BENGALURU: Buoyed by the results of its 2011 campaign ‘Refreshingly Sir Lanka - Wonder of Asia‘, the Sri Lankan Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) announced a new campaign for 2013 ‘Get Sri Lankaned‘ in five emergent markets, including India.

Sri Lankan Cricket Board Secretary Nishantha Ranatunga announced that former Sri Lankan cricket team captain Sanath Jayasuriya will be the brand ambassador for Sri Lankan tourism.

Key stakeholders for the initiative include a number of entities from the Sri Lankan Government like Sri Lanka Cricket, travel and tour operators associations and bodies and private players, all contributing to and participating in the campaign

Spends of around Rs 675 million have been planned for the ‘Get Sri Lankaned campaign‘ across the five countries that include India, China, the Middle East, Japan, and Korea. The largest chunk of the budget has been earmarked for China followed by India where the SLTPB has allocated about Rs 200 million.

Though television spends will be included later in India, the bureau plans to focus initially on outdoor, print, radio and road shows.

At more than 17 per cent, Indians formed the largest chunk of the one million tourists that visited Sri Lanka in 2012. The Sri Lankan Tourism department is hopeful of attracting 230000 Indian tourists in 2013 and 400000 by 2016. It hopes to grow the tourist traffic to the island nation from across the globe to 2.5 million by 2016.

Multiple creative, media buying, public relations and events management identities will be involved in the ‘Get Sri Lankaned‘ campaign.

SLTPB, with the guidance of Ministry of Economic Development, will be organising three day joint promotions in the six major cities in India, with the ‘Get Sri Lankaned campaign kicking off in Bengaluru on 15 February. The other cities in India include New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Ahmedabad.