Film-induced tourism is one of the fast growing sectors of the tourism industry and this is something that both the UK and New Zealand know very well.
James Bond on VisitBritain’s Service
On Global James Bond Day, marking the 50th anniversary of the 007 film franchise, VisitBritain launched its biggest ever film tourism campaign, centered around the release of “Skyfall,” the 23rd James Bond adventure.
Capturing the adventure and excitement of 007, VisitBritain’s image campaign includes its largest ever film tourism campaign, which will be shown in cinemas in key inbound markets like Australia, Brazil, Germany and the US. A number of billboards declaring “Bond is GREAT Britain” will also remind people that there is no better time for them to visit Britain and explore the home of the world’s most dashing secret agent.
VisitBritain also launched an online SKYFALL experience called ‘Agent UK’, designed to engage with the large digital and social media following that the national tourism agency already enjoys. The campaign can be shared through Twitter, Facebook & Google+.
Britain’s rich heritage and culture, along with its film expertise all combine to make the UK an ideal location for filming, something which has been drawing film-makers to Britain for years.
On average, 120 million people worldwide will see a blockbuster film in the first three weeks of it opening and research shows that film locations can be a major draw for overseas tourists. VisitBritain research shows that just under half of potential visitors to Britain want to visit places they have seen featured in films or TV.
New Zealand is 100% Middle Earth
100% Middle-earth,100% Pure New Zealand underpins Tourism New Zealand‘s (TNZ) campaign work to promote New Zealand as a visitor destination through its association with the upcoming film releases of “The Hobbit” Trilogy.
The aim is to take advantage of that global profile by showing how easily the fantasy of The Hobbit movies can become reality in the form of a New Zealand holiday. The dedicated marketing campaign aims to show potential travellers that the fantasy of Middle-earth is in fact the reality of New Zealand – and that there is a whole world of experiences to be had and people to meet within the movie-scene style landscapes.
Research conducted by Tourism NZ in May to July, 2012 found that 57% of people already considering a trip to New Zealand were aware of The Hobbit trilogy. Of those aware of the films, 87% know they were filmed in New Zealand and 58 per cent are fans of the Hobbit.
This week sees the first 100% Middle-earth, 100% Pure New Zealand joint venture activity launched in USA as part of an advertising campaign with Air New Zealand. Rolled out using online advertising, potential travellers will be directed to landing pages on newzealand.com and airnewzealand.com respectively promoting return airfares to Auckland.
Talking about marketing integration, it was recently announced that New Zealand’s capital Wellington will rename itself “The Middle of Middle-earth” when it hosts the world premiere of The Hobbit movie trilogy next month. The city will also host Hobbit artwork and an artisan festival. The city also announced that the postal service and local newspaper will be among many agencies to use the unofficial Middle Earth moniker for three weeks.
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Fresh and creative initiatives harnessing the power of digital media and tools designed to maximize engagement while following an integrated marketing approach.
VisitBritain Digital Torch Relay
Taking advantage of the Torch Relay journey across the UK, VisitBritain has just unveiled its digital and social media plans aiming to maximise the exposure of the relay destinations.
The ‘Follow the Torch’ map uses new integrated Google Street View technology so that followers across the world can see images and explore torch locations before they decide whether they want to visit.
Destination content will be added each day as the journey progresses.
Images and inspirational content will be posted via VisitBritain’s online network. All of VisitBritain’s digital platforms will be involved, with engaging content posted on Love UK – VisitBritain’s main Facebook page which now has nearly 800,000 fans, and has recently been named one of the biggest brand pages in the UK.
VisitBritain’s Super Bloggers will be joining the Samsung torch relay truck on key dates of the journey, capitalising on the unique access to tweet, blog and create stories that highlight towns and cities across the UK.
There will be live tweets from consumer site @VisitBritain, where VisitBritain’s corporate page will post a tweet a day to celebrate the 70 day marathon with each tweet offering insightful information about the area it will be passing.
VisitBritain will also be producing an app on Love UK which will enable all fans to pass virtual flags around the world. Users will be encouraged to keep passing the digital flag to Facebook friends in an attempt to build up points. The flag with the most passes will win a prize provided by one of VisitBritain’s key strategic partners.
Monmouth in Wales has become the world’s first “Wikipedia town”.
The project is called ‘MonmouthpediA‘ and was created after Wikipedia UK and Monmouthshire County Council teamed with the city’s library, museums and volunteers to work on the project. The entire town has been behind the project; partners include 200 businesses, several universities and nearly every school and community group in the area. The project has been in the works for six months, helped along by the local council’s installation of town-wide free Wi-Fi. Talking about the power of willingness.
Visitors will be able to use smartphones to scan barcodes at points of interest in Monmouth in Wales’ southeast, instantly bringing up a Wikipedia page about the landmark on their phones, in whatever language they are set to. Hundreds of articles about the life and history of the town will be available online in more than 26 languages, from Hindi to Hungarian.
The town has now installed over 1,000 QRpedia codes all over the town. This includes ceramic or metal plaques on public buildings, as well as smaller labels for inside buildings, and for labelling particular objects. And local shops also have glass stickers in their windows to give information on their professions.
As the ‘official’ Wikepedia page states :
“MonmouthpediA aims to cover every single notable place, person, artefact, flora, fauna and other things in Monmouth in as many languages as possible. Monmouthpedia belongs to and can be contributed to by everyone. It involves people from all around the world collaborating to share their knowledge through text, photos video and audio Wikipedia gives our work a global audience. We are the first town in Wales to have free and open wifi available to everyone. We use QRpedia codes around the town to give people easy access to content in their own language.”
Very soon “right across the world, there will be no escape from the message that Britain is great” as a new phase of the GREAT Britain campaign will see the New York Subway, Paris Metro, and 100 taxis across Delhi draped with the Union flag.
A series of GREAT images with also form part of the campaign, designed to encourage more international visitors to the UK.
The initiative will be rolled out in New York from Monday. It will see the inside and outside of a New York subway train wrapped in the GREAT branding, and adverts blitzed across key transit hubs including Grand Central and Stamford stations.
VisitBritain’s GREAT campaign aims to attract an extra 4.6 million extra visitors to the UK over the next four years, securing an additional £3 billion in visitor spend, targeting the 14 biggest and most lucrative tourism markets around the world.
The international reach of the campaign will be strengthened by a global partnership between VisitBritain and Yahoo!. As their largest ever online campaign, it aims to drive over five million views of VisitBritain content on the Yahoo! network and help drive 3.5 million visits to VisitBritain’s own online platforms.
Going Local
At the same time, tourism businesses across the UK are urged to Get Involved and join the new “Holidays at home are great!” campaign, the biggest domestic marketing campaign launched in the UK. It is a partnership approach led by VisitEngland with Visit Wales, Visit Scotland, Northern Ireland Tourist Board and London and Partners as part of a wider initiative to use the London 2012 games to boost domestic tourism across the UK.
Scotland, Northern Ireland and the regions of England are putting significant resources behind recruiting businesses to the campaign with a 20.12%off or other great offers initiative, meaning that holidaymakers booking a UK short break before the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games will be eligible for a money off discount or value-added offer.
It seems like a necessary initiative against the issue of high prices in London and the UK in general during the Olympics, especially when Asia and travellers from China and Japan are reportedly avoiding travel to the UK during that period mainly due to the increased costs.
The reach to all types of tourism businesses and the guidelines are simple. To Get Involved, be prepared to offer money off discounts or other value added benefits such as: 20.12% off hotel stays, meals, and other goods and services; Offers and deals like three nights for the price of two at hotels, or two-for-one entry at attractions; Value-added offers, where the customer pays the usual price but receives something extra for example a free lunch or a special meal for £20.12, a free bottle of wine, a guided tour, or a pampering spa add-on.
All these offers will then be displayed together on the campaign website, to create a ‘one-stop shop’ where visitors can browse and select the offers they like best. On choosing an offer, they’ll be taken to the offer supplier’s site, where they’ll be able to sign up.
New Tourism Campaigns from G.Britain, Cyprus, N. Ireland & Tasmania. What are your key selling points?
‘GREAT’ campaign for the UK
The UK Prime Minister has launched a new drive to promote Britain abroad. The new ‘GREAT’ campaign, launched on Wednesday 21 September in New York, will focus on everything the UK has to offer as one of the very best places to visit, study, work, invest and do business.
It provides a co-ordinated approach for promoting the UK in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games and beyond – it will allow Britain to speak with one voice about the opportunities to invest in the UK and help attract millions of visitors. ‘GREAT’ Britain centres on areas of British excellence covering reasons to visit and invest in the UK. These areas are: innovation, entrepreneurs, creativity, knowledge, green, heritage, sport, music, countryside and shopping.
This campaign is an opportunity for VisitBritain to work alongside other key organisations, such as the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, UK Trade & Investment, the Foreign & Commonwealth office and other Government departments to promote the best of Britain and highlight why this is the only place to be in 2012. They have been actively engaged throughout the development of the ‘GREAT’ concept and have provided their expertise to help ensure the campaign can be successfully implemented in those overseas markets where they operate.
Their marketing programme to see an extra £2 billion being spent across Britain by four million additional overseas visitors over the next four year – is already rolling out under the ‘GREAT’ Britain branding to integrate with the wider Government initiative.
The ‘GREAT’ creative is already being used on VisitBritain website, and they are running tactical ads featuring GREAT with strategic and industry partners in key markets around the world. These adverts showcase what overseas visitors can discover in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The ads are part of a match-funded pot of marketing spend, with £50 million coming from VisitBritain and £50 million from the industry.
‘Cyprus In Your Heart Campaign’ Launched Internationally
The Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) has launched a new campaign, with the slogan “Cyprus in Your Heart”, which is designed to put Cyprus on the international tourism map in 2011. Backed by a budget of 19 million Euro (AED 99 million), CTO sees great potential to increase tourist arrivals in 2011.
According to Alecos Orountiotis, CTO chairman, the campaign will promote Cyprus’ history and culture, friendliness and hospitality, its mix of modern and contemporary and the wide range of activities that one can enjoy by exploring the island. The campaign is being run through posters and short TV spots.”
Early results are encouraging, with tourist arrivals in April up by a whopping 43% over the same period last year. This was confirmed by figures released by the Statistical Service of the Republic of Cyprus. According to the report, tourists from the Middle East played a significant role in the increase with the UAE and Lebanon being the largest source countries from the region.
A grand total of 405,463 tourists arrived in the all-weather Mediterranean island paradise between the months of January-April 2011, as compared to 344.664 in the corresponding period of 2010, recording an overall increase of 17.6% – a potent sign that the tourism industry was rapidly picking up the pace again.
Orountiotis said that in 2010 promotion efforts were affected by the harsh prevailing environment, with the consequences of the global financial crisis, the eruption of the volcano in Iceland, the global drop in recreation trips from Britain, reduced credit, pressure from travel organisers, viability problems faced by travel agents and air carriers, and the void left by the closing of Eurocypria airline.
Orountiotis also referred to the prospect of increasing air connectivity, noting that ’’the lively interest expressed by important airlines in Cyprus, the launch of new flights and the enhancement of existing ones, are not at all haphazard but the result of our unwavering efforts.’’ Orountiotis pointed out that ’’We have before us, significant opportunities, and to achieve multiple results for tourism, establishing Cyprus as an all-year-round destination, we have to exploit them.’’
Northern Ireland launched new International Tourism Campaign
The Tourism Ireland campaign is being rolled out in Great Britain, America, mainland Europe and Australia. As well as focusing on city breaks, it will feature the attractions offered by more rural areas.
The campaign, which involves TV, radio and online advertising, will highlight the many festivals and events taking place here this autumn including the Belfast Festival at Queens, the Roe Valley Folk Festival in Limavady, the Banks of the Foyle Hallowe’en Carnival in Londonderry, the William Kennedy Piping Festival in Armagh, Belfast Music Week and the MTV Europe Music Awards in Belfast.
Arlene Foster said: “With more people opting for short breaks and the trend for late bookings, we have a real opportunity to persuade people to come to Northern Ireland this autumn.
“An intensive programme of activity is under way in Great Britain, which is our largest and most important tourism market. The autumn television campaign will reach up to 18.5million GB potential holidaymakers, while over 16million people will hear radio advertisements placing the spotlight on Titanic, our festivals, music, literature and living culture.
“”With the completion of the Giants Causeway Visitors’ Centre, and the countdown to NI 2012 and the centenary of Titanic well underway, there has never been a better time for tourists to visit Northern Ireland.”
Northern Ireland’s golf tourism offering will continue to be marketed across the world as part of the campaign.
The Minister added: “Our world class golf offering is also being showcased around the globe as the ‘Home of Champions’ following the tremendous success of our golfers, Darren Clarke, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell.
“With so much to look forward to, this is the perfect time to put Northern Ireland’s tourism offering on the international stage.”
Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said: “In association with our industry colleagues we have enticing autumn/winter packages to offer consumers, developed around festivals and themes such as food, music, literature and the arts.
“The launch of major events next year, like Titanic Belfast and the Cultural Olympiad, as well as the completion of projects like the Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre, provides a wonderful opportunity for us to position Northern Ireland on the international stage as a ‘must-see’ destination.”
Tourism Tasmania’s spring marketing campaign 2011 will run from 21 August to end of November as a supplement to Tourism Tasmania’s year-round marketing activity.
The campaign aims to attract more visitors to Tasmania by featuring experiences that are known to entice people to the state – wilderness, heritage and culture, adventure and quality produce.
The campaign makes use of a combination of print and TV advertising, editorial, special features, cinema advertising and online TV and video. The cinema ad will screen in locations along Australia’s eastern seaboard – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, South East Queensland, Canberra, Regional Victoria; the press and TV advertising extends across Australia while the online advertising and promotions have a global reach.
Tourism Tasmania has invested around $1.7 million on media for the campaign. Co-operative activity with distribution partner campaigns has added a further $743,000 in value. The media spend allocation is: 42% – print advertising and editorial in relevant magazines and newspaper features 23% – online advertising, 22% – cinema advertising, 13% – TV advertising, being on advertising on SBS around the new Gourmet Farmer series.
Montreal’s 11 summer festivals already draw some 3 million visitors (out of a total 6 million visiting the city during the summer). But Montreal is now building on these key tourism assets, with the goal of becoming North America’s premiere festival destination by 2015.
This year the festivals, held between mid July and mid August, are being collectively marketed for the first time as “Montreal Festimania,” a concept inspired by Scotland’s famed Edinburgh Festivals.
The Festimania concept was a natural, given Montreal’s reputation for offering “the best of Europe and North America” and the logic of pooling resources across its wealth of festivals, says Isabelle Hudon, chairman of the board of Le Collectif de Festivals Montréalais, the nonprofit collective organizing and marketing Festimania. The festivals span virtually every cultural activity imaginable, including film, comedy, theater, circuses, design, art and a wide variety of music.
The first-year efforts for Festimania (a three-year pilot project) aim to build awareness of the city as festival destination, as well as boost ticket sales and of course tourism revenue throughout Montreal, by attracting visitors from four primary markets: Quebec, the rest of Canada, the U.S. and Europe.
The Collective created a campaign of international scale on a small budget (about $1 million, nearly all spent on marketing, according to Hudon) by leveraging the impromptu musical humor and popularity of YouTube star Merton, social media and a contest.
Merton (always sporting a green hoodie) spontaneously composes humorous songs on his piano about each person he “meets” in cyberspace, based on their images and comments. His first video in March 2010 went viral, to date generating nearly 8.8 million views.
For each event, multicolored installations that resemble the prism design of the Festimania logo were set up in areas within the city. Within each was an iPad linked to a computer being used by Merton in Montreal. Through Skype, Merton (seated in front of Festimania branding elements) engaged with the iPad users and then endeavored to persuade them, through song (bringing in the festivals’ highlights), to attend Festimania.
To feed viral activity, entrants who “like” Festimania invite their friends to join via email invitations, or get friends to enter the contest through a posting of their entries on their Facebook walls, get additional chances to win. The contest was promoted during the Merton four-city events via the distribution of “regular” lanyards bearing the entry Web site’s URL.
The March-posted “Merton Loves Montreal” video has so far drawn more than 332,000 views, and both that video and the early May “international stunt” have generated many millions of media impressions and posts/tweets.
In just a few weeks since launching the contest, Festimania has added about 1,000 Facebook fans, and the contest has drawn 1,200 entrants.
Festimania also has its own YouTube page, which is drawing views of videos that highlight the festivals’ activities, as well as more views of Merton’s March video and a new Merton video song message about Montreal recorded during the international promotion.
The Authority of Tourism in Panama (ATP) launched the advertisement campaign that will promote the Isthmus as a first class touristic destination, in a public event that took place before the authorities of several touristic guilds, the media and special guests.
The campaign seeks to emphasize the main touristic wonders of our country, for which five (5) exciting commercials that present the beauty of its beaches, the cosmopolitan Panama City, the exuberant nature, the different ethnic groups that are still living throughout the whole country and of course, the main worldwide touristic attraction that is: The Panama Canal.
The campaign emphasizes the connectivity and ease of access to Panama, which makes it the eighth most important air hub in the world and one of the main crossing points of America, which is evident in the commercial closings: “with more than 80 destinations, Panama is always close to you”.
The advertisement strategy has five different commercial versions for TV in English and Spanish, which will be advertised in the United States, Latin America and Europe in global media networks. The graphic campaign will be broadcasted in traditional media as well as in several social network sites that are currently the ones with the highest amount of users and visits like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
“When this administration started two (2) years ago, we dedicated our efforts to the promotion of Panama in the exterior with various strategies which have obtained excellent results, while the analysis on the travelers’ interests was performed. We wanted to be sure that our campaign was well focused.” said Salomon Shamah, General Administrator of Tourism in Panama.
Switzerland Tourism created a new Facebook campaign in response to study findings that revealed that mobile devices cause tension in relationships.
A new Mobile Workforce Report from iPass found that 29% of respondents indicated that mobile technology creates tension in their relationships, and that 44% of mobile workers keep their smartphones at the ready within arm’s distance when they go to sleep.
In the Switzerland Tourism Facebook contest, you can win a week with full board (excluding drinks) in a Swiss mountain cabin with 10 Facebook friends if you provide a written continuation to the clause: “A week in in the mountain cabin would do me good because … ”
There will be seven winners (plus 10 Facebook friends each) chosen, and Rohner hiking socks and Victorinox Swiss army knives will be handed out to 93 other winners.
The tourism board explains that the more supporters of your application you get the greater are your chances of winning, and you can also boost your Facebook friends’ chances by supporting their applications. (If you win, you can choose your Swiss mountain cabin mates from among your supporters.)
The hitch is — you’ll have no Internet and mobile reception during your stay in the Swiss mountain cabin.
The Wisconsin Department of Tourism launched its new summer marketing campaign last month in various markets across the Midwest around the creative platform of “fun.” The “Picture the Fun” campaign is meant to inspire travelers in Wisconsin to discover and share their idea of fun this summer.
The campaign will run in markets across Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa, and feature TV spots, radio spots, print and digital ads, out-of-home marketing efforts, public relations, social media executions, and advertising with the Chicago Transit Authority.
Additionally, campaign extensions will run on TravelWisconsin.com and the Department of Tourism Facebook page and Twitter feed throughout the campaign, and will include: notable guest bloggers with ties to Wisconsin; a “Summer Fun Report”; and a “Picture the Fun” photo contest. Free Travel Wisconsin iPhone® and Android™ apps are also available for download and help travelers find local attractions, lodging, dining and recreation throughout the state.
Harvard Business School report revealed, “70 percent of all [social] actions are related to viewing pictures or other people’s profiles.” Also, Facebook, a top social site for travelers, is most often used to share photos and video. The “Picture the Fun” campaign is built on the popularity of sharing photos on social networks.
“The State of Wisconsin is well-positioned to really separate itself from the competition with this campaign,” said Gov. Scott Walker. “The Department of Tourism’s primary focus is to market the state and grow the tourism economy, ultimately creating jobs through effective marketing. The creative platform we’re rolling out will enable us to effectively compete for tourism dollars and meet those objectives.” Research showed Wisconsin held a unique position in that travelers across the Midwest not only viewed Wisconsin as a fun destination but also judged it more fun when compared to other states competing for the same traveler dollar. The Department of Tourism made the strategic decision to build on the equity in an effort to differentiate the state.
Additionally, results from the Department of Tourism research showed that fun was also mentioned time and again as the lead motivating factor for leisure travel among tourists, which lead to the campaign’s communications focusing on fun moments, stories, activities and events consumers can see themselves in.
Talented Nova Scotians have won an opportunity to star in the My Nova Scotia regional tourism campaign. They are featured in television commercials airing in the Maritimes throughout the summer.
“The My Nova Scotia campaign has been a great success,” said Percy Paris, Minister of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism. “We are very pleased to have had almost 400 talented Nova Scotians participate in the contest, and many more show their support, either online or at the auditions. Their passion and enthusiasm for our beautiful province will make potential visitors from around the world realize they must come and see Nova Scotia for themselves.”
Each week, for 21 weeks, different people will be featured. Some will also be included in a regional newspaper ad campaign. Each commercial will highlight the best festivals, events and experiences to enjoy in Nova Scotia this summer.
Winner Elyse Delaney, a singer and performer from Cheticamp, called the My Nova Scotia contest a wonderful learning experience.
“I am very grateful to be given the opportunity to promote the beautiful province I am proud to call home. I always look forward to seeing new faces and I know that they will always remember their time here in Nova Scotia, and hopefully come back.”
Contestants were invited to participate in the My Nova Scotia campaign by uploading their own videos, or auditioning at one of 14 events that took place across the province this spring. To view all commercials, go to novascotia.com
VisitBritain launced its ‘Goodwill Ambassador’ programme
VisitBritain, Britain’s national tourism agency, has announced the launch of its ‘Goodwill Ambassador’ programme in conjunction with its four-year global ‘Britain You’re Invited’ campaign.
The ‘Britain You’re Invited’ campaign is backed by a public-private partnership funding of £100 million ($162.7 million) and aims to attract and invite visitors from all over the world to visit and explore the destination, said a statement from VisitBritain.
Karan Johar, top Bollywood filmmaker, Asha Gill, well-known Asian TV presenter and Alex Hua Tian, leading 2012 Olympic, Paralympic Games Event Riding candidate were introduced as “Goodwill Ambassadors” by Sandie Dawe, VisitBritain’s chief executive.
Speaking at the launch, Dawe said, “Britain welcomed over 4 million visitors in 2010 from the Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa region. These travellers spent approximately £4.5 billion during their travel to Britain. As one of our major growth regions, Asia will be a key area for the global roll out of the ‘Britain You’re Invited’ campaign”.
The three Asian goodwill ambassadors all share one thing in common – they were all, in some way, inspired by Britain in their respective fields, remarked Dawe.
VisitBritain has revealed plans of introducing its ambassadors in June, launch a television advertising campaign in September, and initiate a stimulus programme for the visiting-relatives market in October.
Tourism Ireland launched Irish-themed Facebook game
Tourism Ireland is hoping to exploit the phenomenal popularity of social networks in the weeks ahead by convincing more than 100,000 people to play an Irish-themed Facebook game which it launched on St Patrick’s Day.
The Ireland Town game allows Facebook users to create an “idyllic town in Ireland” with the help of a virtual tour guide called Sally. Once they have Irish utopia created, Facebook users can then explore iconic sites and attractions around the country without leaving their couches.
After certain challenges are completed, players can progress to the next level of the game and those who make it through all the levels will be in with a chance of winning a real world prize of a holiday to Ireland.
Tourism Ireland is hoping that playing the game will bring the Irish holiday experience to life for potential visitors – albeit without the rain – and they will be tempted to swap the virtual for the real and come to Ireland to spend hard cash in the months ahead.
Fans can progress faster if they convince their friends on Facebook to sign up and the tourism authority has expressed the hope that “the incredible viral effect of social games” will see up to 100,000 people playing Ireland Town over the coming weeks.
It is aiming to ape games like FarmVille and CityVille which are hugely popular with Facebook users with nearly a quarter of users in the US and Britain playing social games at least once a week.
“It is a unique promotional tool and a first, as no other national tourist board had done this before,” said Mark Henry, Tourism Ireland’s central marketing director.
Visit Britain launches Facebook app targeting Generation Y travelers
Tourism body VisitBritain has launched a Facebook app targeting Generation Y travelers encouraging them to visit the UK via a personal treasure hunt that takes place on the social network.
VisitBritain has partnered with STA Travel, Travel CUTS and Transat Holidays to launch the app, called Unite the Invite, which is only available to Facebook users in America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The app, which was created by Albion, involves a competition to match two Facebook users via the social network. Users register with the app, upload their picture and wait for a “match” with another Facebook user.
Users are then given a virtual invite to the UK, which is split between themselves and their “match”. Users then post the picture of their ‘match’ on their wall, and ask their Facebook friends to share the picture in order to try to find their competition partner through the social networking site.
The fastest pair to find each other will win a trip to London, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh or Cardiff.
Laurence Bresh, director of marketing, VisitBritian, said: “The idea that we’re all connected by six degrees of separation has intrigued people for generations.”
“This campaign attempts to prove that theory. And, to our knowledge, no other tourist board or travel agency has taken this approach to engage students and young professionals.”
Tourism Australia and Quiksilver launch Facebook competition
Tourism Australia and Quiksilver have announced that they have launched a Facebook contest, “Surf, Sun and Social Networking in Australia,” that will send one lucky winner to Australia to be the official blogger for the 2012 Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast.
Beginning March 14 and ending April 8 contestants will have the opportunity to upload their best adventure photo to either Facebook.com/AustraliaWorkandPlay or Facebook.com/Quiksilver and describe in 100 words or less what they think is the best adventure Down Under. Whether it’s hiking in search of wildlife, on a quest for the perfect break, or discovering a new world underwater, Australia’s got it all. And for those who aren’t familiar with Aussie adventures, they can get inspired by visiting Australia.com or Quiksilver.com. The winner will be determined by who has the most “likes” at the end of the contest period.
“There’s nothing like an Australian adventure,” said Daryl Hudson, vice president, the Americas for Tourism Australia. “From our iconic beaches, to our world-class cities and of course our native wildlife, the winning blogger will be on the front lines of some amazing experiences.”
The winner will receive a two-week trip to Australia including round-trip international economy airfare from Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco, or New York to Australia; one week in Queensland attending and blogging from the 2012 Quiksilver Pro, and vacation and blogging for one week in another Australian state of their choice.
“The Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast is the premier surf event in all of Australia and the kick-off to the world tour every year,” said Eddie Anaya, Marketing Director of Quiksilver. “It’s exciting to partner with Tourism Australia to offer one of our fans a behind the scenes experience where they get to blog and rub elbows with the best surfers in the world at one of Australia’s legendary surf breaks – Snapper Rocks.”
Tourism Australia teams up with YouTube to promote Australia
Tourism Australia has teamed up with Google and YouTube in an innovative new digital marketing campaign, which will showcase many of Australia’s most iconic visitor attractions to an international online audience of millions.
Making Tracks will see four international musicians from the US (two), the UK and Taiwan, who have recently been selected to take part in YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011, flown to Australia where they will each team up with one of Australia’s most promising musicians and take part in their very own journey Down Under.
The journeys, and the musical compilations which come out of them, will be filmed and later broadcast on YouTube and via Tourism Australia’s digital and social media channels. Between them, the musical pairings will travel to every State and Territory and participate in a range of Australian experiences, including surfing at Bondi beach, a scenic flight over Uluru, an ocean walk on Kangaroo Island, a helicopter flight over the Twelve Apostles, journeying across the Western Wilderness in Tasmania, hot air ballooning over Canberra and a visit to the Sunshine Coast.
The campaign is the latest push in Tourism Australia’s highly successful digital strategy, highlights of which include a YouTube-branded channel and the recent There’s nothing like Australia marketing campaign, which has encouraged thousands of people around the world to share their favourite Australian experience.
Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy believes that the creative collaboration with YouTube will enable Tourism Australia to reach new markets by focusing on music and the arts.
“Making Tracks is Australia’s own magical musical mystery tour and will open up some of Australia’s most iconic destinations and experiences to a huge, global online audience. I’m sure the experience will prove inspiring to all the musicians taking part. What better way to showcase Australia’s music, arts and culture than through these unique and highly personalised musical road trips through our great country.”
Canada Tourist Board uses QR barcodes for Facebook campaign
The Canadian Tourism Commission is adding QR barcodes to their current advertising to promote a Facebook social media campaign.
The barcodes will give smartphone users a convenient link from CTC ads direct to the board’s website. QR barcodes allow people to use their camera and an app to read the code and the programme takes them to the CTC homepage.
This is not the first advertisement to use QR barcodes, it has already been adopted by brands like Calvin Klein. The Canadian Tourism Commission will be using the QR codes to help promote a social media competition on their Facebook page.
“We are excited about the opportunity to spread the Canada message wider than ever before since our re-organisation, and we certainly hope that all of us who have a vested interest in Canada’s tourism growth will benefit from this investment,” said Rupert Peters, managing director of Canadian Tourism Commission, London office.
VisitBritain Develop Inspirational TV Channel in Time for Royal Wedding and 2012 Olympic Games
VisitBritain, the national tourism agency has formed an innovative partnership with Geocast TV to develop, host and manage its new media site: VisitBritain TV.
Geocast TV is a specialist production company working with a range of digital media including film. Its brief is to develop a video and streaming media website which promotes British people and events, enabling the millions of overseas tourists who come to Britain to get the most out of their visit.
Justin Reid, Head of Digital and Social Media at VisitBritain said, “The Royal Wedding this year and the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012 will provide unprecedented media exposure all around the world. We want to ensure we cater for the information needs and interests of both new visitors who are inspired to come to Britain for the first time and people who know us well and want to get under our skin more.
“As millions of people research ideas for holidays and days out online, we’ll be bringing them an enhanced media experience featuring news from around the country, live events, travel reports and feature programmes.”
Richard Day, Director, Geocast TV said, “We are delighted to be working with VisitBritain at this extremely exciting time. VisitBritain TV showcases Britain at its best, featuring events and programmes that will inspire people to explore more of the country. Our experienced production team will be delivering high quality programming for the site every week, enabling people to anticipate and plan their leisure itineraries.” Have a look at VisitBritainTV yourself now- http://www.visitbritain.tv/
Nice idea from VisitBritain using social media and location check-ins to attract people to a global competition running through its Facebook page. Source: Tnooz
Tourism Ireland will begin its marketing drive for 2011 in the US market next week, with an extensive promotional campaign beginning on 26 December.
The all-Ireland tourism body said the worst is now over for the US travel market, with consumer confidence and travel sentiment there improving. It therefore advised that this market will return to growth in 2011.
The new campaign will include radio ads that will air in cities with direct flights – and good indirect flight services – to the island of Ireland, including New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas and Houston. In addition, it will include online advertising on popular news and lifestyle websites. Tourism Ireland’s ‘Go’ webisodes (a series of short online movies produced by Tourism Ireland and starring ‘real’ local characters from around Ireland) will also highlight the fun and spontaneity of a holiday here. Click here for the full article.
Expects more than 100,000 downloads before the end of this year and reveals the digital marketing strategy for 2011
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) introduces the “Amazing Thailand” mobile application run on the hit platforms of iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and popular devices; such as, iPad and iPod Touch. This emphasizes the success of promoting tourism through online marketing to raise the organisation’s profile in the digital world, and at the same time revealing its digital marketing strategy in the year 2011. Mr. Suraphon Svetasreni, Governor of TAT said “We introduced the “Amazing Thailand” mobile application because of our success in promoting tourism through the online market to catch up to the digital world by using digital marketing and social media marketing.” At present, “Amazing Thailand” has more than 120,000 fans on its Facebook fan page which is ranked one of the top 3 tourism promotion organizations of the world and Twitter @ThailandFanClub for foreign tourists and @Go2Thailand for Thai travellers. Mr. Suraphon remarked that TAT has developed the “Amazing Thailand” mobile application which is a way to increase a channel to promote Thailand’s tourism to more than 300 million potential target users worldwide. Moreover, this can make the most of the information in the TAT website, increase tourist databases, fans and followers in social media, and support new marketing campaigns through TAT mobile applications in the future. The three highlights of the “Amazing Thailand” mobile application are : 1. Various Contents – there are more than 10,000 pieces of information about tourism in Thailand mainly on the ‘Destination’ and ‘Events’ menus. The destination menu highlights top 10 destinations and shows another 89 destinations throughout Thailand. Each destination guide consists of how to get there, where to go, where to stay, where to eat, and shopping. The events section gives information about events and festivals in Thailand, ordered by month. 2. Location-Based Search – searching for the destination on a mobile map by using GPS technology in the smart phone which tourists can search for nearby tourist attractions and the search results can be displayed on Google map. Moreover there is a ‘Search’ menu for tourists to search by using a keyword. 3. User Experience – tourists can share their travel experiences on mobile phones via social networks i.e. Facebook and Twitter or by e-mail. There is speculation that business travellers will be the first to use this application through smart phones and leisure travellers will increase their use of the service in the future. For the future development of the “Amazing Thailand” mobile application, it will be done in every platform and device popular among tourists. TAT will focus on the ease of use, a variety of information to match with each group of users in important niche markets; such as, wedding and diving. Furthermore, features; such as, a review and rating, personal travel plan, flights schedules, hotel reservations, real-time real-location promotion al activities, and check-in will also be developed in the near future. All in all, these are important steps for TAT to raise the organisation’s profile in the digital world and respond to tourists’ behaviour and change in technology to promote and support tourism in Thailand. Get ‘Amazing Thailand’
Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (Mincetur) together with the private sector will launch “Sur Pone” campaign in 2011 in order to boost domestic tourism in southern Peru, Minister Ferreyros reported Friday.
Minister Ferreyros recalled that “Cusco Pone” first campaign recorded interesting results after selling nearly 65,000 flight tickets.
“We also launched the campaign “Selva Pone” which sold over 12,000 tickets. Obviously we sold more tickets to Cuzco as this destination receives the most number of tourists in the country”, Ferreyros said.
The Ministry will maintain its same strategy in 2011, launching the campaign “Sur Pone” and re launching “Cusco Pone”.
“We expect tourists may take advantage of this promotions and get to know the country, but also create a value chain in the visited destinations”, added the minister.
The Spanish central government has awarded the Balearics €54 million to invest in tourism next year. The money comes after talks between officials in Palma and Madrid recognised the central role tourism plays in the Balearic economy. The Balearic government is delighted with the investment and say that the region is now on the road to recovery.
The €54 million will be added to existing budgets. €10 million will be invested in the Playa de Palma regeneration project, and €20 million will be used to galvanise Palma’s half-built convention centre. Both these projects are ambitious in their vision, and will benefit greatly from this major investment. €20 million has been ear-marked for promoting ‘alternative tourism’, such as cultural and sporting attractions which will complement the strong ‘sea and sunshine’ holiday sector.
The remaining €12 million will be used in the creation of a ‘Platform for Logistical Tourism Distribution (TURISTEC) which is designed to help the local travel industry by providing internet and social media platforms. It is expected to to completed and in use by April 2011.
Indonesia will launch the new branding “Wonderful Indonesia” as part of its tourism campaign to attract up to 7.7 million foreign tourists next year.
Speaking at a yearend briefing in Jakarta Thursday, Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said that with the new campaign brand, which would replace the previous “Visit Indonesia Year”, the target could be achieved.
The new catchphrase, he said, was much stronger than the previous one as it reflected the country’s beautiful nature, unique culture, varied food, hospitable people and price competitiveness in various kinds of services.
About 7 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia last year, an increase from 6.4 million in 2009.
“We expect each tourist will spend around US$1,100 and with an optimistic target of 7.7 million arrivals, we will get $8.3 billion,” he said, adding that 50 percent of the revenue would be generated from about 600 meetings, conventions and exhibitions that were expected to take place in various places throughout the country next year.
Wacik further explained that his ministry would also promote the country’s attractions under the eco-cultural banner.
“We picked this theme to cope with the trend that foreign tourists will choose eco-friendly tourist sites, hotels and services. All
tourism stakeholders, then, are expected to upkeep their environment,” he said.
Wacik pointed out that the Komodo National Park in West Nusa Tenggara, one of 28 finalists of the New Seven Wonders of Nature competition, as one of 15 prime tourist destinations to be promoted by the ministry next year.
“We’ll also continue our Visit Museum Year campaign. We’ll build a number of museums and revitalize existing museums,” he said without explaining further.
The director general for tourism destination development, Firmansyah Rahim, said his ministry planned to improve infrastructure facilities, mainly airports.
“We will widen runways at a number of airports to accommodate large aircraft,” he said.
Among the airports are Selangit in North Sumatra, Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi and Toraja in South Sulawesi.
He also said his ministry would develop about 560 tourism villages across the archipelago, adding to the current 200 sites and contributing to the 2,000 targeted by 2014.
The director of marketing development, Syamsul Lussa, said that to reach the targeted number of foreign tourists, his ministry still had to solve problems, such as aircraft capacity and immigration services.
Currently, airlines have 14.7 million aircraft seats for domestic as well as international tourists.
“Seventy percent of foreign tourists use air services to travel. We need an additional 1.7 million seats to carry 7.7 million tourists,” he said.
“We also lack counters for visa-on-arrival services because the planning of airports is not in line with the development of needs,” he added. (lnd)
British Airways and VisitBritain have partnered up to jointly fund a global tourism campaign that is launching this week. Under the banner, “Britain. A different picture around every corner”, they are targeting traditional tourists looking for classic experiences. Among the countries being targeted are China, Japan, India, Russia, Hungary, Austria and Poland.
This £1.6 million campaign is designed to support research that the UK is packed with more world-class history and heritage sites compared to any other place on Earth. It will show how traveling to Britain is easy when booking with British Airways, with special fares for economy passengers included. Media familiarization trips and the syndication of content from the VisitBritain website onto the consumer databases and website of British Airways will be included.
VisitBritain is hoping to use the emotional allure and authenticity of Britain’s attractions. Marketing director Laurence Bresh says that the UK has more attractions per square mile than any other place in the world. They are delighted to announce that British Airways is the lead partner in their largest campaign in the past year, he continued, which is strong evidence that they are making progress in winning match-funding from the private sector to help increase tourist numbers and revenue for the nation. They believe this campaign will inspire visitors to travel the country, he added.
Advertising will be focused in large potentially-lucrative markets such as China, India and Russia, as well as a mixture of European and Asian countries including Austria, Hungary, Japan and Poland.
New web-based Greek tourism campaign unveiled
The Internet will spearhead the campaign launched by the ministry of culture and tourism focusing new campaigns for Greece.
Minister Pavlos Geroulanos referred to the new tourism campaign strategy on Tuesday during the presentation of 13 new videos available on the youinGreece internet site and pointed out that the Greek Tourism Organization is being transformed into an agency that will undertake to promote Greece abroad.
Presenting the new portal visitgreece.gr, Geroulanos announced that the new internet programme my-greece.gr is an improved version of the youinGreece and the “Alliance for Greece” campaign.
Visitors will be able to upload their favorite photos and videos and will be given the opportunity to promote the “Greece they love”, the country’s natural beauty and all the distinct characteristics that make it a special place in the world. The visual material will be accompanied by a small 25-word text where users will describe their own experience.
In a later stage, the archive of my-greece.gr will be used as a basis for a total of 90 personal experiences that will be available on visitgreece.gr, ten for each of the nine tourism sectors namely, nautical, meetings, seaside, Athens and Thessaloniki, culture, luxury, nature, touring and wellness.
Tourism Queensland’s new brand, “Queensland, Where Australia Shines”
A new global brand creative aimed at attracting more Americans to visit Queensland was launched today. The new $4 million global tourism brand—Queensland, Where Australia Shines—was unveiled on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The push will replace the state’s existing “Where Else But Queensland?” campaign, which is nearly 12 years old. The slogan was accompanied by a 60-second video, packed with pictures of happy families at the beach and bronzed bodies hitting the surf. The experts applauded the line “Where Australia shines”, saying the campaign was a cut above other tourism slogans. By explicitly mentioning Australia, Ms Taylor said, the campaign could piggy-back on the federal government’s “There’s Nothing Like Australia” ads.”It’s positioned to take deliberate advantage of all the money that’s being spent globally,” she said. Tourism supports nearly 250,000 jobs in Queensland, which is five times the number employed in the mining industry, Ms Bligh said.
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