This will be big win for Sri Lanka said Dr Rohantha Athukorala Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau where we market the destination in line with the global trend of Marketing tourist destinations via film tourism. This marketing activity will be part of a multimedia campaign for the up and coming winter season starting from the ‘ Cultural theme’ taken at IFTM 2015 in Paris followed by the launch of the french version of Disney movie ‘ Monkey Kingdom’ that hit the typical family households in the A, B households in France. Disney Paris wanting to have a dedicated area for Monkey Kingdom trail will help Sri Lanka Tourism pitch for the $250 visitor said Chairman Athukorala.
The director Production of Jack Thomas-Richard of TFI Production commended the new direction that Sri Lanka tourism is chanting, given that New Zealand was able to appeal to a wider audience globally was 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 boost to the tourism industry. 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 6% of the tourists that came to New Zealand attributed the reason for visiting the country was due to the film. Another study revealed that almost 1% of the visitors wanted to see the exact locations that the film depicted which explains the world wide phenomenon of film marketing to develop a countries tourism.
Athukorala voiced “ the popular tv series Bachelor that will be aired in France will be filmed across the world and I am happy that we have been able to get 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 project as the beneficiaries must be the private sector he said.
The programme Bachelor(French version) attracts a viewership of 1.3 million in France and as it commands a prime time belt. The 3 hour programme can feature some unique locations across Sri Lanka. Given the content of the programme being very youth led it, will reach a new set of potential visitors from France which is the type of quality traveller Sri Lanka must attract”.
In 2014, there were 78,883 visitors recorded into Sri Lanka from France. Sri Lanka is targeting 100,000 Visitors from France in 2015.
