Global hospitality services provider Airbnb has signed-up with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) to provide tourists with local and traditional experiences in the country through the ‘Airbnb Experiences’ platform.

Travellers can choose from more than 40 ‘Airbnb Experiences’ in Sri Lanka designed and led by local experts, Amanpreet Bajaj, Airbnb’s Country Manager for India and Sri Lanka said at the MoU signing event.

“Our Sri Lankan hosts offer a wide range of experiences, from heritage trails in Galle to surfing experiences in Mirissa, and adventure walks in Sri Lanka’s national parks to discovering the best local food spots in Colombo,” Bajaj said.

Image Source: Travel Voice

The experiences on offer would include local cuisines, water sports, walk around heritage monuments and tours of wildlife sanctuaries among others, all arranged by local people who are partners with Airbnb.

The company further said, under its ‘Social Impact’ category of experience, it would facilitate tourists experiences such as visit to a traditional small-scale industry such as a handloom industry, adding that Airbnb would charge any commission on such experiences.

“We are excited to work with Airbnb to promote experiences in Sri Lanka and we are of the view that an engagement of this nature would be of great value to the tourism industry of Sri Lanka,” Kavan Ratnayaka, Chairman, SLTDA.

Airbnb’s APAC Head of Strategic Partnerships, Thao Nguyen said: “Through the partnership announced today, we’re excited to work with the Sri Lankan government to promote tourism that is local, authentic and sustainable.”

The ‘Airbnb Experiences’ platform was launched in 2016 with 500 experiences across 12 cities globally and now the platform offers over 15,000 experiences in over 800 cities, Bajaj said. In India, he said, the platform has been launched in Delhi and Goa so far.

“By the end of this year, we will have expanded into at least a thousand around the world,” he added.

Airbnb previously partnered the Tourism Authority of Thailand on a similar initiative for local accommodation, but the collaboration in Sri Lanka is the first in Asia where the home-sharing giant is working with a NTO to onboard local experience hosts.

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With an aim to promote Sri Lanka as a preferred destination for Indians, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, the national tourism board of the island country, will embark on a major digital marketing campaign spending $700,000 exclusively for India this year. According to Sutheash Balasubramaniam, Managing Director of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, they have already floated bids for the campaign and are in the process of finalising the proposals to start the digital campaign latest by April or May this year. He said that the campaign will last for at least six months and the budget will be spent on content development, media buying, social media, YouTube, among others.

India is the top source market for Sri Lanka with 3.85 lakh Indians having visited the country last year. Mr. Balasubramaniam said they want to nourish the growth that has been happening from India year-on-year through focused campaigns and marketing activities. He said that the target is to double the Indian visitations by 2020.

Talking about the favourable factors, the MD said that the geographical closeness and accessibility, with direct connectivity with 14 stations in India are some key advantages. SriLankan Airlines alone flies 135 weekly flights between different Indian cities and Colombo.

While the ‘Ramayana’ circuit is quite popular with the Indian market, comprising about 20% of the total Indian inbound, there has been increased traction for destination weddings, honeymooners as well as high-end private luxury getaways. Sri Lanka Tourism is also planning to tap the film production units from India, as well as corporate MICE through targeted promotions in coming years.

Speaking on the occasion, Chitranganee Wagiswara, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in India, proposed the idea of promoting India and Sri Lanka as dual destinations as part of a travel package. She said she had taken up the proposal during her recent meeting with India’s Tourism Minister, KJ Alphons, and added that while governments can lend support, it is the responsibility of private industry to design travel packages joining both India and Sri Lanka.

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Press Release Update: Celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Sri Lanka Tourism this year, Sri Lanka envisages a significant increase in Chinese tourist arrivals this year. With this target in sight, Sri Lanka will participate in Chengdu International Tourism Expo 2016, at Century City New International Convention & Exhibition Center from 2 to 4 December, using the show as the metaphorical springboard to reach out to the southwestern Chinese tourists. Sri Lanka will join France, Germany, Malaysia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America and many others to showcase their destinations and other tourism products and services.

With a land area of 65,610 square kilometres, Sri Lanka makes up what it lacks in size with quality and visitors to the South Asian island-country will not return home disappointed – whether they come in search of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, pristine beaches, scenic views, thrilling surfing and scuba diving, wild animals or the rejuvenating spa treatments.

Deers at wasgamuwa National Park

The adventurous in search of wildlife in Sri Lanka should visit the lagoon to see the endangered Sri Lankan Leopards snoozing under the shade of the tree, bathing elephants, gorgeous peacocks and other wild animals. Accompanying the sensational sight will be the chirping sound of birds and fresh air unpolluted by the bustling city. Visitors looking for calming peace can visit the pristine beaches to experience the magic of the Sri Lankan coastline, listening to the sound of waves hitting gently against the golden sand while watching the sun set beneath the horizon.

CITE Logo

With 8 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Sri Lanka will not disappoint history lovers or photography enthusiast. Sri Lanka shares similarity with Chengdu with their important place in history. Though most of its once-glorious history and architecture has been eroded with time and forgotten, Sigiriya, a fifth century AD fortress stood the test of time and stands proud as a reminder of what had been a powerful kingdom.

With Tourism Minister Amaratunga recently declaring that Sri Lanka is now one of the safest countries in the world, since the civil conflict ended in 2009, the delegation at the exposition will be looking to assure the visitors to CITE 2016 on this fact. Through a series of presentations of must-go destinations and cultural stage performances, visitors and buyers can gain insightful information on Sri Lanka to engage the Sri Lankan delegates in mutually beneficial business discussions during the show.

The post Partner Event Release: Sri Lanka continues to court Chinese tourists by joining CITE 2016 as Country Partner appeared first on TravHQ.

The recently concluded CXSRITE festival in Xi’an attracted participation from a number of tourism boards across Asia who are focussing on the Chinese travellers. We spoke with representatives from participating countries to understand their strategy for the China market.

Cambodia Tourism’s Strategy for China

Cambodia is very rich in culture and nature. We have a lot of cultural heritage in the form of Angkor Wat and temples. In addition, we are rich in nature and have lot of beaches, mountains and wildlife in Cambodia. We have lot of tourism products that are built for Chinese tourists. In addition, our government policy is very open and inviting. We welcome all tourists around the world irrespective for religion, cast or color.

On Digital

We have worked with CITS (a big tourist company in China with head office in Beijing). We have got the Cambodia tourism website built in Chinese with CITS. In addition, we are almost about to launch the mobile app for Chinese tourists planning to visit Cambodia. We wish to also use platforms like WeChat and Meilishuo in China for attracting Chinese tourist as much as possible.

As per recent reports, Cambodia is expected to attract nearly 1 million Chinese tourists this year and up to 2 millions in 2020, tourism minister Thong Khon.

Sok Sinarith (Deputy Director Marketing & Promotion Department)

Views from Sri Lanka Tourism Board

To tap Chinese market is the primary focus of any destination. The Chinese tourists are rising in Nepal and we are finding more and more places in China to increase that number. China is the second largest market for us after India. China is an emerging market for us with a growth rate of 70%-80% every year. Last year 2,14,000 Chinese tourists came to Sri Lanka. We have a lot of direct flights from the major cities in China and we are continuously trying to increase the numbers to promote our country in the Chinese market.

On digital

Sri Lanka Tourism is very much focusing on leading websites here in China. We are aware that we need to keep up with the technology and digital trends and we are internally trying to strengthen ourselves in this domain to keep up with the digital trends. In China, everything is online and the trend towards online marketing continuous to grow. There is no doubt that we have to adapt to online medium of marketing. We use channels like weChat and weibo to keep up to the Chinese trend. In addition, we do lot of banner ads with our partners here in China.

Chinthaka Liyanaarachchi (Assistant Director), Sri Lanka Tourism

Insights from Tourism Malaysia

Last year we got 1.62 million from travelers from China to Malaysia and this year we are targeting 2 million travelers from the country. China is a very big market as far as tourists are concerned. We have direct flights started by Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur which has a frequency of 4 times a week. Malaysia does not have a Chinese language problem. Lot of population in Malaysia are Chinese.

Malaysia has a variety of food and Chinese food is easily available in Malaysia. Even on chartered flights, Chinese food is available.Tourism Malaysia has over 40 overseas offices. Each office has yearly market online strategy for their target market. We are targeting youth in different markets and they are mostly available on digital media. In China specially we use WeChat and Weibo because of other social media channels being blocked. The way a tourist travels has changed with the emergence of digital media. Now lot of people are also travelling solo/with families instead of groups. Tourism Malaysia has an official website that is especially available in Chinese language. In addition, every year, we invite famous bloggers/travelers from different destinations to visit our country as a part of digital media strategy.

Lisa Ning, Marketing Manager, Tourism Malaysia

Excerpts from our conversation with Tourism Board representatives at the Xi’an Silk Road International Tourism Expo 2016, the three-day tourism exhibition held at Qujiang International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Xi’an from 26 to 28 August 2016.

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