From ‘Small Miracle’ to…?

Ministry allocates Rs. 550 m for international marketing

By Nizla Naizer

From ‘Small Miracle’ to what? Tourism Ministry Secretary George Michael informed that the new tagline for Sri Lanka Tourism will be revealed before World Tourism Day on September 27.
He explained that after Tourism Minister Nandana Goonethilleke’s request to the public and professionals of the country to send in their ideas on a suitable tagline, hundreds of ideas and concepts were forwarded to the Ministry. “The response has been amazing and diverse,” he explained, “From ‘Miles of Smiles’ to ‘Refreshingly Sri Lanka’ the ideas that have come in from school children and professionals have been creative and catchy.”
Along with several suggestions by the firm that originally came up with the ‘Small Miracle’ tagline, a committee appointed by the Tourism Minister will reveal their choice soon.
“We expect it will not deviate too much from the previous tagline of ‘Small Miracle’ because the essence of it was that Sri Lanka is a place where miracles happen from the ending of the war to the compactness of the country.” Potential frontrunners to the new tagline include ‘Every Moment a Miracle’.
Meanwhile, he explained that the new budget proposals by the Tourism Ministry will focus on increasing the capacity of the transport fleet available for tourists and refurbishment of hotels not only in the city but in several parts of the island.
“Currently, the fleet of 45-60 seat buses to chauffeur driven cars need serious upgrades as the ones we have are insufficient and several too old. We already implemented a concession for motor car imports and refurbishment for tourist purposes and for this budget we propose that individual chauffeur guides to be given concessions.”
He also said that refurbishment is a dire need for many city hotels which he assured would be entered into the recommended budget proposals. Meanwhile, the Minimum Room Rate Agreement for Colombo City Hotels will also be implemented at the end of the year to convert them into competitive players in the market.
The Ministry has also decided to allocate Rs. 550 million for international marketing efforts of Sri Lanka Tourism which he assured will kick off soon. “We had put on hold the campaigns on Al Jazeera, CNN, BBC and the Discovery Channel till the tagline was changed, but we may start the campaign before the new tagline is out this week.”
He added that a further USD 20-30 million would be allocated to taking Sri Lanka Tourism forward in global markets in the next year. Meanwhile, the final agreement between officials of the World Bank and the Ministry for a USD 20 million capacity building grant will be signed at the end of this year. Michael explained that the project will focus on improving the capacity of Provincial level authorities and structures to facilitate interaction with hoteliers and improving basic infrastructure and SMEs in the industry.