‘Tourism industry must position itself’

Reputed marketing personality in the public and private sector Rohantha Athukorala addressing the 2011 International conference of the Institute for Hospitality Industry-UK in Sri Lanka said the industry must be commended for the strong and sharp strategies adopted to keep it alive during the last 30 years.

“It must now take the high ground and develop a distinctive position in Sri Lanka in relation to the rest of the other industries, so that it can elucidate priority attention in the new growth agenda of the country”, he said.

His theme for the address was ‘Tourism in the changing landscape of Sri Lanka’.

Rohantha Athukorala

Athukorala, cited how the apparel industry worth around 3.5 billion dollars to Sri Lanka today was termed a tailoring industry way back in the 1980’s. But today it has transformed itself to be an innovator in the world stage with almost eighty percent value addition and driving the proposition globally of ‘Garment without guilt’ that has positioned the country as the ‘sustainable fashion capital of the world’.

This has made brand Sri Lanka distinctive in the global stage of business”, Athukorala said.

The speaker cited how he had first hand experience of the impact of this proposition when Sri Lanka was the only country featured at the Global WWW Forum in New York last November when the icons of the industry gathered for a 100 years of celebration of the www fashion industry.

The speaker then took the tea industry that’s nets in a 1.4 billion dollars to Sri Lanka and explained how the industry has become one where industry is positioning its self as ‘Ceylon Tea- first Ozone Friendly Tea’ globally and driving the proposition that Ceylon Tea as the highest quality tea in the world.

“The industry has contributed already almost 700 million for a global marketing campaign on this proposition that will add value brand Sri Lanka at the global stage”, he commented.

Athukorala then focused on the tourism industry and challenged audience that with a revenue turnover of 0.5 billion dollars plus directly to Sri Lanka and that has a gestation period of 2-5 years in developing a new property will find it hard to get priority attention unless it innovates and takes the high ground by positioning the industry in relation to the rest of the industries in Sri Lanka.

But he said the efforts of the industry in the last two years has been outstanding but now the industry must do something for the country to add value to brand Sri Lanka like what Apparel and Tea has done for the country from a positioning platform, Athukorala said.

One idea that was floated was to connect the diaspora to the tourism industry by way of investments or just networking to highlight the new brand names that will come into the industry be it Gateway Hotel or Movenpick.

Another was to develop GI registration with propositions like Mt. Lavinia for slow food and Sri Lanka Designer Festival.

Or it can be to drive Arugambay for surfing globally just like the association of Galle with the Literary festival.

May be the Carbon Lung positioning with Sri Lanka is another idea worth pursuing given the climate issues faced globally, Athukorala said.