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Tourism

Tourism Marketers Enter Wait-and-See Mode to Avoid Tone-Deaf Campaigns

Rosie Spinks

Photo Credit: San Felipe del Morro, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico Discover Puerto Rico

Skift Take

Tourism marketers can't run their campaigns as usual right now. But that doesn't mean they can't do anything. The challenge lies in finding the right tone — and the right timing.

How do you encourage travelers to book a trip to a destination during a pandemic? First of all, you don't. As travel restrictions from the virus have spread across the world, fewer and fewer tourism boards and destination marketers have been carrying out their promotional campaigns as usual. That's probably a good thing. However, it doesn't mean that the destination marketing organizations are riding out the coronavirus crisis by doing nothing. The biggest challenge going forward is identifying precisely when it is time to inspire travelers to book trips again — and striking the right tone in the meantime.

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"For those of us in the world of destination marketing, we’ve spent our careers honing the craft of encouraging people to connect and engage through travel and right now [is] a sea change for us," Brad Dean, CEO of Discover Puerto Rico told Skift.  "Everything about this runs counter to the DNA of tourism marketers. Having said that, everyone can agree that public health and safety must be job number one."

Stay the F&*% Home Even in the absence of active campaigns, there are a variety of techniques to wait out this time. Visit Estonia recently gained attention with a social media campaign on Facebook and Twitter which did something that would be nothing short of anathema in normal times: It actively told people not to visit. Using the provocative (and trending) hashtag #staythefuckhome, the Tw

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