SLCB, SriLankan Airlines make bid for MICE tourism in Gurgaon

Sri Lanka Convention Bureau together with SriLankan Airlines in their strategy to establish new clientele for corporate meetings and incentive travel from India addressed the clients of the leading Indian outbound MICE operator in the industrial city of Gurgaon.

Following negotiations with Cox and Kings (CNK), which is one of the largest outbound operators in India, an event was organised on 26 April in Gurgaon where both SLCB and SriLankan Airlines made presentations to their corporate clients through which they highlighted the advantages of choosing Sri Lanka by Cox and Kings and their clients.

“In this exercise, our task was to promote Sri Lanka and her various locations for meetings and incentive travel from India. Here, we had to kill two birds with one stone as the promotion was based on both push and a pull approach,” said Vipula Wanigasekera, General Manager of Sri Lanka Convention Bureau.  

“On the one hand, we managed to communicate effectively the infrastructure and location developments together with new tourism products to CNK and also learn from them many areas that need to be looked into in the promotion of Indian MICE market, and on the other hand, we had the rare opportunity of reaching out to CNK corporate clients, thus convincing them that Sri Lanka provides value for money.”

Chantal Samarasinghe, Manager – MICE, SriLankan Airlines, explained to the gathering the strategy undertaken by SriLankan in the promotion of MICE traffic and the mechanism of working with Sri Lankan managers in India for various MICE groups. Ajay Seth, Head of MICE, Cox and Kings, explained that they would promote Sri Lanka aggressively in the coming months.

The gathering at the event was enthralled by the traditional Sri Lankan dances coupled with Sri Lankan cuisine.