Tales of Ceylon

Introduction

Tales of Ceylon is an award-winning destination marketing platform dedicated to showcasing the history and culture of the island of Sri Lanka through engaging stories and animated features, with the aim to inspire and create an active conversation about Sri Lanka among a potential travel audience.

The Challenge

Destination and tourism marketing campaigns from across the world have begun blurring into one mass — many Asian travel destinations boast of beautiful beaches, exotic wildlife, diverse cuisine, adventure activities and friendly people, all of which are the hallmarks of Sri Lanka’s own tourism promotion and marketing communications.
In this environment, we asked ourselves how we could make Sri Lanka stand above this clutter and target potential travellers at the inspiration stage of travel. The buying cycle across Sri Lanka’s key source markets—the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and India—was the task that we set ourselves, without the luxury of having millions to spend in advertising.

The Solution

A land blessed with natural wonders, Sri Lanka also has a documented history spanning over two millennia. As Sri Lankans, we are brought up on stories of heroic kings, epic battles and amazing feats of engineering.
“Tales of Ceylon” was designed and launched in 2019 by Antyra Solutions, to tell these stories with the hope of creating an emotional connection to the destination—a desire to experience this heritage, to explore the sites from ancient tales and to delve into the intriguing past of an ancient kingdom.
The website is our primary engagement platform utilizing a multitude of media, such as animated videos, imaginative illustrations and engaging content worthy of consuming and sharing.
Here’s the approach we used to create a comprehensive and user-friendly destination marketing platform:

Content Approach

The website’s carefully thought-out design, incorporated with authentic hand drawn artwork and well researched content pieces makes it stand out from the barrage of destination marketing platforms found online.
We have presented users with original engaging content about Sri Lanka, its rich history, mythical legends and ancient kingdoms in order to pique their interest and drive discovery of the country as an exciting, transformational and inspiring destination.

• Retelling the Epic Tales of History & Heritage – Well researched content pages that bring to life the tales, myths and legends to spark the imagination of potential travellers.
• Functional Content – Informative pieces on where to go, things to do, signature experiences and itineraries for different traveller types.
• Travel Tips – Easy to access, quick insights and travel tips to encourage discovery.
• Partner Hotel Marketing – Featured content blocks for partner hotels.

Design Core

The site connects the dots for visitors; destination-specific ‘tales’ will introduce you to a specific location, which then connects to ‘places to see’ and ‘things to do’ – from related attractions to nearby hotels. Extensively researched articles, rich illustrations, in-depth content and full-fold images were all used to create the feel of a luxury magazine – more so than a typical travel website.
We researched navigation options quite extensively. Each page was created as an entry point for potential engagement with SEO considered a priority. The site features both a functional, megamenu navigation for finding your location of choice and booking a hotel, and a more waterfall or drill-down approach that takes you through layered landing pages.

• Impactful Introductions – Beautiful imagery combined with a modern UI design aimed at drawing in a visitor right from the start.
• Enhanced Responsiveness – UI development that adapts in response to users’ display resolutions, while maintaining the intended experience.
• Intuitive Menu Design & Curated Search Results – Full screen menu design that visualizes modern aesthetic values by using clear and minimal graphical elements providing site wide access that enhances usability. Easy-to-use search that provides vital links related to user search queries.

Performance

• 600% Year-on-year growth of organic visibility.
• 234% Year-on-year growth of organic engagement.
• While country/destination level travel related search volumes dropped significantly during the COVID-19 lockdown period due to travel bans, quarantine procedures, etc., the website continued to perform, with users visiting and engaging with the ‘Tales’ content component of Tales of Ceylon.

The Tales of Ceylon website has won many awards and recognitions, including the Grand Award for Travel Website at NYX Marcom Awards 2021, the Canopus Award for Travel Website at Vega Digital Awards 2021 and the Best Travel Website Award at SLT Zero One Awards.