In a bid to attract travellers to God’s Own Country during the famed monsoon season, the Kerala Tourism Board has rolled out a quirky campaign, ‘Come Out and Play’. With a focus on tapping tourists from potential domestic markets, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi & NCR, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal, Kerala Tourism is leaving no stone unturned to woo travellers.

The objective of the campaign is to divest vacationers of their ‘career selves’, their ‘formal adultness’ and their preoccupation with devices, careers and the routine of everyday life. The campaign idea mainly focuses on ‘play’ in the context of families, and in-turn it reconnects them. Based on this idea, a television, and print campaign has also been conceptualized.

In order to promote the campaign and bring more travellers to its shore during summer holidays, Kerala Tourism has been utilizing various promotional tools in the best possible way. Besides TV and print campaign in the national markets, the campaign has been running in cinemas across the target markets along with radio and digital campaign.

A social media contest is also running simultaneously across their platforms, where willing participants are being asked to engage in any outdoor activity like hopping on one leg, slow cycling and crossing a log bridge, and posting the same on social media with the hashtag – #ComeOutandPlay. Lucky winners are being rewarded with campaign merchandise as well.

Kerala Tourism has also expanded the promotion activities by way of mall branding and taxi branding in West Asian countries. In countries like Singapore and Malaysia, promotional activities including out-of-home and airport mall branding have been carried out. A report, which talks about the culture, heritage and traditional cuisine of Kerala, also mentions the authentic Ayurvedic treatments available in the state, which becomes an add-on to the state’s existing tourism promotions.

Kerala had garnered Rs 8,392.11 crore as revenue from close to 11 lakh foreign tourists who visited last year. The state had also hosted approximately 61 lakh tourists during monsoon season in 2017, which was an increase of 5 lakh travellers over the monsoon season of 2016.

Over the years, the state has managed to trump most others in the country through its plethora of unique and inspirational campaigns. Kerala’s performance across social media channels has also remained impressive, with it adding another feather in its cap by bagging first place in a ranking done by Facebook based on total engagement with tourists that included reactions, shares and comments on the page. Kerala Tourism’s activity has been focused and proactive, and it has been able to keep travellers from India and abroad engaged with interesting and innovative posts on various projects and activities undertaken by the department.

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Kerala Tourism’s Facebook page has trumped other state tourism boards by climbing on to the top slot. The Kerala Tourism Facebook page attained first place in a ranking done by Facebook based on total engagement with tourists that included reactions, shares and comments on the page between the January 1 and December 31, 2017 time frame.

The Kerala Tourism page pushed the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department’s Facebook page to the second place. The page had garnered 1.5 million likes to emerge as the top page. The Gujarat Tourism Facebook page was ranked third.

Facebook recently released the data on the top-ranked Facebook pages of government bodies, ministries and political parties in India.

Speaking on the achievement, Rani George, Secretary, Department of Tourism, Kerala, said, “Kerala Tourism has been able to successfully convey the reasons as to why Kerala is a destination that should be on every traveller’s itinerary. The department’s presence on social media has taken this message across to millions across the world, and the new laurel from Facebook is indeed heartening.”

Kerala Tourism’s activity on Facebook and other social media space has been focussed and proactive, said P Bala Kiran, Director, Kerala Tourism. “The page has been able to keep travellers from India and abroad engaged with interesting and innovative posts on the various projects and activities undertaken by the department. The ranking comes at a time when Kerala Tourism has upped the Digital marketing budget to 15% and been communicating to the people across the globe in exciting ways.”

P Bala Kiran, Director, Kerala Tourism, with the award. Image source: Kerala Tourism Board Facebook page

The state has been at the forefront of actively promoting tourism through different campaigns. From launching the ‘GoKerala’ campaign to woo family travellers, to leveraging Instagram to transform the art of storytelling, Kerala Tourism has been an active destination marketer for a while now.

Tourism policies in Kerala have also evolved, with the introduction of more technology-oriented initiatives focused on the exclusivity of each destination. The tourism board has also consistently swept awards that recognize its innovative use of information technology, including social media and interactive mobile apps.

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In its campaign to woo social influencers and become a single social media platform for everything, Facebook recently launched its new app Facebook Creator to create and promote videos on the platform.

This stand-alone app logs into Facebook and offers a dashboard showing engagement stats and even follower activity. With a variety of editing tools, wacky face filters and effects, it might just be one of the quickest way to go live with anything you’re interested in broadcasting from your Facebook account, complete with metrics and a message inbox.

This app could usher in a new era of travel influencing. Today, it’s hard to find a single social media stream that’s not filled with enticing pictures and videos about travel destinations, and often, it’s the popular individuals we follow on Snapchat, Instagram, or Facebook, who are behind the production of the content.

With the advent of the Creator app, bloggers and social media celebrities will now have a single platform to capture their target audience, instead of streaming videos on one and showing pictures on the other. According to statistics by Facebook, as of September 2017, close to 1.5 billion people on average log onto the platform daily and are considered daily active users. This gives the tourism boards a mammoth audience base to promote their destinations and services.

The app’s enhanced communication features are also expected to attract more influencers, with its incorporated inbox for all messages and comments posted on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. Having a unified inbox also means that the user doesn’t have to move through different apps just to reply.

Image source: The Verge

As more travel influencers move to the Creator platform, travel companies and tourism boards around the world can tap into their influence to promote exotic destinations or unique finds. The platform will also lend a certain authenticity to the find, thus luring potential travellers to book flights and getaways based on an influencers’ recommendations.

Moreover, the app ensures that data and analytics about the video is always made accessible to users, allowing them to regularly check any algorithm changes to their output. Knowing these key details about their follower demographics can help influencers focus on the type of video content they should post and reach out to travel brands who might be willing to promote their destinations in a particular way.

Travel Influencers are the new brand ambassadors. So, when a tourism board or a travel company works with them, it is not only the product or service that the Creator app will help promote, but it will also put the spotlight firmly on the destination, via breathtaking footage and fantastic visual content.

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Travel is competitive. The number of travellers has grown significantly and proportionally has grown the number of resources available for them to better plan and experience their travel. Often, to cater to these travellers, interesting products come up. However, with so many brands, big and small, competing to reach the right set of travellers, it is often a steep climb for most.

Even with so many options available to the modern traveller and plethora of Facebook pages, there are always some brands that stand out. The ones which we can instantly connect with. Then there are bloggers who pluck the right strings with their stories. The ones who have an army of loyal followers eagerly waiting to read about the next adventure, not just to learn something new but to feel like a part with the stories. What is it that puts these people and brands where they are? What are they doing differently that you should take inspiration from?

We will try to find the answers to these questions and many others at our upcoming event TravelNEXUS. The TravelNEXUS summit will bring the best marketers, tourism boards, travel professionals and content creators from across the country together under one roof. The objective is to help them learn from the best in business and provide a platform to explore new synergies to grow together.

We have an array of discussions and keynotes lined up where domain experts will join us to share their learnings and insights. The day will start with panel discussions on travel blogging and how it is evolving globally. This will be followed by workshop that will put light on the best practices for destinations brands to leverage influencer marketing to their advantage and then for travel startups to get the word out in their early days.

Following the discussions, there will be keynote on how travel and hospitality companies can tailor well for the millions looking at Google to plan their trips. A keynote that will offer insights on unlocking the maximum potential of social channels will follow. We are also offering brands and destination marketers to use the event as an opportunity to showcase their work to masses. If your creative experiments with your brand can serve as inspiration for others, you should sign up here.

Full schedule

The event is supported by hospitality partner Ramada Gurgaon Central and travel partner Plush Escapes. Plush Escapes is a platform for travellers to go off the beaten path to discover unique experiences and getaways. Leading social media portal Social Samosa will also bring its expertise to the event.

The event was originally scheduled to be held on March 25, 2017 at Ramada Gurgaon Central however, we have to reschedule due to some unavoidable circumstances. New event date will be communicated soon. You can register yourself for the event here. Feel free to reach out to us through our social channels or write to tanu.arora@travhq.com for any queries you may have.

Registration link

Update March 17, 2017- Event date to be rescheduled.

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