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Friday, 30 August 2013 03:16 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
August 2013 with the aim of attracting potential Chinese travellers to Sri Lanka.
This joint mega promotion campaign is a result of collective efforts of public and private sector organisations in travel and tourism industry, initiated under the advice of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The ‘Sri Lanka Shines in Beijing’ joint mega promotion campaign is being held under the guidance of Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa and organised by Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and Sri Lankan Embassy in China.
The promotion kicked off on 29 August at China World Hotel with a ‘Sri Lankan Night’ which featured a series of activities highlighting the island’s culture and tradition at China World Hotel. ‘Sri Lankan Night’ was a colourful event, featuring cultural shows reflecting the unique Sri Lankan identity. The ‘Sri Lankan Night’ event will be followed 
by a ‘Business Forum’ to be held today, 30 August, at the China World Hotel targeting travel and trade participants.
‘Sri Lanka Shines in Beijing’ will gather further momentum, with a shopping mall promotion campaign to be held at The Place of Beijing, running up to three days, starting from today.
During this mega campaign, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion has launched a mega bill board advertising campaign in the city of Beijing, in parallel to a series of other promotional activities such as promoting Sri Lanka through light box advertising, paper advertisements, radio jingles and also a PR campaign to create awareness and gain the attention of Chinese travel and trade companies.
The billboard campaign is the first-ever promotion of its kind and scale ever to be executed in the Chinese market. The LED backlit hoarding screens will be displayed in over 21 strategic locations in Beijing. These billboards will showcase major tourism attractions in Sri Lanka including history and culture, beaches, wildlife, festivals, Ayurveda and spa and gem and jewellery, which are of interest to Chinese travellers. Meanwhile prominent places in 18 subway railway stations in Beijing have been identified to promote high spots of tourism attractions in Sri Lanka through this campaign.
The ‘Sri Lanka Shines in Beijing’ promotional campaign has already set its mark as a major promotional tool towards attracting 2.5 million tourists per annum by 2016. Out of the expected 2.5 million tourists to the country, Sri Lanka is planning to attract 275,000 Chinese travellers.
Chinese tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka are on a steady rise, with the country recording a year-on-year increase of 74% in the first seven months of the year. The latest jump shows encouraging signs as the Government of Sri Lanka is campaigning vigorously to capture a slice of the growing Chinese outbound tourism market, which during 2012 stood at 83 million tourists in total.
