FutureBrand donates Country Branding Index report to CRST

FutureBrand SE Asia, CEO Sarah Reiter returned to Sri Lanka to officially donate the FutureBrand 2012-2013 Country Brand Index (CBI) valued at $ 80,000 to the Centre for Research and Sustainable Studies in Tourism (CRST) as part of their commitment to Sri Lanka's nation building.

Ms Reiter said, "FutureBrand has been conducting the global Country Brand Index for the past eight years and we were delighted Sri Lanka achieved entry in the last round of research, moving into the rankings for the first time at such a respectable placing of 67th globally out of the 118 countries analysed."

"CRST is a non-profit, industry based, organisation dedicated to providing the industry with a regional resource centre not just with data and statistics but market intelligence and trends, crucial for decision-making and planning."

"We are confident that the donation of this data will support the Centre and Sri Lanka invaluably," she said.

"FutureBrand has in-depth knowledge of country branding throughout Asia Pacific and predicts that Sri Lanka has an even brighter future and we welcome the opportunity to be part of the journey," said founder of the CRST, Dileep Mudadeniya.

"Nation branding is a hot topic among marketers. Research and data on nation branding is a recent development. Having researched-information is the foundation of developing a sustainable nation-branding strategy. This data will be highly useful for CRST and our nation as a whole," he said.

Srilal Miththapala said, "I have always believed that Sri Lanka tourism needs a very clear positioning and destination branding

strategy, if we are going to be able to compete as a mature tourism destination in Asia. Previous cohesive and good efforts in tourism branding did not fully materialise, and the foundations already laid, need to be urgently revisited, revised and built on."

"It is equally important to be able to access whether such strategies in branding are yielding the desired results. It is therefore, imperative that an independent assessment and verification of the success of such a destination branding effort, be pursued."

"In this context, FutureBrand has been able to provide good analytical and independent assessments, evaluation and benchmarking of such branding, in an international context. Their association with Sri Lanka, through the Centre for Research and Sustainable Studies in Tourism (CRST) will be a great boost to Sri Lanka tourism," he said.

The country Brand Index is a global study of country brands.

FutureBrand annually measures and ranks global perceptions around the world's nations - from their cultures, to their industries, to their economic vitality and public initiatives.