Marketing Sri Lanka via film tourism

Tourism and Sports Minister Navin Dissanayake has invited the leading French TV channel NT 1 to film the prime time TV program ‘Bachelor' (French version) in Sri Lanka in line with the global trend of marketing tourist destinations via film tourism.

Director Production, Jack Thomas-Richard of TFI Production, commended the new direction Sri Lanka Tourism is charting given that New Zealand appealed to a wider audience globally when Lord of the Rings movie was filmed in New Zealand. The initiative also projected New Zealand as an innovative and creative nation and a great place to make films and do business apart from boosting the tourist industry.

The latest insight from the New Zealand Institute for Economic Research reveals that when the film epic Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand almost six percent of the tourists who came to New Zealand attributed the reason for visiting the country as the film.

Another study revealed that almost one percent of the visitors wanted to see the exact locations that the film depicted which explains the world wide phenomenon of film marketing to develop tourism.

Minister Dissanayake said, “The popular TV series 'Bachelor' aired in France will be filmed across the world and I am happy that we got Sri Lanka into the choice set”.

Episode 1-2 is to be filmed in Spain, 4-5 in Paris, 6-8 in the Alps and episode 9-10 in Sri Lanka.

"This is a big win for the country and we must pursue this strategy as a public-private partnership as the beneficiaries must be the private sector," he said.

The Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Rohantha Athukorala said, “The program 'Bachelor' (French version) attracts a viewership of 1.3 million in France and as the Minister said it commands a prime time belt. The three-hour program may feature some unique locations across Sri Lanka."

"The content of the program being youth led, it will reach a new set of potential visitors in France which is the type of quality traveller Sri Lanka must attract,” he said.

In 2014, there were 78,883 visitors from France. Sri Lanka is targeting 100,000 visitors from France in 2015. This initiative is one strategy to achieve the targeted number.