Colombo: Sri Lanka's Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) is planning to launch a long-awaited multi-million-dollar global tourism promotion campaign in January 2021 if tourism does not bounce back to the pre-COVID level in two years, local media reported on Wednesday.

Currently, the final terms of references (TOR) of the five-year campaign are being reviewed by an appointed Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC), which is likely to be completed within this month, the Mirror Business quoted the SLTPB as saying.

"Our aim is to finish the procurement process by December and to kick off the campaign by January," a top SLTPB official told the newspaper.

Initially, the SLTPB plans to float 11 tenders, including three local tenders, to select a creative agency, a social media agency and a campaign-monitoring unit for the five years, Xinhua news agency reported.

Eight international tenders would be invited to select agencies for destination representation.

Despite the COVID-19-induced crisis, Sri Lanka's tourism authorities are maintaining their midterm target to achieve revenue of 10 billion U.S. dollars from tourism by 2025 (IANS)