Promoting Sri Lanka through Film Tourism

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry has been growing rapidly over the past 6 years since the end of the civil war that all but decimated the country’s tourism. Currently attracting an estimated 1.6 million foreign tourists a year, Sri Lanka aims to push the limits and is targeting a goal of 2.5 million by 2016. Traditionally promoted through targeted campaigns that highlight the country’s rich cultural heritage, unique Ceylon Tea and sporting prowess, alternative angles are now being explored in the film tourism segment. Minister for Tourism and Sports, Navin Dissanayake, spearheaded a campaign in February of this year that secured a position on the film location roster for 2 episodes of the popular French TV series version of the American reality show “The Bachelor”. Sri Lanka was also recently chosen as the film venue for Bollywood production “Bombay Velvet” and the industry hopes this will lend to an increase in tourism from India which already makes up a significant percent of tourist numbers. Film production in Sri Lanka has grown as a whole with quality production houses currently in the business like Nkar FilmEye who offer the whole gamut of services catered for foreign film crews. With the infrastructure already in place, film tourism in Sri Lanka is proving itself a viable commodity for the tourism industry.