Sri Lanka has a long-standing proud membership of PATA’s collaboration with GIZ to sponsor global experts that is Tourism Crisis Management expert John Bailey and Global Tourism Marketing Expert Damian Cook. In the training, Sri Lanka’s key personnel from Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Management, and Sri Lanka Convention Bureau will take part entirely free of charge.
John Bailey has experience in crisis and reputation management for global companies of 25 years and has trained professionals for over 100 clients in 50 countries that include 60 airlines and major hotel groups globally. He managed the IATA’s Crisis Communications Consultancy in Geneva and made the largest privately held PR agency in Singapore. The CEO of E-tourism Frontiers, PATA Expert Damian Cook, develops Online Tourism in Emerging Markets which trained many travel professionals across Africa and collaborating with international experts and major travel firms to grow business in Africa.
As we all know, COVID-19 is an existential crisis that will not end soon and neither anyone knows when it will all end. In such a situation, the tourism sector is suffering so much and almost shut down. The mentorship is focused on the importance of keeping the tourist industry alive in critical times; being dynamic as a Destination, ignite the interests of tourists and travelers through creativity and innovation while being prepared for the new upcoming challenges. The experts will discuss four key messages highlighting the development of a 3-phase plan for recovery targeting a new market, focus on sustainability partnering trade, creating P2P models that identify markets and aware of new trends, and markets that establish a future-proof approach. The travel industry is changing as every destination is considered a startup.
While planning destination marketing, the key digital trends and marketing also get considered. The identification of business USP (Unique Selling Pitch) of the destination is the key to tourism and Sri Lanka tourism has to focus on the tourism activities based on experience and pay attention to the niche segments of tourism. Sri Lanka has to recognize the major activities of tourism like accommodation, food and beverages, shopping, and other tourism activities and upgrade it according to the recent tourism standards.
As per the experts, tourists of Sri Lanka are the best marketing strategy they can have and tourists help to generate user-friendly content. They are planning to make the tourists as marketing ambassadors. This will help the destination to advertise itself through the actual audience. They further added that the way to boost tourism is through the identification of advertisement campaigns such as social media, websites, search engines, and booking sites. Sri Lanka tourism will learn about new trends and digital marketing strategies to boost the business.
In addition to all these efforts, Sri Lanka tourism is extending the knowledge by sharing the session with all tourism industry stakeholders. The chairperson of Sri Lanka tourism, Ms. Kimarli Fernando also contribute to the webinar which will be moderated by Mr. Dileep Mudadeniya, Vice president Marketing and Events, Cinnamon Hotels, and Resorts, and Head of Corporate affairs- John Keells PLC.