From image of conflict to recovery -post conflict destination re-branding in Sri Lanka.

The role of stakeholders in the Sri Lankan destination branding process 

Destination branding can be defined as a way to communicate a destination’s exclusive identity by differentiating a destination from its competitive tourism portfolios (Morrison & Anderson, 2002). Similar to the general facts on brands, destination brands exercise two important functions: identification and differentiation. In the branding literature, the meaning of “identification” involves the explication of the source of the product to consumers. While a product in general terms represents a physical offering, which can be easily modified, a place as a product is a large entity which contains various material and non-material elements to represent it (Florek, 2005) To set the destination apart from the competition it will need a unique selling point/proposition (Benett and Salvani, 2003; Mundt, 2002; Morgan et al. 2002, 2004, 2011). For example, a new national brand identity was selected by the Sri Lankan Tourism Authority and the Sri Lankan national brand was renamed "The Wonder of Asia" in 2013. The key challenge at this time is to generate acceptance of the new brand and realise its potential success. Whilst the brand has been linked with the successful transformation of the social and political system, ‘The Wonder of Asia’ branding faces the challenges of acceptance-related issues between its stakeholders (Ministry of Economic Development, 2011; Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, 2012). Mundt (2002) notes that one of the main factors contributing to a destination brand’s inability to be successful is its lack of a core focus. Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) of Sri Lanka, Dr. Kelegama questioned the uniqueness of the “Wonder of Asia” branding strategy, stating ’What are the wonders that Sri Lanka possesses?” Two items that are noteworthy are Sigiriya[1] and the gathering of elephants in Minneriya[2]. Other than these two, one cannot think of any other wonder in Sri Lanka’ (Sunday Times, 2014).

                                                     (Elephants in Minneriya National Park)

(Sigiriya rock fortress)

Sri Lankan brand is also currently facing many acceptance-related issues due to negative international media reports, international lobby groups, and US-led international UN Human Rights Council inquiries into alleged war crimes. Failure to address these issues may create a negative brand image for Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is questionable whether the branding of the destination is correctly placed. Poor evaluations for branding and governance may lead to a steady negative change in destination brand reputation – particularly for failure to act as a responsible agent of its environment and its globally significant traditions (Anholt, 2010). This loss of value of the brand could have longer-term consequences for the Sri Lankan brand name. Mundt (2002) argues about the vagueness of the term ‘destination branding’ as a successful brand requires total control of a product or service. However, in destination branding it is highly difficult task to gain total control of a product or service as one sole destination marketing organisation does not control the marketing mix or the branding at destination level. Mundt also argues that in many cases the capability to brand a destination has been overestimated in tourism organisations. The strength of a destination depends not only upon its branding, but also on other factors such as stakeholders and politics (Mundt, 2002).                        

(Voting on resolutions began March 27, 2014 at the 25th Session of the Human Rights Council.)

Politics and destination branding

Destination and national branding is undoubtedly an exceedingly politicised activity.  The process of destination representation involves many key parties mainly from government agencies to business, tourist and even geopolitical stakeholders.   All of these key parties are trying to impose their views about the destination and consciously or unconsciously they are adding new denotations to the representation of the destination (Olins, 2008).
The roles and powers of the stakeholders involved in the destination branding process help  to shape  policies of national and destination branding.   As debated by many destination branding experts (Pritchard and Pride 2002; Anholt 2007; Dinnie 2009) governments are more responsible for the destination branding process.  A successful destination branding strategy is a direct result of long-term dialogue between different national sectors and private sectors which are facilitated by government-led agencies.
Government sectors have an exceptionally difficult rebranding task in destinations which have been affected by both external and internal pressures, such as economic downturns, terrorist attacks, political instability, and natural disasters (Sheehan and Ritchie, 2005).In this research, the political involvement of national and destination branding will be carefully investigated.
Mundt (2002) argues that the vagueness of the term ‘destination branding’ as a successful brand requires total control of a product or service.  However, in destination branding it is a highly difficult task to gain total control of a product or service as one sole destination marketing organisation does not control the marketing mix or the branding at destination level.  Mundt also argues that in many cases the capability to brand a destination has been overestimated in tourism organisations.  The  strength  of  a destination  depends  not  only  upon  its branding,  but  also  on  other  factors such as stakeholders and politics (Mundt, 2002). Policies for destination marketing can be formulated which will help in providing stability for any future decisions and the operation of the tourism sector (Dutta and Pullig, 2011).


Achila Amarasinghe
BSc (BIT Hons),MSc(Marketing),PgCert,PTLLS,FHEA, PhD Candidate (Northampton University)


[1] The ruins of the capital built by the parricidal King Kassapa I (477–95) lie on the steep slopes and at the summit of a granite peak standing some 180m high (the 'Lion's Rock', which dominates the jungle from all sides). A series of galleries and staircases emerging from the mouth of a gigantic lion constructed of bricks and plaster provide access to the site.
[2] Minneriya National Park is a national park in North Central Province of Sri Lanka. The area was designated as a national park on 12 August 1997, having been originally declared as a wildlife sanctuary in 1938.

Examples of situations of crisis situations which adversely effect to the tourism due to negative media reports or over-sensationalizing

• 2001 - The 9/11 attack on World Trade Centre, USA
•  2003 - SARS Outbreak in China
• 2004- Indian Ocean Tsunami 
• 2008- Mumbai terrorist attack
•  2011- Japanese Tsunami and Nuclear crisis

2001 - The 9/11 attack on World Trade Centre, USA

 SARS Outbreak in China

In other hand it’s very important to note that there are also some examples where media directly supported the destinations effected by disasters to bounce back. In 2002 Bali bomb blast was a very deliberate attack on tourism. Incident took place on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Island of Indonesia. It was resulted death  of 202 people (including 88-Australian tourists, 38 Indonesian citizens). Impact was immediately effected the place where more than 25% regional GDP, solely depends on the tourism sector(World Bank ,2010).

2002 Bali bomb blast

However public media in Indonesia stepped in to the situation and started media collaboration with Indonesian government. Media helped to publicize a series of steps to taken by the government of Indonesia and how the investigations went tough to capture the responsible parties for the bombings and how authorities met the effected families and victims of the incident and shared their losses. World was reminded that people of Bali are gentle and very religious and this image recreation played a key role in the recovery of Bali’s Image and rebuild the image of tourist destination. The government stimulated domestic tourism. Media showed the world that hotels, beaches, shopping areas and other tourism attractions have returned to the normalcy. These efforts helped rebuild tourism in Bali (Baral  et al.,2004).  

Bali City 

The adverse effects of negative media reports by the western media can be devastatingly effect on countries like Sri Lanka a lot. Sri Lankan tourism depends largely on destination Image. The negative reports can make the destination image damaged, and this damage will take significant amount of time to recover. The mass media has a very clear role to play as a vital source of information and this information can be very vital for the tourists to gain an image about the country. (Nielsen,  2001). 

However there are some commend practice in the media around the world to exaggerate any news. So the news can be a hot spot stories. But at the same time these kinds of hotspot stories can have very serious adverse impact on countries tourism sector (Smyth,1992).

  Operators in tourist generating countries led to a drastic deterioration in the destination image of Sri Lanka (Upadhayaya, 2009). It is submitted that the highly negative UK media reports, especially those from the private television channels, which contributed to a sharp decline of tourist arrivals from UK to Sri Lanka. In conflict time period travel  advisories  issued  by  foreign  embassies  and  diplomatic  missions  in  Sri Lanka  and  abroad,  and  removal  of  Sri Lanka  from  promotional  brochures  by  tour operations during the war toned time period(Upadhayaya, 2009).

Sri Lankan Killing fields negative media coverage
of Channel4 Media 

Even after the conflict situation, negative mass media reports contributed to the erosion of a positive destination image during the conflict years.  Although there were some shocking incidents not relating to the insecurity of and crimes against tourists, many journalists were quick  to  exaggerate  the  negative  situation,  and  many western   media  were  in  the  forefront  in  fabricating news  with  sensationalized  headlines  such  as ‘’Sri Lankan Killing fields ‘’ portraying post war in Sri Lanka as it is unsafe for tourists or other ethnic groups. The negative media coverage (International Business Times,2011) even government of Sri Lanka state that the operation was strictly humanitarian based and it resulted immediate freedom to many innocent citizens  who trapped under the terrorist iron fist( MOD,2011) 

Sri Lanka Humanitarian Mission

What really happened in the final stages of the battle with out media exaggerations

However according to government of Sri Lanka operational context of the Humanitarian Operation undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka between July 2006 and May 2009 to free the country from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). An examination of these facts demonstrates why the Government of Sri Lanka engaged in a military strategy against the LTTE, why Security Forces used the level of force they did, and how at each stage in the operation Sri Lanka took extraordinarysteps to respect and protect the lives of civilians( MOD,2010)

Footage taken from a military spy aircraft showing LTTE keeping civilians as a human Shield
(SRI LANKAN AIR FORCE,2009)

satellite images showing area in northern Sri Lanka where civilians kept as a human Shield 

"It is 60,000 plus and counting, and we have heard various reports of up to 110,000 coming out,” said the U.N. spokesman in Colombo, Gordon Weiss. He cautioned the reports were preliminary and not confirmed.
The LTTE has accused the military of fabricating the numbers and of capturing people it says are staying by choice. It has ignored all calls to free civilians while urging a truce, and on Tuesday vowed no surrender despite facing overwhelming firepower."
(Weiss,2009)

The role of media in the development of regional tourism

According to Nielsen, (2001)media is society linking social fabric and the Carey, (2009); state that “ The medium is the message”. Media determine images sounds and it produces and disclose everyday life, political shapes, views and it helps to provide martial out of the people and identify the identities in positive or negative manner (Nielsen,  2001).In terms of tourism media help to promote the tourism, and sometimes it can result de-motivate  the tourism as well. And media products can be act as integral component that preserver or exaggerate any destinations tourism experience (Nielsen,  2001).

Moreover, when it comes to  tourism media products, work as wide range of segmentations, starting from different advertisement brochures, (Santos, 2006 ) destination led postcards  movies, TV programmes,  commercials ,Photographs ,Writings, websites ,News etc. (Huggan, 2001; Santos, 2006).

Much tourism related media studies are directly connected between destination marketing. In doing so, media can work as motivational factor or demotivational factor via destination awareness media representations. (Santos, 2006 ).

Another approach of media in destination branding is tourism media products. Tourism media products can be structured in the broad social sphere and cultural norms. Tourism media representation is vital in understanding how it effect to the power and ideologies (Fenton, 2007).

According to Francesco Frangialli the former United Nations World Trade Organization Secretary-General, once expressed his idea that affects of media reporting is very important for modern day tourism. In today sophisticated world many of the travel decisions are made by the tourists even without seen the desired destination by themselves (World Tourism Organization,2007). Many travellers will not take any help or take very smaller amount of help form travel planners for make their travel decisions. With the development of IT and the media industry, they use information sources as television, radio, newspapers, books, magazines, movies, and Internet ( Urry ,1990).

Nowadays tourists firstly tend to decide the destination and this decisions can be purely made of what they have listened or seen form the media and the information that they have received from the media. According to the destination they can seek assistance from the specialists on accommodations, tour arrangements and guidance and support etc. ( Urry ,1990).

When the destinations has a very strong positioning strategy and the brand placement strategy it’s very easy to recall that destination and it also increase the chances of new tourist attraction rates. Therefore, branding and positioning the destination is a very important aspect for all emerging tourism markets. Media contributes immensely towards achieving these objectives (Urry ,1990).

It very vital and essential that governments of post conflicted nations and tourism development bodies have to work very closely with the media and promote tourism in a manner that the government and national objectives regaining  state tourism will not conflicting with the objectives of the media. Much effort needs to build this trust between the government and the relevant authorities and the media sector to generate the maximum support from the media. When the media support is given and backed up with the government effort it will create a synergistic effect with the positioning and promotional efforts of the state tourism sector. For example, when Singapore ended its decade long ban on gambling and introduced two casino licenses they were extremely careful how the media was handled so that any negative sentiments were kept under control (Lee,2003). 

However when it comes to the social media networks it’s pretty hard to get control and they have very huge influence over the state tourism as they carry much bigger population even larger than world’s largest countries. And the information could be shared via social media networks within matter of seconds. With all these development of information sector and media channels such as social media networks, no country can hide the facts and their true figures from the customers, if they don’t meet the consumer expectations. Hence rebuilding states form the post war era counties like Sri Lanka have very huge impact on media and they should heavily focus on the product import and delivery of their service. Social media will automatically do the rest of the work and promote the destination itself, if all other ingredients to the promotions are been done by the relevant destination itself (Kim and Jamal, 2007)

Even latest technology and media channels exist in the world, according  to Petty  et al’s (1983) likelihood model and in associated with the holistic approach majority of the tourists still might not directly attend to content of messages or direct media reports, which can be result in strong attitudes or which can leads to behaviours. They may not necessarily go though the central route of persuasion, instead of that most of the tourist may tend to use peripheral route when they tend to make a decision over visiting of a destination, and very few tourist may actively engage with the individual destination selection process. Many decisions may not act as rational when it comes to information gathering and processing of that information (Petty,1983).

Development of tourism is not limited to increasing the number of hotels, restaurants, and other such facilities. Countries such as Sir Lanka have more to do with the cultural tourism which has perceived by its own people. Local media and the governments as well as all the tourism development and promotional institutes has the set their objectives as common and  has to work hand in hand to archive those common goals(Jansen-Verbeke  1995).  In Vietnam in 2006 all the state newspapers carried positive news articles about states private sector development. At some stages of development procedure and the results appeared in flowing within the couple of years, with the increase of many foreign investments. Many countries require this kind of media alignments and collaboration. Post conflicted state tourism development also has no different than this. Tourism today has grown into a responsible global industry (Jansen-Verbeke  1995).  . We all know that media has immensely contributed towards this development. Over the years media has contributed towards shaping tourism into a responsible industry by promoting the following good practices (Chattopadhyay et al,2001).

Creating positive impact to the management of natural and cultural heritage sites and promotes more enjoyable experiences for the international and local tourists which have major influences. The media reports and media can contribute positively to the development of global tourism industry (Hier and Greenberg,2002). However there are some occasions where media publicity and media reports have negatively affected for the tourism in several countries. Media, when not handled well, can have very adverse effects on tourism. For examples when there are bad news or when a crisis situation happen the way media reporting the situation can be very influential to the whole tourism sector in a country.

According to  former secretary general of UNWTO Mr. Francesco Frangialli  stated,  “Tourists are scared away from destinations caught in round-the-clock disaster coverage, causing communities dependent on tourism to lose their source of livelihood’’.  He believes it is because of this reason that United Nations World Trade Organization also has continuously called on the media to avoid over exaggerating or make sure the reports are inclusion of exaggerated or lurid details when reporting effects of disasters.  As they can draw attention of tourists to a number of events which got widespread negative publicity directly affecting the tourism industries of respective countries (UNWTO,2007) .

Conflict led unbalanced tourism structure and terrorism

The concept of tourism can be seen as a service base industry or a combination or several sectors such as accommodation tourism transportation and food and beverages ect.

Another hand USA state department define the terrorism as ‘’premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience” (U.S. Department of State,2000). 

September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon

Terrorism which makes direct barriers to tourists and tourism industry and it will lead to significant damage to countries brand name and the image (Sonmez,1998). It’s a wide spread view that many researchers believe the tourism sector is very concerned about the personal safety (Edgel, 1990)and tourism can sustain well under peaceful platform (Pizam et al., 2000).

The impact of the terrorism on any countries, economy can lead to many adverse situations like unemployment, crimes, social issues and economical crisis etc. According to Pizam et al., (2000), the contribution of tourism and travel to both industrialised and developing countries is now so great that any downturns in the level of activity in the industry are a cause for concern. The repercussions extend beyond activities directly associated with tourism, notably airlines, hotels and catering, to  sectors that supply intermediate or final goods that are purchased by firms and employees in the industry, so that all sectors of the economy are affected to a greater or lesser extent ’’ 

SriLanka Bomb Blast

Sri Lanka is no exception for the adverse effects of terrorism which effected on many other industries such as transport, construction, Infrastructure telecommunication and all other complementary industries are directly or indirectly connected to tourism (Miththapala,2009).

In addition to any terrorism or conflict related situations can lead countries to a direct downfall, such as foreign exchange earnings, tourism is also a source of foreign direct investment (FDI) (Hudson and Ritchie,2009). According to the statistics, many tourist resorts are operated either by foreign companies or different joint ventures partnership along with foreign companies in the Sri Lanka. Any negative impact to the tourism sector can have a ripple effect on the whole economy (Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, 2008).

Impacts of conflict on tourism

Any conflict can dispute and distrust or decelerate a sustainable growth of tourism sector of any effected country and it may lead to violence and also very huge threat to peace or countries image (King and Zeng,2001).

Terrorist attack on temple of tooth kandy

Destinations will be less appealing to visitors if they are insecure or they are experiencing any conflict situation such as (King and Zeng,2001)  -  war,  political  unrest,  terrorism,  violations  of  human  rights  or  criminal activities. Any cultural or historical attractions can be override or can be abounded if country is going though above conditions (Sonmez, 1998). 

Although there are instances of tourist attractions based on war and atrocities, tourism in general is highly vulnerable to turmoil and can thrive only under peaceful conditions (Sonmez et al.,1999).  According to banks (1979) any of the following violent variables exist in a regime can effects on countries development.  Many authors use branks violent variables to measure the conflict in a regime(Sarkees, 2001).

Different types of violets variables in a conflict situation: from Banks’s Violent Events Count Variable

Assassinations: Political motivated murder or attempting murder of politically influenced official can be seen as assassination

Guerrilla warfare: any form of armed activity bombings suicide bombings sabotage or deliberate forces aimed to disrupt regimes consistency.

Purges: Any systematic execution or execution of political opponent illegal force by use of the governmental or regimes power.

Riots: Any form of violent or abusive demonstration or higher than 100 personal involved clashes with physical force.

Revolution: Any illegal or forced change the current government consistency or any attempt to change. Regardless of successful or unsuccessful attempts to gain independent form the government on power.

Table 1:Bank's Violen Event Count

(Bank ,1979 cited in Sarkees 2001).