New offices in India, a powerful global campaign and experimenting with Twitter take the headlines in this bulletin.
2012-09-12 — /travelprnews.com/ — No sooner does the ink dry on one round-up, then another torrent of global tourism news prompts another. That’s the pattern for CTC News as it sifts through the headlines to make sure the Canadian tourism industry keeps its finger on the global pulse.
The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC)’s colleagues, partners, general sales agents and other industry insiders in its key international markets have been the eyes and ears on the ground to bring the info in. Merci!
Brazil is setting its sights high with a new global tourism campaign launched at the London Film Museum in late July. “The world meets in Brazil. Come celebrate life.” looks to go big on Brazil bossing sporting events (well, it is host to the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Summer Games). The Ministry of Tourism and Embratur created the campaign, which has $40 million to invest by the end of 2014. “Our future is ambitious,” said Gastao Vieira, Minister of Tourism. “In 2022 we want to be among the three major tourism powers in the world.” Heady stuff!
Qatar Airways has taken to Twitter to connect with passengers. Using the Tweet-a-meet microsite, users get “tweet miles” for every tweet that they send with info on their intended destination. They choose a race companion from their own list of Twitter followers and the international destination from any of the airline’s 117 options.
Tourism Australia boosted awareness through M6’s popular French TV reality adventure show. Almost four million viewers tuned in for the last four episodes of “Pékin Express,” which was filmed Down Under. The show is based on “The Amazing Race.”
Other tourist boards are setting up shop in India to tap into the rapidly growing tourism market there. VisitEngland now has a base in Delhi to target the business and meetings, conventions and incentive travel (MC&IT) sectors. The Israel Tourist Board is hot on its heels, setting up an office to boost the already 40,000 annual visitors the country gets from India.
The Greece Tourism Organization is also reaching out across the Twitterverse to lure more visitors. It’s looking for fans of Hellas to post what they love about the country at TrueGreece.org and then to share that info with friends and other travellers via Twitter.
Happy days at the Thailand Ministry of Tourism and Sports: after the first six months of 2012 saw a 7.2% rise in international visitors, the country is on track to break its annual record and surpass 20.5 million travellers this year.