Sri Lanka’s Tourism Promotion Bureau  has officially launched an interim digital media and public relations campaign to re-introduce the island nation to the global travel market after a prolonged promotional absence. Announced by the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Prof. Ruwan Ranasinghe, at a special press conference Wednesday (19), the interim campaign will deploy Rs. 600 million over the next six months across six key countries to capture global potential tourists.

The interim campaign represents a critical shift from the country’s historical business-to-business (B2B) focus, which was previously restricted to travel fairs and roadshows. "This global campaign to take Sri Lanka to the world globally, has been absent for a considerable period of time," Ranasinghe noted, adding that the new push leverages digital tools and PR to finally enter the era of AI-driven travel planning where consumers book at their fingertips. The campaign commences immediately with a targeted push in Australia, followed by parallel rollouts aligned with the World Travel Market (WTM) and localized campaigns in Germany, Russia, India, and China. Each of the six selected countries has been allocated 100 million rupees for this six-month interim period.

The interim initiative serves as a strategic bridge to a much larger, two-year global campaign with a planned budget of Rs. 5 billion. Ranasinghe revealed that the government had to abandon a previously designed promotional program due to questionable procurement and management issues. To ensure transparency and robust management moving forward, the ministry has secured technical support on procurement and campaign management from major multilateral funding agencies, specifically the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank.

Rather than merely driving volume, the new promotional framework is tailored to attract "quality traffic" and high-spending, up-market tourists. Sri Lanka plans to use its new digital platform to target high-performing specialty segments, specifically positioning the country as an emerging wellness destination and promoting niche markets such as diving and golf.

According to Deputy Minister Ranasinghe, Sri Lanka’s international standing has consistently improved over the last two years due to economic and political stability, democratic governance, institutional reforms (such as the duty-free system), and expanding air connectivity, including a newly commenced direct flight route from Hanoi to Colombo.