TravTalk India Online Magazine
Kumar De Silva, Chairman, Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB), claims that Sri Lanka is ready for conferences and weddings. SLCB recently showcased the various M!CE facilities in the island nation to India’s M!CE and wedding planners by organising a Fam trip for them to the country.
Nisha Verma
Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) recently organised a Fam trip for Indian M!CE agents, weddings planners and the media, to see the M!CE facilities in the island nation. The delegation experienced and visited the hotels and convention facilities in Negombo, Nuwara Eliya, Kandy and Colombo. The trip ended with a B2B session between M!CE service providers, stakeholders and executives of SLCB with the delegation.
Kumar De Silva was heading the SLCB delegation and shared that the idea behind the Fam trip, especially after the April 21 attacks in Colombo, was to showcase that the island is ready to receive tourists and there is no issue of safety and security in the island nation.
“India is our largest source market for M!CE. We have a lot more to offer and it is a good time to show the agents the potential and diversity. This way, they can understand that Sri Lanka is not a one-time M!CE destination, but people keep coming back for different areas and interests, and it also enables agents to understand when the customer comes and asks them for a particular thing and how do they tailor-make it.
We had a roadshow in Chennai and Bengaluru. We are also going to Kolkata and East India, because we believe that there is a lot of traction we can gain from hosting these events across India
After the unfortunate incident in April, we thought that it’d be an ideal time to bring in all the agents, so that they go around and understand that there is normalcy and the security situation is stable for anybody who is travelling to Sri Lanka.” He stressed that they see a lot of untapped potential in the Indian market. “It’s not just Mumbai or North India, but we are focusing a lot on southern India as well, which has got great potential. Last month, we had a roadshow in Chennai and Bengaluru. We are also going to Kolkata and East India, because we believe that there is a lot of traction we can gain from having these events across India,” said De Silva.
Insisting that the primary role of SLCB is to facilitate and support events, he said, “We want to ensure that corporates and agents have confidence and have good experience of the event in Sri Lanka. We primarily offer incentives which we believe could support the events, like a city tour or a dance troupe. Recently, we have introduced a proportional assistant scheme. However, that comes into effect only after the conference is confirmed in Sri Lanka. Otherwise, it becomes a part of the negotiating tool and then it gets diluted.
Hence, there is a minimum three-night stay requirement in Sri Lanka. Also, they need to operate through registered agents in Sri Lanka and stay at hotels that are registered as well. After that, we will look at a reimbursement of the event, which will be around 8-10 per cent of the total accommodation cost, based on the criteria that the event is directly related to M!CE.”
Another highlight is weddings, for which India is a huge market and De Silva claims that Sri Lanka does become a venue for many of them.
“The wedding industry is primarily being handled by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB), but we are one product and it’s kind of seamless. When we have the opportunity of bringing in people to do M!CE as well as weddings, we want to showcase the combination of what they are also marketing,” he said.
