The document discusses how bloggers can effectively promote destinations. It provides examples of successful blogger campaigns for locations like Emilia Romagna and Edinburgh's Hogmanay festival. Bloggers are able to create original, engaging content like videos, photos and first-hand stories that build emotional connections with audiences. Destinations are advised to work with professional travel bloggers to develop innovative strategies for rich storytelling and distribution of real-time content online.
Vietnam presentation for intercultural communications class
How travel bloggers shape destination marketing
1. Best Blogger Cases
How bloggers are shaping the future of
destination marketing
Kash Bhattacharya
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
2. 2
Blogging at BudgetTraveller.org for 6
years
Featured in the Guardian, NY Times,
CNN, Lonely Planet & Vanity Fair
2 million people have come to my site
for travel inspiration. I wrote a guide to
Luxury Hostels which you can
download for FREE from my blog.
Award winning digital travel marketeer,
creator of #Blogville, #Blogmanay &
#MustLoveFestivals
I am the blogger outreach expert for the
destination marketing agency,
Toposophy
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
3. WHY WORK WITH BLOGGERS?
3@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
4. 4
WYSTC Millennial Traveller report
Millennials use travel blogs when planning their trips
66%
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
5. WHO ARE THE INFLUENCERS IN TRAVEL?
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
6. BLOGGERS HAVE THE ABILITY TO CREATE
ORIGINAL, REAL-TIME, RELEVANT, SEO
FRIENDLY &
RICH MEDIA CONTENT
6@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
8. 10
120 bloggers invited. 500 blogposts
7000 photos/videos shared
Over 1m visitors to the different posts.
Publication of 2 BlogVille eBooks
Twitter: over 180m impressions and 20m people reached with
#BlogVille hashtag
Long tail effect- Still blog posts, tweets, photos and videos being
published
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
10. ORIGINAL IDEAS MUST LOVE FESTIVALS
Digital storytelling project (www.mustlovefestivals.com) with 16 top travel bloggers
covering 40 of Europe’s coolest and quirkiest festivals.
Developed in partnership with Expedia.
Working with 9 tourism boards (Austria, Germany, Hague, Rotterdam, Finland,
Slovenia, Ireland, Puglia, Malta) + Meininger Hotels & Generator Hostels
126 blog posts published which have received 1 million views so far.
April 2015: Must Love Festivals 2014 e-book to be sent out to Expedia’s database.
Project going global this year with new partners that include Canada, Latvia and
Poland.
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
11. Give bloggers the trust to build an emotional
relationship with your brand
11
TRAVEL IS AN EMOTIONAL SELL
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
12. 12
WHERE WAS THIS PICTURE TAKEN?
Invite audience for questions.
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
14. 14
1.Increase online awareness of #Blogmanay
2.iAmbassador campaign. I identified 16 top travel bloggers
to take part
3.Target was to reach 1 million accounts
4.Create targeted digital content for use for all partners
5.100 high quality photographs. 2 videos. 500 Instagram
photos
6.Increase digital footprint of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay
7.14 deep links to Edinburgh’s Hogmanay website and to
Visit Scotland
#BLOGMANAY: Goals
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
16. 16
SHETLAND PONIES IN CARDIGANS
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
St Andrews Partnership shared this sunrise picture
by @KirstenAlana on their FB page. Went onto
become the most popular picture in their FB
history, outstripping Kate & William’s wedding
photo!
17. 17
1. #Blogmanay generated 80 million impressions/opportunities to see reaching
estimated 4 million people. It evolved into a campaign to promote Hogmanay as
a gateway to promoteScotland as a winter destination
2. 9,000 tweets, 70 blog posts ( + links)
3. Facebook followers increased 61% to 11226.Twitter followers increased 101%
to 5008 followers.
4. On Instagram, the campaign produced 1248 photographs (over-exceeding
target by 120%) producing 29,757 likes and comments and garnering 1.15
million impressions.
5. Email database increased 50% from 80000 to 120000
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
Results
19. 18
VIDEO IS THE TRAVEL BROCHURE OF THE
FUTURE
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
20. 20
#MEETSOUTHAFRICA
BudgetTraveller’s South African Road Trip
WATCH: http://bit.ly/1LxO6rB
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
#germany25reunified
STORYTRAVELERS
Hainich National Park: ancient
woodland in the heart of Germany
WATCH http://bit.ly/1LxO0Am
21. 9
To summarise..
1.Bloggers/Vloggers can produce a variety of rich content
about your destination and..
2.Tell the story of your destination in real-time.
3.They also help with content distribution & marketing.
4.They have original ideas that can change the perception of
your destination.
5.Don’t forget to invest in video to promote your destination
6.Bloggers create. DMO’s curate.
7.Travel is an emotional sell. Give bloggers the trust to build
an emotional relationship with your destination
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy
22. 9
Last but not least…
work with the right, professional travel
bloggers
@BudgetTraveller @GoVisitDenmark @Toposophy