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Rebuilding Country Image
Sri Lankan Experience
By Ms Grace Asirvathan
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has experienced mixed fortunes over the past two and a half decades, it has had many hiccups, seen stagnant times but enjoyed many successful years too. It also remains among one of the top five foreign exchange earning sectors contributing immensely to the growth of rural areas.
Sri Lanka is grappling with an ethnic crisis for the last 25 years, which badly affected the tourism in many ways. The ethnic riots in 1983 severely affected the image of Sri Lanka abroad. In 1982, the total arrival of tourists stood at 407,000. But, following the riots, the continuous violence, and the LTTE propaganda against the government of Sri Lanka abroad, the number of tourist arrival plummeted to 284,000 in 1989. Further, Sri Lanka lost six aircraft in a terrorist attack at the International Airport in Colombo and many tourism infrastructures were also destroyed. Isolated bomb explosions in the capital scared away the tourists. However, Sri Lanka was able to rebuild its image by espousing many imperative measures within the country and through the Embassies abroad by various constructive and result-oriented programmes.
Sri Lanka engaged reputed public relations agencies abroad to regain the image and re-attract tourists. Sri Lanka is spending more than 300 million rupees on public relations agencies to promote tourism. Further, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board has created a tourism development fund to help the industry. In addition, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board was up-graded to an “A” category institution by the Treasury with a view of providing more financial allocations in order to achieve maximum results.
Further, Sri Lanka on a routine basis brings in journalists from various countries so that they would write the truth about the country. Overseas promotions take a distinctive place on the tourism agenda of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has started consumer awareness programmes in growing markets, by participating in large consumer fairs where people gather in large numbers. It proved very successful and the tourist arrival numbers started to increase ever since.
As tourism is one of the major industries in Sri Lanka, which provides foreign exchange and employment, the government took various measures to convince the international community on the issue of ethnic crisis that the government was doing everything possible to settle it through acceptable means. A particular focus was given to the improvement of the human rights situation and further concessions were made to accommodate the LTTE’s demands on ethnic crisis resolution and thereby the government showed its commitment to solve the crisis through political means. This gained the trust of the international community.
The homework done by the government of Sri Lanka on the internal ethnic crisis situation and the promotional activities undertaken by the tourism authorities and all other connected agencies produced positive outcome in this sector.
Sri Lanka participates in most of the international travel fairs and forums related to tourism and aggressively markets Sri Lanka as a “year around tourist destination”. Sri Lanka also hosts many travel fairs in Sri Lanka to encourage the local tour promoters and the industry and particularly to get international buyers for the new products. The government is giving 100 percent attention to the tourism industry and there is a co-ordinated approach between the government and the private sector as one entity to promote tourism together. This mechanism is working without difficulty and in 2004, before the Tsunami, Sri Lanka witnessed the highest number of tourist arrivals in the history of tourism in Sri Lanka. Around 560,000 tourists visited Sri Lanka in 2004. Though the Tsunami, which struck Sri Lanka mercilessly, caused heavy damage to the tourism infrastructure, the devastation also brought unexpected publicity to the country. The international media took Sri Lanka’s beauty and hospitality to all corners of the world while reporting the account of the calamity caused by the Tsunami. The international community pledged support towards rebuilding the country. The post-Tsunami account of today, however, says that tourism is very much functional and the damages will not in anyway cause problem or create shortcomings to the tourists. This message was successfully disseminated in the potential markets, and as a result the flow of tourist arrival has started to increase gradually once again. We had estimated a 20 percent drop in arrival in 2005. However, we are satisfied with the ongoing trend.
Marketing
Sri Lanka was known the world over for its golden beaches. However, Sri Lanka has now realised that it cannot remain as a beach destination alone, due to the emergence of several other beach destinations in the neighbourhood. Then came a change of the slogan. From beach, the concept took a new focus to culture, nature, and adventure and conference destination. The industry hurriedly came up with innovative ideas and products following the new concept and the government also encouraged the industry to develop niche markets such as villas, boutique hotels and heritage hotels for high spenders. In recent times, the diversification grew into areas such as health, Aurveda, spa and sports concepts.
Currently, Sri Lanka attracts tourists even from untraditional markets such as Eastern Europe and Far East Asia on special tourism packages. While concentrating on the numbers, right clientele and new products, Sri Lanka has undertaken to develop new properties and new tourist spots by acquiring land for future purposes. The Sri Lanka Tourist Board is building new resorts in order to cater to future demands. In this way the industry endeavours to promote every segment of tourism with emphasis on the changing perception of the visitors and educating them on the diverse attractions waiting to be discovered on the island of Sri Lanka.
For resurrecting the industry, the tourism authorities have formulated an action plan for this year under which a Travel Mart titled “Sri Lanka: Gateway to South Asia” was held in Colombo this month (June 2005). The buyer and seller participation in this event surpassed the previous year’s records. Another programme called “Bounce back Sri Lanka” to give boost to the drive to make Sri Lanka the most sought after destination once again, is actively being implemented by all agencies in the tourism industry.
Tsunami is now a thing of the past. The recovery has been swift. While the traditional markets continue to support the industry, new markets are showing tremendous interest. Among them are China, Korea, North America, Canada and Middle East. All these are positive signals that indicate Sri Lanka’s “Bounce back Campaign” is achieving its objectives.
How to rebuild tourism through the Embassies abroad?
Sri Lanka has been using her Embassies abroad for tourism promotion productively. Sri Lanka established Tourist Board Offices with home-based Tourist Board officials in the capitals of important tourism market countries to facilitate and promote tourism in Sri Lanka. They function as the official spokesperson for tourism related matters in those capitals. In other countries, diplomatic officers are assigned to do this task. These officials function under the guidance of the Head of the Mission and devote full time on tourism promotion.
There is a mechanism within the Foreign Ministry to assess the performance of the Embassies abroad. At the beginning of the year, the Embassies will submit a work programme, and accordingly the progress will be monitored, and the achievements will be compared with the targets. If the performance is not satisfactory, the Embassies may be required to give reasons for it and in some cases, additional facilities will be given to achieve the targets. Further, the Foreign Ministry summons periodical meetings with government and private sector representatives to review the economic activities performed by the Embassies abroad. This is a good system to keep a close check on the Embassies’ performances of not only tourism promotional activities but also all other economic matters.
The embassies should engage in two main activities, namely information related activities and investment related activities, to promote tourism.
Under the information related responsibilities, following points are worth mentioning:
1. The embassies are expected to disseminate accurate country status information to all stakeholders and the public in order to counter false propaganda against the country instigated by interested parties. Especially, reversing the adverse travel advisories through convincing the respective governments is the major responsibility of the Embassy. A close co-ordination between the Embassy and home country agencies like the Ministry of Tourism, Tourist Board and private sector is recommended in order to work as a team to reach the common goal.
2. Monitoring of media, both printed and electronic by the Embassies is very important in countering negative publicity. In this case Embassies should take extra measures to counter such negative publicity and advise the tourism authorities back home of the potential problems in the market specific media due to the adverse publicity. The Embassies should work together with the tourism authorities to issue press releases, statements, and clarifications and conduct workshops, seminars and various other activities towards clearing any misapprehension or adverse publicity on the country, which will have a direct impact on the tourism industry.
3. As terrorism is widespread, violence cannot be avoided in any part of the world. However, any incident of violence in tourist destinations should be cleared through public statements and various other medium of communication to reach the tourism market specific media. If immediate action is not taken by the Embassy to dispel rumours, the media will exaggerate it, based on the reports filed by the media agencies.
4. The Embassies should also liase and work in partnership with public relations agencies existing in each market under the stewardship of the Tourist Board/tourism authorities. The Embassies should always establish close links with such agencies to maintain a good rapport and working relationship, which would make their task easier.
5. The Embassies are also expected to maintain close relations with influential and free travel and life-style media. This will project the country’s image progressively to a great extent
6. Further simplification of visa process for friendly media, based on prior relations with Embassies or upon recommendation by the public relations agency partners is vital. Visas for tourists should also be simplified and the Embassies should extend extra courtesies and facilities in handling visa applications and issue them expeditiously.
7. The government should make the Embassy an umbrella organisation to include the Tourist Board Office, representative office of the National Carrier and any other organisations or agencies of the home country in those capitals to work under the Embassy towards promotion of tourism. For example, in certain countries, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board Office, Sri Lanka Airline Office, Sri Lanka Tea Board Office, Sri Lanka Export Development Board Office work closely with the Embassy to organise tourism promotion activities.
Embassies are not only geared to promote tourism by encouraging many tourists to visit the country, but also to establish a good relationship with potential investors on tourism development projects.
In this regard, the Embassies should organise activities to disseminate information to the prospective investors to develop the tourism industry in their home country.
Further, it is also important to connect the investors with the relevant parties and institutions in the home country to help identify the projects for investment. The Embassies should keep in constant touch with the authorities in the home country to facilitate the investors’ requirements and to simplify the procedures which will give a positive image to the country’s bureaucratic system thereby attracting more investors into the country.
The Embassies-investor relation activities should be aimed at increasing awareness of investment potentials in the tourism industry in the home country. The Embassies should also scout for international brand to invest in their home country tourism products.
Since the Embassies abroad are the first contact point for potential tourists, efficiency in dealing with the tourists will earn a good reputation. Delay in issuing visas, providing information, discourtesies will spoil the image and make the country less competitive in the fast growing global tourism industry. Since globalisation is the main theme in the contemporary world, the Embassies should be geared to focus on economic diplomacy than political. Countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal should take extra measures to develop the tourism infrastructure to provide quality products and market them abroad competently, through the embassies to reach the desired goals.
(Ms Asirvathan is the Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Nepal)
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