The Emerald Isle Sets A Mousetrap
As Sri Lanka seeks to rebuild a shattered tourism industry, the Indian MICE Group is being squarely targeted.
MICE in this case does not stand for long-tailed creatures, but big business in rupees from meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions.
The timing couldnt be better. Sri Lanka is targeting the Indian market at a time when the business community is searching high and low for convention facilities at affordable rates.
In fact, the Sri Lankan tourism industry has earmarked a budget of approximately Rs 18 crore for a grand image-building exercise. Not surprisingly, the government sees its first priority as countering the disinformation spread by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) overseas.
As part of this exercise, close on the heels of the glitzy promo in Madras, come similar jamborees in Mumbai and Delhi. We firmly believe that there are substantial Sales Incentives tours in India, says Nimalan Karthikeyan, national marketing consultant for the project on the Asian Market Development Strategy. Both J F R Perrera, the director general of the Ceylon Tourist Board and Sunil Peiris, the chief marketing officer of Colombo-based Air Lanka, are pinning their hopes on attracting visitors from India.
Our survey reveals that at least 75 million Indians have the disposable income to travel to Sri Lanka, says Perrera with a determined gleam in his eye. There has been a 15 per cent fall in tourist traffic since the ethnic problems in the country started in 1982. But the strife is restricted to only one part of the country, and no tourist has been a victim of this violence, points out Perrera.
Perrera adds, Our image-building campaign aims at giving a real picture of the ground situation, and not camouflaging things. We do not encourage tourists to visit the east, but there is so much more to Sri Lanka.
Indeed there is, which is why 74 journalists were invited from all over the world recently on a Destination Sri Lanka trip. In addition to the golden, palm-fringed beaches, hills and historical sites, Karthikeyan claims, Our biggest USP is our affordable prices. You can get excellent rooms for US $50-70 and a five star hotel room for as little as $100. In India, this will cost a minimum of $175.
This is the biggest plus in favour of the Emerald Isle in its bid to tap the MICE traffic from India. After all, Colombo is only 3 hours from Delhi, and an hour from Madras. Air Lanka presently operates from Delhi, Bombay, Madras, Trivandrum and Trichy. According to Sunil Peiris, the chief marketing officer, the airlines is now planning to offer special flights from Bangalore and Hyderabad and throw in special discounts of 25 per cent to 30 per cent.
Meanwhile, Udaya Nanay-akkara, president of the Travel Agents of Sri Lanka, is working closely with the Travel Agents Association of India, to promote traffic between the two countries. Our trade-deficit is $400 million, in favour of India. To clear this we have requested our government to accept the Indian rupee in Sri Lanka. Were also working on getting the Indian credit card accepted here, says Nanayakkara.
All these incentives are likely to lure the Indian business traveller who has much to choose from in Sri Lanka, in terms of hotels, convention halls and tourist attractions. Being a small country, covering a stretch of 65,610 sq kms, it is possible to drive all over the Emerald Isle in the space of a week.
According to Malvinder Narang, president of the Sri Lankan Hoteliers Association, the country has enough rooms and conference facilities to suit the business traveller. For instance, the Taj Samudra Hotel boasts of the historic Colombo Club which holds a capacity crowd of over 500 people, a ballroom which can take 800, and conference halls that can accommodate upto 300 people with ease.
The Colombo Airport Garden Hotel which is managed by the Taj Group has conference rooms for groups of 200 to 300 people. A new property, the Taj Exotica, coming up at Bentota, promises to be one of the finest beach resort hotels. Facing the azure Indian Ocean, its conference facilities (for 200 to 300 people) seem an attractive proposition too.
Another beach resort with promise is the Club Palm Bay, due to open in November at Marawila, 16 kms from the Colombo International Airport. Surrounded on all sides by a blue lagoon and green shrubbery, the picturesque resort is a self contained entertainment complex, with water sports, and facilities for golf and snooker.
It also boasts three bars, four restaurants, a discotheque and a state-of-the-art conference room for 400 people.
However, the best equipped facility in Colombo is undoubtedly the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Centre, which hosted the Non-Aligned Conference in 1976.
It has a capacity to seat 2,000 people, and with its brass-topped white columns, lush gardens and plush auditoriums, it is one of Colombos best looking modern buildings.
So is the newly opened Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre, built along the lines of the famous Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre, which has halls of diverse sizes capable of housing 100 people as well as 2,000 people.
Most of the top hotels in Colombo such as the Holiday Inn, Lanka Oberoi, Ceylon Intercontinental and Hilton International have large conference halls as well as oak-panelled boardrooms to fit in smaller numbers. On the other hand, the medium-bud get hotels like Galle Face, Transasia and Renuka also have convention and exhibition facilities for groups of 200 to 500. And located in the very heart of Colombo is the Export Trade Centre and Mahaveli Centre with enough facilities for a fair sized convention.
With its picturesque coastline, Sri Lanka is an attractive country for conferences and incentive trips. Which is why many hotels in the hills and beaches such as the Club Hotel Dolphin in Waikkal and the Tangerine Beach Hotel in Kaluttara are equipped with convention facilities.
All these towns are just three hours from Colombo by road or rail (the domestic flights have been suspended because of ethnic disturbances). Even the historic towns have hotels with impressive conference facilities such as the Culture Club Resort in Danbulla and the stunning Sigrya-based Village Hotel.
All these hotels have booking offices in Colombo and the Convention Bureau even has 6 PCOs (professional conference organisers). Some of the upcoming international conferences are the World Crafts Council, the Asia Pacific Leadership Development Seminar and SAATE 97.
The Emerald Isle is also bidding for the 1998 ICCA General Assembly.
Other quayside attractions in Colombo include the three well stocked Free Trade Zones all situated near the best hotels. Foreign delegates can fill in the empty spaces between conference speeches by doing some high-powered shopping.