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Quick Wins
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
As part of its strategy to welcome 20 million international visitors by 2020, Dubai has successfully introduced several targeted destination-focused campaigns that appeal to a pre-identified range of audiences.
In this context, Dubai Tourism developed the award winning #BeMyGuest campaign, which was built on collaborations with celebrity ambassadors to raise awareness of Dubai as a destination. The campaign focused on India, with the goal of strengthening the connection and cultural links between Dubai and the subcontinent.
The Indian campaign featured international superstar Shah Rukh Khan showcasing Dubai’s many attractions. Not only does Shah Rukh Khan have international recognition and global appeal, but he also considers Dubai his second home, making him an authentic spokesperson. Within eight weeks of the campaign’s launch in India, there were 100 million views. Between December 2016 and May 2017, the #BeMyGuest garnered 45 million views across multiple social media channels and 65 million engagements from around the world. The campaign was so successful, that a second campaign was produced by the famous director Kabir Khan, starring Shah Rukh Khan for a second time in 2018. In 2017, India maintained the top spot as the inbound source market for Dubai, with a record 2.1 million arrivals, up 16.8% from the year before. India became the first country for Dubai to cross the 2 million mark in a single year.
WTTC estimates that policies prioritising the sector contributed to the growth in international arrivals from 14.2 million to 16 million between 2015 and 2018, which enabled the creation of 22,000 new jobs.
Australia
Tourism Australia, along with state and territory tourism organisations and partners including Citibank Dell, Ikea, Monster.com, Sony Music, STA Travel and Virgin Australia, launched the Best Jobs in the World global youth campaign in 2013. The campaign built on Tourism Queensland’s highly successful 2009 Best Job in the world campaign, giving it scale to promote the whole of Australia.
At the heart of the campaign was a global competition to win one of six extraordinary dream jobs with a state or territory tourism organisation. These included New South Wales’ Chief Funster and South Australia’s Wildlife Caretaker. The campaign targeted travellers aged 18 to 30 years, living in Australia and overseas, with a particular focus on countries eligible for working holiday visas.
The campaign was rolled out in Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the UK and the US resulting in 620,000 applications from 333,000 individuals in 196 countries, with 46,000 video entries during the six-week campaign. 60 youth travel operators around the world promoted the campaign through their own distribution network with STA Travel reporting a significant increase in enquiries and booking.
During the spring of 2013, 18 finalists from 12 different countries were selected and flown to Australia to spend a week undergoing a series of challenges relevant to their “chosen” jobs. The winners were then announced in June 2013.
The campaign resulted in significant publicity with more than 8,500 news articles worldwide generating over $44 million worth of media coverage. A Tourism Australia survey of nearly 15,000 people who entered the Best Jobs in the World competition revealed that 7 out of 10 participants planned to apply for an Australian working holiday visa, with 4 out of 10 seriously considering taking a working holiday in Australia.
United Kingdom
As part of its Visit Britain campaign, the UK made a significant push on domestic tourism by launching its GREAT tourism campaign to encourage visitors to explore the whole of Britain. The campaign builds on themes of British culture and heritage, positioning them in the context of fun and adventure, with the goal of enticing modern travellers to forgo international holidays for staycation.
In 2012, the year London hosted the Summer Olympics, Visit Britain launched the Holidays at Home are Great! campaign. This campaign included TV adverts featuring well-known animated characters (Wallace & Gromit). By 2015, the campaign had generated £520.6 million in incremental spend for domestic travel. The campaign encouraged travellers to share their own amazing moments using the hashtag #OMGB (Oh My GREAT Britain). In 2016, the focus evolved into the #OMGB – Home of Amazing Moments campaign, which encouraged interaction with the public, with inspirational images and competitions on the campaign hub.
Between 2012 and 2017, this campaign delivered an incremental domestic spending of over £730 million, with 5.8 million more domestic holidays of 1-3 nights taken in England in 2017 than in 2007; and £11 billion spent on domestic holidays to England in 2017, up 6% on 2016. 1.5 billion domestic day visits contributed more than £50 billion to the English economy in 2017. What’s more, according to ABTA research, 66% of Brits are planning to take a break in the UK in 2018.
Estonia
The Central Bank of Estonia has used mobile positioning data (MPD) for travel statistics since 2009, making it the longest running statistical time series, not solely in Travel & Tourism, but across sectors.
Inbound and outbound travel statistics are generated from mobile location data each month. The data is then matched with expenditure data from surveys every three years, calibrated with credit card spending data by the Bank of Estonia.
Compared with traditional survey methods, mobile positioning provides more accurate information, is more efficient in terms of cost while it also provides real-time dissemination of data. The MPD has enabled a reduction in the time needed for data collection to dissemination from eight months to two months, while simultaneously allowing for a 20-fold increase in sample size from 4,000 to 100,000 visitors per month. What’s more, MPD is 2.5 times more cost-efficient in the production of monthly data compared with a survey.