Following the lead of Tourism Queensland and the hugely successful ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign, Tourism New Zealand is also leveraging the power of user generated content to market the Land of the Long White Cloud.
A mobile recording studio has been set up to collect footage of what visitors to New Zealand have to say about the country, with the short interviews then loaded up onto YouTube.
Over 32,000 people have already checked out the videos, which now number close to 1500, on Tourism New Zealand’s ‘Have Your Say’ YouTube Channel.
It’s the latest example of national tourism bodies using real stories from real people – all giving personal recommendations – a marketing tool which is continuing to grow in power.
Tourism Malaysia has a similar component on its website with ‘My Discoveries’ – where visitors share their unique experiences through videos, photos and stories.
The ‘Best Job in the World’ initiative remains the poster campaign for innovative tourism marketing that channels the power of social media, with Tourism Queensland still creaming it in international publicity. Video applications for the job garnered huge worldwide interest, and the winner of the contest will be announced today.
The 16 finalists arrived on Hamilton Island for the final round of interviews this week and were immediately surrounded by international media crews, including the BBC which is shooting an hour-long documentary.
According to the Tourism Queensland CEO Anthony Hayes, they’ve already calculated over $100 million in publicity and expect another $20 or $30 million to roll in before the week closes – a sound return for what Hayes says came to around $1 million.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
The Pitch: Tourism marketing continues to innovate
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3 comments:
hmm .. this is not a new innovation at all.
In early 2008, Singapore Tourism already launched something called the TRAVELPOD - which was a roving "pod" that captured Singapore visitor's remarks, comments and recommendations on video and film, and thereafter posted on their website - and even resulted in a couple of TV commercials that played regionally in Asia.
The video testimonials remain on the visitsingapore.com website, as well as on YouTube.
So u see - its nothing new really... but in fact already done. So maybe it doesnt quite qualify as an innovation (now) ?
This is Dan Hodgins with Easitour. We provide guided city tours all over the world that help travelers discover foreign cities safely - with a new friend.
I would like to contribute a value-added comment containing a powerful idea for tourism/travel marketers.
Why not create and sell experiences that are crazy or outrageous?
For instance, an atomic bomb tour in Hiroshima, or a hair-raising tour of Chernobyl?
These are just a couple of ideas, and I'm sure you can come up with many more that are 10X better.
Hope this added some value to the discussion.
Best Regards,
Dan Hodgins
Vancouver, Canada
This is very interesting, after all New Zealand is a beautiful place, actually it is one of the best places I have been.
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