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Post-war rebounding Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is certain to get a major boost following the ground breaking tie-up between the Promotions Bureau
and global credit card giant MasterCard Worldwide last week.
The duo signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which for five years MasterCard Worldwide will promote Sri Lanka initially in India and later expand to rest of the world.
The MoU was signed by Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) Managing Director Rumy Jauffer and MasterCard Worldwide South Asia President T.V. Seashdri on Friday at Hotel Ramada. The announcement was also posted on the MasterCard Worldwide’s global web site on the same day via a press release titled ‘MasterCard and Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau Collaborate to Boost Cross-Border Tourism’.
Under the MoU, Sri Lanka will be promoted as a premier tourist destination for Indian travellers and deliver great travel experiences for MasterCard and Maestro cardholders through special offers and benefits.
Furthermore Sri Lanka will be promoted as an attractive tourist destination in other key markets including Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Americas as well. With presence in 200 countries, MasterCard has a global base of 1.8 billion cardholders.
MasterCard said the agreement comes on the heels of recent positive growth for Sri Lanka’s tourism industry as well as the country’s ambitious strategy to reach 2.5 million visitors by 2016. MasterCard said international tourism arrivals in Sri Lanka hit a record of 856,000 in 2011 with a growth rate of 30.79% over 2010 which itself was a phenomenal increase in growth rate of 46.12% over 2009.
As per a report published by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority in 2011, India is the largest source of tourists into Sri Lanka contributing to 20.84% of the total tourists visiting the country.
Following the signing, MasterCard will shortly announce a host of offers and benefits to its card members in India, numbering 130 million, who are keen to experience Sri Lanka for exciting holidays.
SLTPB Managing Director Rumy Jauffer was instrumental in conceptualising the association and was the driving force in bringing together the various stakeholders to form this association, the MasterCard announcement said.
At the joint media briefing on Friday Jauffer described the partnership with MasterCard Worldwide as a major boost for Sri Lanka and its tourism industry which have bounced back after the end of the 30-year old conflict. “This partnership will help realise the target of 2.5 million tourists by 2016 as indicated in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ‘Mahinda Chinthana – Extended Vision,’” Jauffer added.
He said that with India being the biggest source market for Sri Lanka tourism as well as given the booming affluence of the neighbouring giant, more Indians will take up holidays and Sri Lanka aims to tap a fair share of that new outbound travel market.
“India is an important country for Sri Lanka, economically and politically and promotional efforts by MasterCard will be a great boon,” Jauffer added.
MasterCard Worldwide South Asia President Seshadri said for MasterCard the MoU on destination marketing on a five-year time frame was the first of its kind whilst it has undertaken event-driven promotions to several other countries globally. Among them were its dedicated program of ‘Priceless,’ covering cities such as New York, London, Paris and shopping festivals centric initiatives such as the Great Singapore Sale, Thailand’s Miracle Shopping and Malaysia’s Mega Sale.
Seshadri said the alliance with SLTPB underscores the credit card giant’s optimism regarding the potential of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry, as well as its commitment to developing and promoting cross border tourism between India and Sri Lanka.
“Sri Lanka is rich in culture and heritage and an attractive destination for both leisure and business travellers. We’re excited to be able to deliver even greater travel experiences to MasterCard cardholders in this incredible country through our work with the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau,” he added.
“MasterCard’s key attributes compactness, diversity and authenticity are mirrored by Sri Lanka as a tourist destination as well,” Seshadri said adding that the partnership with Sri Lanka was aimed at success as the country is an interesting prospect for the global traveller. For Indians he said Sri Lanka is ideal for conventions and meetings (MICE tourism), weekend getaways or stop-over holidays etc.
Noting that the MOU will drive Sri Lanka’s tourism goals, the MasterCard Worldwide South Asia Head also said that he was impressed by the vision and sagacity of the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ with regard to tourism as it was well articulated.
Tourism has a great multiplier effect and nurtures socio-economic development by enhancing investments, foreign exchange, jobs and trade.
“Sri Lanka has got all the elements for a successful partnership. The vision as well as Sri Lanka’s dynamism gives us the confidence that the country will achieve the 2.5 million tourists target a lot earlier than 2016,” Seshadri opined.
MasterCard will actively popularise the program in India to high-potential travellers through various initiatives including digital and other media. The company will leverage its merchant and other partnerships in India, such as online travel agents such as Yatra, magazines such as Conde-Nast Traveller, airlines and hotels in order to ensure communication of these benefits to the appropriate target audience.
The program will also be promoted through MasterCard’s customer banks numbering 38 at present to their cardholders. Additionally MasterCard will also use some of its travellers touch points such as airport express zones in Delhi and Mumbai airports as well as MasterCard lounges in seven international airports in India.
MasterCard intends to increase the number of partner merchants and offers in Sri Lanka to deliver even more value for MasterCard cardholders.
MasterCard is a global payments and technology company. It operates the world’s fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. MasterCard’s products and solutions make everyday commerce activities such as shopping, travelling, running a business and managing finances easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone.
