Emphasise your differences / The #iamAUT campaign helps differentiate and distinguish Austria as a desirable holiday destination in a cluttered market. With so many neighbouring countries vying for tourists’ time and money, it’s crucial to have a well-defined identity. A lack of awareness about a place and what it has to offer represents a potential barrier to entry; while Austria is hardly off the beaten track (it ranked 10th in the world in terms of international visitors in 2022) and is a major winter sports destination, its cities and cultural landmarks are not as easily recalled as those of, say, France and Italy. This campaign positions Austria as a place to relax in nature, immerse yourself in history and tradition, enjoy good food – and most of all, escape the grind of social media. By working with existing influencers who post lifestyle and travel content, the Austrian National Tourist Board reached an audience that was already engaged in this type of content and trusts the opinions of those influencers.
Tap into digital detoxing / Positioning your destination as a medicine for the pressures of modern life is a growing trend. We recently covered a summer 2023 campaign by Visit Kotka-Hamina, a commercial travel brand for the Eastern Gulf of Finland. The Offline Island campaign banned phones on the archipelago of Ulko-Tammio, tapping into the rising trend of digital detoxing and marketing the island as the perfect place to experience the mental benefits of nature to an audience of travellers interested in sustainability and wellbeing. And in May this year, We Are Social, Sydney, and global tour company Contiki similarly took travel influencers on a trip to Portugal and Spain, challenging them to completely unplug during the experience. In these campaigns, although content creators are ‘banned’ from capturing content, content is still generated: Visit Kotka-Hamina gave its influencers Polaroid cameras to take photos they could post about once they were off the island, the Austrian National Tourist Board used its influencers’ accounts to post its own Austria content, and Contiki closely documented the trip and had its influencers recount their experiences of being offline once they were home.
