SL Tourism to partner with local influencers for promotion drive

• Three social media influencers will be selected
• English medium content given priority
• Must have over 10,000 followers/subscribers
• Minimum of 30% foreigners in fan base mandatory 

The local social media influencers have been called on by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) to come on board to create fresh digital content and promote the island nation to target markets. 

The SLTDA yesterday released a notice, where invitation for bids was called for local social media travel influencers for destination and media promotion of Sri Lanka Tourism. 

The Tourism Promotion Board (SLTPB) will select three social media influencers based on their online presence on the platforms, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. 

Qualifying social media influencers should have a minimum experience of three years, from 2018, in the field of social media, where they have engaged in creating content on Sri Lanka’s travel and tourism space. 

While the bid is open to all languages, priority will be given for English medium content, the SLTDA said. The influencers should be able to integrate PR/communications initiatives with social media. 

In addition to having experience in developing compelling content that generates responses from audiences online, the existing content of the influencer’s social media channel should target audiences between 16 and 45 years of age. 

The personal social media channel must have a minimum of 30 percent non-Sri Lankan followers from the total fan base. 

Influencers from each platform should have a minimum of 10,000 followers or subscribers and a dedicated viewership across each channel. 

The bidding will be conducted adopting the National Competitive Bidding Method, under the National Procurement Guidelines. 

The bids have to reach the SLTDA on or before March 2, 2022. Interested bidders are also invited to join the pre-bid meeting on February 21, 2022, which will be held virtually and on-site. 

Social media marketing and promotion has been one of the key focuses of the SLTDA in the recent past, where greater emphasis has been given to influencer marketing. 

Several groups of travel influencers were invited to the country on fully sponsored trips to create content on destination Sri Lanka.