Sri Lanka Tourism, Tea board and Sri Lankan Airlines quest for Guinness Record

Sri Lanka Tourism, Tea board and Sri Lankan Airlines quest for Guinness Record         

•  - 3000 kilograms of black tea to be plucked            
• - 35,000 cups of tea to be served at Esala Perahera            
• - Guinness Record attempt to be featured at global travel fairs           
• - New Global advertising campaign in the making

                 In the unique partnership between the key agencies that take Sri Lanka to the world- tourism, tea and Sri Lankan will spruce the current $61 billion dollar nation brand to achieve the targeted $80 billion dollars. The event grounded on the concept of Ceylon Tea will show case to the world on all media (traditional and Online) the Guinness Record initiative by plucking 3000 kilograms of tea at Pedro Estate with the help of 200 foreigners and serving 35,000 cups of tea at the Esala Perahera which will take Sri Lanka into the Global map across the world said Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau Rohantha Athukorala. This must be supported by the launch of the global branding and promotions campaign on tourism after a lapse of 6 years which is now at 'short list' stage with where top seven global advertising agencies are in the running he emphasized. Sri Lanka Tourism will cross $3 billion dollar net receipts in 2015 and the new advertising campaign will help the Sri Lanka positioning on the proposition of the DNA - diversity, compactness and Authencity which will help the overall objective of attracting the $250 dollar tourists rather than just going after arrivals said Athukorala. The private sector partners to the Guinness record bid are Basilur the global tea brand and household business brand Maliban that will be the new ethos of the government on the Private-Public -People partnership to building brand Sri Lanka he voiced.  Research indicate that when a countries brand value pegs up the quality of investments increase whilst the quality of tourists that it can attract also increase whilst the export market country mix also tends change which is what Sri Lanka needs to do said Athukorala. At the World’s Largest Tea Party Sri Lanka tourism will invitee foreign guests from the key countries of India, china, UK, Germany, Italy, Russia, Middle East, Australian, Scandinavia and United States to be part of the event which will be linked to social media that takes the story to the key markets so that we get on the " news" of the world. Earlier this month Sri Lanka Tourism launched a unique global competition where the best twenty online videos submitted will get a 365 day holiday whilst a weekly direct mail themed ' message in a bottle" has been touching the key global media, designation marketing companies( DMC's) around the world. In the key markets we do focussed below the activations by way of Road Shows branded “One Island, thousand treasures" whilst also being in person with the private sector in the key travel and trade fairs globally under the theme " 8 wonderful experiences in 8 wonderful days" said Athukorala. We will extend the Guinness Record to the world by way of the ' ceylon tea boutique' concept which is in every exhibition that we take part globally which costs us over a billion rupees annually he said. Sri Lanka has garnered in over a million tourists in just seven months at a growth of 16.8% as at end July 2015 and July spiked to a 31.2% growth in visitors which was interesting given that China became the top source market said Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau in the news release. However, the dominance of the informal sector accounting for 49% of the arrivals which is approximately 7.3 million room nights must be addressed as we are launching a 200 million digital marketing campaign with the best online organizations that must help the formal sector that support SLTPB with the funding required for aggressive marketing commented Chairman Athukorala.