Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau (SLTPB) announced that a formal Memorandum of Unerstanding (MOU) is being developed with the Marketing Management Unit of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura to promote Sri Lanka’s toirism industry.
Chairman of SLTPB Rohantha Athukorala announced that MOU, which is a first in the history of Sri Lanka tourism, is being developend for marketing research insights to be done by final year business students of the University which will enable the tourism industry become more competitive in the global arena.
Athukorala together with Vice Chancellor of University of Sri Jayewardenepura Prof. Sampath Amaratunge announced this at a press conference held at Hotel Taj Samudra to launch the International Inter- university Sri Lankan City Romp 2015.
According to the Chairman, the logic of the MOU as explained was due to the rapid change that is happening in the global arena on the area of digital marketing.
For instance 23.2 million people googled Sri Lanka tourism related searches in 2014 but Sri Lanka had only 1.5 million visitors while Trip Advisor had reported that they had 54 million information searches on Sri Lanka in 2014 which indicates the conversion success rate for Sri Lanka.
“We must get smart in our communication strategy and model needs to be recommended by the best minds of Sri Lanka in a university like Sri Jayewardenepura so that we link the private sector to the think tanks of the country said,” Dr. Athukorala.
“Let’s accept it we do not know everything in the world of Tourism, someone needs to help us,” he said adding that it was the advice of the Minister for Tourism Naveen Dissanayake who had advocated the MOU.
The Vice Chancellor Prof. Sampath Amaratunga said that he is glad this kind if mind set exists in the government and this is the best practice globally.
“In fact in the final year the best talents get picked by the private sector where we act as an incubator the world stage. We are looking for award to working with the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau,” he said.
Original aticle from ColomboPage
http://www.colombopage.com/archive_15B/Jun10_1433875789CH.php
