Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) hosted a networking event for a group of prominent social media influencers and travel bloggers, at Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo, in order to welcome them and also to felicitate those who made an outstanding contribution to promote the destination. The group, consisting of 22 travel bloggers representing key markets in Europe & USA, arrived in Sri Lanka on 6^th August 2019, to explore the destination and convey a message to the global community that Sri Lanka is a safe to travel, and showcase its wide variety of holiday opportunities for travel enthusiasts.

The delegation will tour the country in 5 groups, which will cover the major attractions and also lesser known attractions of the North, East, South and Central parts of the country. The combined reach of these bloggers of all social media platforms is over 7 million, with a major follower base in the European continent.

Janet Newenham, a prominent travel blogger from Ireland who has an average reach of 150,000 on twitter, 50,000 on Instagram 30,000 on face book and 2000 on YouTube, runs the popular travel blogger site, ‘’Journalist on the run’’ and contributed largely in placing Sri Lanka on the global map as a top travel destination. In order to thank her for her massive support, she was given the award for outstanding contribution for Sri Lanka tourism at the event.

Speaking on receiving the award she said, "I was very happy and felt so surprised because it was so unexpected. I felt emotional at the same time and this means so much to me. I have been visiting Sri Lanka for 3 years now and I’m going to continue visiting this amazing country. I think Sri Lanka is one of the loveliest countries in the world with whale watching, the elephants, and I love Sri Lankan cuisine too. Sri Lankans are the friendliest people in the world. I take this as an opportunity to thank you all".