MasterCard to promote Indian tourists to Sri Lanka

MasterCard Worldwide and the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau yesterday signed an agreement to facilitate the development of cross border tourism, with a specific focus on attracting Indian tourists.

The five-year agreement aims to promote Sri Lanka as a premier tourist destination for Indian travellers and deliver great travel experiences for MasterCard and Maestro cardholders through special offers and benefits.

SLTB Managing Director Rumy Jauffer was instrumental in conceptualising the association and was the driving force in bringing together the various stakeholders to form this partnership. He said that the tie-up with MasterCard would be a great boost towards realising the 2.5 million tourists target by 2016 under the ‘Mahinda Chinthana – Extended Vision’.

MasterCard Worldwide South Asia President T.V. Seshadri said the alliance underscored the global giant’s optimism regarding Sri Lanka’s tourism industry and its commitment to promoting tourism into Sri Lanka.

“We are excited to be able to deliver even greater travel experience to MasterCard cardholders in this incredible country through our work with SLTB,” Seshadri added.

Under the partnership, MasterCard will actively popularise Sri Lanka in India to high potential travellers through various initiatives, including digital and other media.

It will also leverage the company’s merchant and other partners in India apart from MasterCard’s customer banks to their cardholders.

Later on, the initiative will be extended to other markets such as Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Americas.