience of 650 million Chinese, will use a mix of both programs and commercials to help promote Sri Lanka.

The agreement to start the proposed campaign was also signed between the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and the Chinese Travel Channel. Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and Sri Lanka Embassy in China organized this television advertising campaign.

Yan Yi, director of the Travel Channel and Rumy Jauffer, managing director of the Sri Lanka Tourist Promotion Board, signed the agreement.

Under the agreement, the Travel Channel will broadcast 2,500 advertisements spots and over 500 minutes of feature programs and interviews about Sri Lanka during the whole of January 2014.

Sri Lanka is the first country the Chinese Travel Channel has chosen to provide advertising exposure in the year of 2014, the channel said in a statement.

Parallel to that, "The Travel Channel" of China will also distribute the Sri Lankan content via six of its online sites and other social media tools which reaches an audience of nearly 350 million Chinese.

The 13-member TV crew will visit places such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Yala, Negombo, Pinnawala, Kandy, Nuwara-Eliya, Rathnapura, Sigiriya, Pasikudha during their seven-day stay in Sri Lanka to film the Island's tourism attractions.

Sri Lanka in recent years has been aggressively promoting the country in the Chinese market.

Apart from the Travel Channel promotion campaign, it will also continue with a 3-day mega promotional campaign which will be held in Shanghai.

During 2013 a three-day campaign was conducted in Beijing, while a 200 buses branding promotional campaign also was carried out in major Chinese cities for a period of six months.

Sri Lanka is also planning to take part in five international travel fairs and organize familiarization tours for around 200 foreign journalists and Tour operators during year 2014.

China ranks among the top 10 countries from which Sri Lanka received the highest number of tourists during year 2013, recording a massive 75.4 percent increase in the first ten months this year.

At present China is Sri Lanka's eighth largest market for tourists.