Outlook – June 29, 2019

THE BROTHERS GRIM

T

HEY don’t have any electoral base. Yet, in

Delhi’s power courtyard and social bean-

feasts, the Poonawalla brothers—Tehseen and

Shehzad—have been fixtures. Shehzad wanted

to challenge Rahul Gandhi for the Congress

chief ’s post, called the election process rigged

and left the party in December 2017. Married

to Robert Vadra’s cousin, Tehseen remained

with the party. Ever since, the siblings have

been regulars at news channels— Congress-

man Tehseen versus Shehzad, the ex. With

the GOP banning spokespersons from TV, the

duo is filling the void with sometimes comical

results. Like, Tehseen accusing the “Left-lean-

ing ” Congress of being anti-national!

B

UTTERFLIES have

had it good in Mahar-

ashtra. In 2015, it was the

first state to anoint a state

butterfly. Now, the state

biodiversity board

has decided

that their

English

and Latin

appella-

tions are

not good

enough—it

wants to bestow Marathi

names on 227 species. The

move is touted as an “exer-

cise to create awareness and

promote conservation and

people’s involvement

in butterflies”.

We wonder if a

certain party

propagating

Marathi

pride

pup ated this

move.

T

HE searing heat is

taking its toll on the

residents of Ottaipatti vil-

lage in Tamil Nadu’s Salem

district. So, they came up

with an ingenious solu-

tion. At the annual temple

festival, a possessed wom-

an claimed that an Amman

idol they had immersed

in the Cauvery nine years

ago during the temple’s

renovation was the reason

for the drought. So, deep

divers were hired to locate

it, but to no avail. The

woman was taken to div-

ine the location. Two more

possessed people were tak-

en along. However, nobody

could find the idol despite

numerous deep dives.

R

EELING under the negative impact of the Easter

Sunday terrorist bombings, Sri Lanka is planning to

launch a massive public relations campaign next month

to win back tourists. The island nation earns over $4.

billion annually from tourism, which accounts for nearly

11.6 per cent of its total revenue. The serial terror

bombings killed and injured hundreds, of whom many

were visiting the country as tourists, and had affected

Sri Lanka’s image adversely, forcing people to stay away

from the country.

But now, Sri Lankan Tourism will launch a two-month-

long global promotional campaign fron July to give a boost

to the tourism sector. With the tagline “So Sri Lanka” it

hopes to win back the tourists.

With an investment of 500 million Sri Lankan rupees,

the government plans to position Sri Lanka on the global

tourism map which it hopes will

help the tourism industry to

bounce back from the negative

sentiments.

Media reports suggest that J.

Walter Thompson (JWT) had

been chosen as the PR agency to

represent Sri Lanka in the global

market. “We will launch the

global promotional campaign in

July and it will be up and running

for the next two months,” tour-

ism development minister John

Amaratunga said.

The target markets for the

global promotional campaign include the island nation’s

biggest tourism sources—India, China, the UK, Germany

and France. “We have now got approval for all promotional

campaigns, including the global advertising campaign, digi-

tal promotional campaign and appointment of a PR agency

that the industry had been longing for. We hope to execute

these promotions in an aggressive manner,” the tourism

minister said.

Meanwhile, SLTPB chairman Kishu Gomes said that

Sri Lanka will participate in a number of exhibitions and

road shows which will further help bolster the country’s

image. “In addition to the dedicated in-house promotional

campaigns, Sri Lanka is also participating at 25 calendar

exhibitions, 18 road shows and nine consumer engagement

events, hence all these will give the impetus that we

are looking for to lure more travellers to the country,” he

stressed. In addition, Sri Lanka has also made a push to

woo Chinese tourists with a major promotional initiative

at the biggest industry event in Beijing this week. After

India, most tourists to Sri Lanka are from China.

Come Back To Pretty Galle

A global

campaign

designed by ad

firm JWT will

lure tourists

back to Sri

Lanka as

numbers

fell after the

Easter Sunday

bombings.

THE WITCHES OF SALEM

AAPLE NAAV KAAY, BUTTERFLY?

1 July 2019 OUTLOOK 9