Sri Lanka tourism promotion in Tokyo

A Sri Lankan tourism promotion campaign in Japan was 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 Keizai Advertising Company (ADEX) on December 14 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Tokyo.

The 15-month 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 and promotional activities.

At the launch, Ambassador Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda 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 percent 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, 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 emphasised 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.