Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Social Media and Tourism

An industry I've always been interested in is tourism, especially in beautiful BC! The tourism industry is using social media to promote themselves across the world. Tourism BC, for example, has a website, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube accounts. Tourism Vancouver utilizes Blogger, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Whatever the channels a company chooses to use, they must have exciting and enticing content that connects with their target audience. There are a variety of campaigns that tourism groups use to attention; one time larger events to grab attention and pull people in to the social media sites, then ongoing campaigns to keep people coming back.

An example of a one time event to grab attention is the 'smart' mob at YVR on behalf of the "This is Great Britian" campaign. The dancers are dressed in costumes to resemble some of the most famous British acts; the Spice Girls, the Beatles, and Elton John, to name a few. The dancing is great, and the video is fun to watch. The link in the information section of the YouTube video takes viewers to the "This is GREAT Britain" Facebook page, where you can choose to interact and follow the campaign.


An example of a great ongoing campaign is Tourism BC's "Fan Photo of the Week". Fans post their photos to Facebook, and Tourism BC selects the best ones in for the "Fan Photos of the month" album, then selects one per week to be displayed as Fan Photo of the Week. I think this is a great use of social media, as Tourism BC gets a fantastic collection of photos from across the province, and fans get the excitement of having their photo shortlisted, and possibly displayed as photo of the week.

Makes me want to jump in my car and go find a lake and mountains! Photo Credit: Tourism BC Facebook page

Are there any tourism social media campaigns that caught your eye? It's not just about being clever, it's also about being memorable!


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2 comments:

  1. LenaJune 6, 2012 at 1:54 PM

    Hi Alison,

    I think tourism Switzerland has done a fantastic job promoting Switerland and the Swiss culture.

    I found an interesting article about a YouTube campaign that Swiss tourist offices launched in 2009. The campaign featured two stereotypical Swiss farmers, Sebi and Paul, traveling around Switzerland, experiencing the local culture. In 2011, the duo came back, and their video series went viral. There is more information about the campaign in this article, http://www.youngdigitallab.net/social-media/between-facebook-and-farmers-switzerland-gets-ready-for-tourist-invasion/ .

    I think social media is a great way for the tourism industry to promote itself. People love to travel, and I think are therefore very responsive to people in the tourism industry getting involved with the online community.

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  2. AlisonPJune 6, 2012 at 8:36 PM

    Lena, thanks for the links. I took a look at those Swiss campaigns, and it looked like they had a great response! I loved the little town of Obermutten with over 18000 (I just checked). Such a cool idea!

    I agree that tourism lends itself so well to social media promotion. When ever I go on a trip, the internet is usually the first place I turn for information. Being connected with Tourism BC makes me excited to travel around the province - there's just too much to see and not enough time :)

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