EDEN SMART MARKETING STRATEGY

71/G/ENT/CIP/13/B/N03S10 - Promotion of EDEN destinations and awareness raising How to meet the requirements of the Specifications sent to you by the European Commission Guidelines to prepare a killing proposal for the EDEN destinations awareness raising campaign prepared by Antonio Pezzano, EDEN Network Facilitator

These guidelines aim to provide a framework and practical tips to Project Officers and EDEN destinations to make the best use of EU funds for promoting EDEN destinations.

_A VISION _A STRATEGY _A ROADMAP _SOME TIPS

A VISION THIS IS WHERE WE CAN GET, IF WE ACT TOTHETHER

By 2015, 1 Million Tourists will learn about the European Hidden Treasure

EDEN destinations and Project Officers join forces to make it happen

A VISION

A STRATEGY THIS IS HOW WE THINK WE CAN GET THERE

We would like YOU to engage travel enablers so that they will share their enthusiasm for EDEN destinations with their followers

The more tourists learn about EDEN, the more likely is to get them in our destinations

The more travel enablers we engage and the more enthusiasm we are able to trigger, the more the opportunities tourists will learn about EDEN destinations .

☛  Additional tourism flows (arrivals and/or overnight stays)

☛  Increased visitor expenditure ☛  Change in seasonality pattern

Project

Activities

Outcome

Impact

☛  Long term relationships with travel enablers

☛  More tourists know about EDEN

☛  More involvement of the business and people from destinations

☛  To connect travel enablers to tourism business from the destinations

A STRATEGY

What we would like YOU to do

…..and why

Give a strong motivation to travel enablers to visit EDEN destination. Talk to their hearts

Make them feeling good

They will engage with your destination for ever

The base of this iconographic is by

A STRATEGY A STRATEGY

Engage tour operators, bloggers and journalists

Fam/Study Trip Tour Fair Eden Summit

Invite and make happy tour operators, bloggers and journalists

They will talk about you

Tips from EDEN Network AISBL

A STRATEGY

A ROADMAP THSE ARE THE 7 BASIC STEPS TO MAKE TO GET THERE

FOUND

GET READY

ACT

①  NTOs, RTOs and Destinations must build a strong long-term partnership.

②  Destinations must have a social media manager

③  Destinations must have a travel agent representative

④  Project Officers should support Destination in preparing the EDEN KIT for marketing communication purposes.

⑤  Project Officers, in collaboration with Destinations, should have EDENSTAT, a basic set of statistics to measure their progress towards raising EDEN visibility

⑥  Project Officers should help Destinations in sharing marketing communication info with travel enablers on line

⑦  Project Officers should help Destinations in meeting travel enablers by organizing FAM trips, facilitating Workshops in Tourism trade Fairs, and realizing specific events such as EDEN Summit.

A ROADMAP

What is a strong long term relationship?

For example…… National Tourism Organizations and Regional Tourism Organizations have either the Hidden Treasure section/product in their on-line platforms or support a specific platform. The national tourism network is in place and is (also financially) supported by NTOs and RTOs. Destinations are supported financially to pay membership fees of the EDEN Network Association.

A ROADMAP

What is a social media manager?

A person able to manage the EDEN social media campaign. Duties include: q  managing presence in social networking sites

including Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest and other similar community sites, posting on relevant blogs, and seeding content into social applications as needed.

q Monitoring and measuring the impact of social

media projects

A ROADMAP

What is a travel agent?

A person or a company able q  to talk with tourists and travel enablers about the

destination, the mode of transportation, travel dates, financial considerations, and accommodations required.

q  to plan, describe, arrange, and sell itinerary tour packages

q  to provide brochures and publications containing

travel information, such as local customs, points of interest, or foreign country regulations.

A ROADMAP

What is the EDEN KIT?

Electronic Brochures (i.e in pdf) in English, page in Visiteurope.com

Stories

Videos

Inspiring Pictures

A set of basic information on EDEN destinations

Impact

• Basic statistics on arrivals, nights, beds

• Business survey

Outcome

• Travel enablers assessment

• On site survey

Project activities

• Records • Pictures

What is the EDEN STAT?

A set of tools to monitor the effectiveness of the marketing campaign

A ROADMAP

What are tools for sharing marketing communication info?

Our goal is to have at least a updated facebook page in englisn for all EDEN destinations

A ROADMAP

Where destinations can meet Travel Enablers?

The travel agent of an EDEN destination

meets travel enablers

Businesses managers and owners of EDEN

destinations meet travel

enablers

Travel enablers visit EDEN

destinations and meet businesses

as well as people

Workshops at Tourism

Trade Fairs

EDEN SUMMIT

FAM TRIP

A ROADMAP

TIPS THESE ARE SIMPLE AND PRACTICAL TIPS TO GET EASILY THERE

Which segments?

Families with older children

Families with young

children

Mature couples

Groups of friends

Solo travellers

Young couples

From where? Domestic: from what regions/cities do they come from? International: what are the three most important countries where would you like to invest?

Before selecting the travel enablers, focus on the right markets for the EDEN destinations

SOME TIPS

Focus on the biggest markets

International travellers potentially interested in emerging destinations 100 = 18 million travellers

Poland 3%

Spain 3% Sweden

5%

Denmark 5%

France 5%

Belgium 6%

Italy 7%

Netherlands 8%

UK 26%

Germany 32%

Eden Network Association ASIBL, 2013

SOME TIPS

M a k e s u r e t h a t e a c h destination has

1 picture > 1,000 words A very good story to tell

SOME TIPS

Picnic on the beach, sunset in Eden Plan to arrive around 11 am at the beach, the tide is so far out that there are hundreds of tiny rock pools waiting to be explored — a perfect welcome for a bunch of big kids! In no time you will find yourself splashing in puddles, leaping over tide pools and sucking meat out of crab legs like excited kids on a field trip. After a full day’s splashing, the winter sun will go to sleep early and will grace you with an impromptu sunset that left enough light in the sky to make our way home.

38 km travelled 25 rock pools explored

1 beautiful sunset observed

Is What you take home

SOME TIPS

An example of a picture with a good story adapted from http://mediacentre.canada.travel/media/story-ideas

High quality brochures (available also in pdf) with beautiful images inspire travel enablers to support EDEN destinations as holiday locations. Brochure must be easy to follow. A lot of pics and short text are more effective. Provide a lot of white space (around images, big and effective fonts). Include general information about population, size of the area, climate, lifestyle and geography. This will set the scene. In case you plan to suggest Itineraries, please allow for flexibility and independence (have a variety of lengths and optional extras) and do not forget to add a map!

SOME TIPS

How to prepare an effective electronic brochure

Remember: the front cover is your main message. It motivates your reader to pick it up. Few large images are more effective than many small images. Show spectacular landscapes whenever you can. Use images that are suitable for your target market. For example clients for group tours are likely to relate more to an experience that shows groups. Include people in your images, so that readers can ‘put themselves in the picture’. Images with people participating in activities convey a feeling of fun, excitement and involvement. Colour is important. Too much blue and white can look cold; counterbalance blue with warm or golden tones.

SOME TIPS

How to prepare an effective electronic brochure

� A set of professional pictures showing the “soul” of your destinations

� General and useful information for traveling

� Amazing stories of things tourists can do in their vacation

EDEN KIT THE FACILITATOR IS HAPPY TO PROVIDE YOU WITH A TEMPLATE

SOME TIPS

�  Have ready an excel file to record year arrivals, nights, bed and n. of accommodation establishments

�  Prepare a questionnaire to poll views of businesses in destinations

�  Assess what are the most relevant travel enablers for your destinations

EDENSTAT A SET OF TOOLS TO ASSES AND MONITOR THE CAMPAIGN EFFECTIVENESS

SOME TIPS

Arrivals Nights Beds in hotel Beds in other type of

accommodation

Unit of self-catering

accommodation

Destination A

Destination B

Destination C

Collect basic data in 2013 (baseline), 2014, 2015

Contact the EDEN Network facilitator to get the template

SOME TIPS

Involve the business community of the destinations and ask them few simple questions at the beginning (baseline) and at the end of the project

Contact the EDEN Network facilitator to get the questionnaire template and tips on methodology

SOME TIPS

Travel Media

• Followers on twitter • Facebook fans • Circulation • Readers •  Website statistics

Tour Operators

• Clients • Catalogue readers • Website statistics

Market fit

• To what extent the travel enabler is effective on the target markets?

Tour Operators

• To what extent the travel enabler is able to deliver the proper message to the market?

Assess the travel enablers to evaluate who better fits your strategy

Strategic Fit Potential reach assessment

Contact the EDEN Network facilitator to get additional information

SOME TIPS

�  Support EDEN destinations in describing their best practices according the VISTAS template

�  Share the best

practices using national TV and newspapers

�  Ask the Facilitator for more info.

VISTAS A PROJECT TO USE THE BEST PRACTICES OF EDEN DESTINATIONS AS A POWEFULL TOOL OF PUBLICITY AT GLOBAL LEVEL

SOME TIPS

Which target market are interested in A list of travel enablers Suggested project Activities How to involve the business community (surveys and project activities)

Consult with destinations

Draft and Review

Submit the proposal to EU

Preparatory work

Start the project activities in

November 2013

Draft the proposal, send it to destinations for comments and approval before submitting it to the European Commission on 14/06/2013

Collect the basic statistics Conduct the baseline surveys Assess in depth the travel enablers list Prepare the basic tools

SOME TIPS READY?