Last year the Sri Lanka Tourism & Promotion Bureau brought down a number of Influencers to help Sri Lanka tourism bounce back to its pre-pandemic glory. For the most part, this campaign has been extremely successful, but at what cost? And more importantly, what lessons are we taking into 2024 and beyond?
Having spent the last 5 years as full-time travel creators based out of Sri Lanka, here’s our hot take on why Niche Influencers might be more efficient and more cost-effective than mass international influencers.
Sri Lanka Tourism Partners with NAS DAILY for a 3 part video series on Sri Lanka (Total Reach 21 Million Views)
Sri Lanka signs deal with Nas Daily to boost tourism
The internet sensation Nuseir Yassin (NAS Daily) spent 5 days in Sri Lanka filming three videos on the theme of tea, real estate & the world’s best train ride. The campaign created a buzz across the island and garnered quite a bit of attention
But at its conclusion, the total reach of the campaign and the fact that the budget for the three videos is yet to be disclosed leaves room for a number of questions.
A breakdown of the results of the NAS DAILY campaign for which the budget is yet to be disclosed.
Whilst the SLTPB and the Minister of Tourism, Harin Fernando, must be applauded for their effort to break out of the traditional marketing approach taken by Sri Lanka Tourism over the past decade, the tides have already begun to change. Today, what is more powerful than blanket mass influencer reach is Niche Influencer reach and Team Sheneller has proven it with receipts.
NASDaily may have been successful in piquing the interest of a new audience for destination Sri Lanka but is there enough depth to influence a decision?
The team at Sheneller doubled down on their efforts to promote Sri Lanka after being named the local YouTube social media ambassador by the SLTPB in November 2022. Although the campaign was focused on 12 videos to be posted monthly, the duo took it a few notches higher and focused on a multi-pronged, multi-themed nation branding campaign on social media that looked at building more depth into the perception of Sri Lanka on all social platforms. It is noteworthy that this campaign was self-funded, and executed in collaboration with private-sector stakeholders).
In the past years, the team at Sheneller has created content around 6 major themes which they aim to continue going into 2024:
Industries of Sri Lanka - A first-of-its-kind social media campaign that focuses on promoting all of the well-known as well as lesser-known export industries of Sri Lanka.
National Parks of Sri Lanka - An initiative in collaboration with the SLTPB to showcase the diverse wildlife offerings found all around the island with an aim to reduce the burden on the Yala National Park by distributing wildlife lovers to other parts of Sri Lanka.