What is it?
As a result of globalisation, the borders between countries have started to disappear and this has sparked tourism sector growth. Tourism is one of the most effective means of promoting a country and boosting the economy.
Public Relations represents a unique way of promoting the organisation, its products or services, by building higher visibility in the public space. Public Relations is a strategic form of communication that focuses on gaining an audience’s understanding and acceptance, as well as building good relations between an organisation and the public in the process.
In the tourism sector, Public Relations is more than a necessity. The challenge consists in identifying the most efficient ways of promoting tourism products, building a positive image and increasing the visibility of tourist destinations in order to attract a significant number of tourists.
How Does Tourism PR and Marketing Work and What are the Benefits?
Keeping tourist destinations relevant is where tourism and hospitality meet Public Relations. PR can raise the profile of emerging destinations and enhance the prestige of established ones. In either case, having a PR professional position a destination can make or break bookings and attendance.
In today’s world, there are many kinds of tourism, including: business and conference tourism, cultural and historical tourism, health tourism, spa, sports and adventure tourism, and event tourism. Public Relations plays a role in constructing positive images of locations, activities and identities.
PR can raise the profile of emerging destinations and enhance the prestige of established ones.
Public Relations is critical for building awareness of your travel product or service, to demonstrate how a potential traveller/consumer could benefit from your destination, hotel or any other travel product. Using Public Relations, destinations and travel products can showcase their strengths in particular areas (luxury, corporate, leisure, health, adventure etc), and with consistent, ongoing media placement mixed with other PR activities such as events, workshops, press and fam trips, can achieve greater awareness and exposure. This strong base can increase engagement, bookings and build lasting positive relationships.
PR initiatives should encompass partners from different industries such as travel, television and entertainment, fashion and lifestyle media. In order to change the tastes and origin of visitors, the media should focus on stories that have a theme. Fashion and lifestyle media that currently include travel in their agendas go far towards this goal. In the era of social media, Public Relations should help push a location’s story to new prominence.
With smart positioning that generates impact, PR can revolutionise a tourist destination’s relevance.
How Can We Help?
Successful PR activity requires certain skills from people engaged in it. In PR, quality of information is more important that quantity. Quality PR is the key to success for a tourism business.
At By Design Africa, we understand the importance of recognising good opportunities quickly. Opportunity is a window to success. The crucial point here is to see good, creative, profitable opportunities and maximise them before competitors do.
No two clients or situations are the same. By working closely with our clients, we aim to fully understand their product, brand and business objectives. This enables us to create bespoke Public Relations campaigns.
By Design Africa has a team of Public Relations specialists, and as experienced travellers ourselves, we are passionate about promoting destinations and their travel partners and organisations that aid in getting consumers there.
A trending subject globally is the concept of responsible tourism, which is about taking responsibility, responding and acting to address social, economic and environmental issues of sustainability that arise in destinations.
In terms of Public Relations, responsible tourism is a process of involving the public as well as tourism agents in the need to practise responsible tourism. Responsible tourism aims at the responsible consumption of tourist products and the impacts and benefits that this type of tourism should have upon local communities – economically, socially and environmentally.
At By Design Africa, we develop coherent strategies for promoting those destinations whose main attractions are represented by the flora, fauna or cultural inheritance. It’s about destinations “using tourism rather than being used by it”.
Client Testimonial
“Thank-you again for running a perfect event, best so far in my opinion!”
General Manager Product & Innovation at at a multinational mobile telecoms company
Client Testimonial
For both occasions, By Design provided exceptional service and we were all very happy with their performance throughout the planning phase and during the event. They have speed and are quite flexible. We also received positive feedback from our customers.
Executive Consumer Sales at a telecoms company
Client Testimonial
“As our valued events agency, I can confirm that By Design Africa have again delivered an exceptional and truly memorable conference. Both our customers and executive management have rated the event as first class as recorded in their overall survey score.”
Executive: Leading ICT services provider in South Africa