MAM
SriLankan Airlines beefs up operations, to promote tour packages
BANGALORE: SriLankan Airlines has kicked off a new service to China. Beijing service operates from Colombo to Beijing via Bangkok 3 times a week on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
The company is also planning a multi-media promotional campaign to promote the various tour packages introduced by its subsidiary SriLankan Holidays.
An important aspect of the launch of flights to China was the signing of interline agreements with four airlines – Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, and Dragon Air – that service 27 major cities throughout China.
Passengers anywhere in China will have easy access to the SriLankan network of destinations, and passengers flying into China can travel on SriLankan up to Beijing and hop on to domestic flights with ease. The introduction of this new flight will provide Bangkok with daily frequencies to Colombo.
Announcing the launch of the new service to China, SriLankan Airlines Manager India Rohan Senaviratne said, “A nation of 1.3 billion people and GDP growing at 9.5 per cent year on year, China as a market has huge potential. Bangalore sees a lot of traffic to China considering companies like Huawei Technologies have offices in the City and homegrown IT majors like Infosys and Wipro have offices in China. We expect our new route Bangkok- Beijing to contribute significantly towards our revenue targets.”
SriLankan Holidays – a subsidiary of SriLankan Airlines, is offering attractive packages for travelers to Sri Lanka and various other exotic destinations like Maldives, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Conditional low cost packages were announced viz: the Far East (Singapore, Malaysia and Bangkok) starting from minimum 2 nights / 3 days,
Earlier a ‘Rediscover Sri Lanka‘ package aimed at holidaymakers who set out to discover Sri Lanka in association with Taj Group of hotels, Sri Lanka Tourism, and the Tourism Cluster was announced the launch to boost tourism in the country that is fast recovering from last year‘s Tsunami.
The $ 4.1 million campaign with the tagline ‘SriLanka thanks the world for caring, and in return invites you over‘ spearheaded by SriLankan Airlines and the tourism board was released in international press and television channels on May 16, 2005.
The three and half month campaign will initially consist of commercials on pan-regional television in Europe, the Middle East, Far East, and South Asia followed by localized press advertisements in Europe, the country‘s major tourism markets.
An Internet campaign is also being conducted with banner advertisements on 25 major travel websites.
Among those involved in the production of the campaign were Grant McCann, Film Locations, Hit Factory, Video Image, Power House, and Vision Works, all in Sri Lanka, and VHQ Singapore.
As a commitment to rebuild the nation and accelerate tourism, SriLankan Airlines is providing $ 2.1 million towards Rediscover SriLanka campaign along with supporting the campaign through series of media conferences in target markets to promote the campaign. SriLankan Holiday, a subsidiary of SriLankan Airlines is offering up to 20 per cent off on holiday packages.
USAID, which supports the Tourism cluster, has pledged $ 3 million for Sri Lanka‘s tourism recovery efforts, of which $ I million will be towards the Rediscover Sri Lanka campaign.
MAM
VML India lands two finalist spots at Cairns Hatchlings 2026
The Mumbai agency is back in Australia with two teams, a UN brief and 24 hours to impress
MUMBAI: VML India is heading to Australia again. The Mumbai-based creative agency has secured two finalist spots at the Cairns Hatchlings 2026 competition, one in the Audio category and one in Design, making it the only Indian agency to have reached the finals in both editions of the contest since its launch in 2025.
Four people will make the trip. Senior copywriter Shilpi Dey and senior art director Raj Thakkar will compete in Audio. Art directors Shabbir and Shruti Negi will go head-to-head with the world’s best in Design. The finals take place at the Cairns Convention Centre from 13th May, culminating in an awards ceremony on 15th May.
The work that got them there is worth examining. For the Audio category, Dey and Thakkar tackled a brief for LIVE LIKE MMAD with a campaign called Inner Voice, Interrupted. Using spatial audio techniques, the campaign recreates the overwhelming self-doubt that descends after a long workday, physically panning negative thoughts left and right before cutting the noise entirely to reveal a confident inner voice. Strategically targeted at commuters via Spotify during evening rush hours, the campaign reframes the hours after work as an opportunity for personal growth and charitable action.
For the Design category, Shabbir and Negi worked on a brief for Canteen’s Bandanna Day, a campaign highlighting how cancer pushes teenagers out of their own defining moments. Using a pixelated design language to create stark contrast between a blurred world of isolation and a focused world of connection, the campaign, titled The Flipside of Cancer, shows teenagers fading into the background of birthdays, skateparks and school proms. As a Canteen bandanna appears, the blur flips and the teenager snaps back into sharp focus.
Kalpesh Patankar, group chief creative officer of VML India, made no attempt to disguise his satisfaction. “We are immensely proud to see our teams consistently excel on the Cairns Hatchlings platform since its inception,” he said. “They have masterfully tackled challenging briefs across diverse categories, demonstrating both layered storytelling and a unique creative approach. This exceptional teamwork is truly inspiring.”
Dey and Thakkar, returning to the finals after last year’s run, were candid about the demands of the audio medium. “It’s one of the most demanding mediums, where we only have a few seconds to capture a listener’s world with sound alone, so absolute clarity is essential,” they said. “The true measure of creative work is its ability to create positive change, and our audio submission was made to help those who need it most while encouraging people to silence the inner voices that hold them back.”
Shabbir and Negi, competing in Design for the first time, described the experience as “a completely different beast.” “We see it as an opportunity to showcase our expertise, raise the bar, and challenge ourselves in new ways, while also learning from creative minds from across the globe,” they said.
In Australia, the four finalists will face a live 24-hour brief from the United Nations before presenting in a live pitch session. Twenty-four hours, one brief, one shot. VML India has been here before. It knows exactly what is at stake.
