A radical social media strategy is the prime factor behind a 15% increase in UK visitor numbers to Portugal, according to its tourism chief.
Speaking at World Travel Market, Turismo de Portugal president Joao Cotrim de Figueiredo said the decision 18 months ago to move 99% of its communications budget online – up from just 2% spent online two years ago – had driven growth by encouraging visitors to share their experiences with each other.
Activity is divided into generating demand before booking through search engine optimisation and an array of paid-for online tools to channel potential holidaymakers towards Portugal; then encouraging visitors to share their experiences during and after their stay using social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, flickr and Youtube, with competitions and prizes to help drive participation.
Figueiredo said: “We now spend 99% of our communications budget online. This has allowed us to become much more effective in reaching the segments we want to reach because online allows us to be more focused. And secondly it has allowed us to step back, so we let the people who visit us talk to each other.
“We stimulate people to share their experiences in written, photographic or video form. We also monitor social networks all the time, so when we find things that are of human interest, we try to turn it into an ongoing story.
“Travel agents now have a tool which goes well beyond the written testimony that they used to have in brochures. Now they can use 10 or 20 or 30 examples of what people actually think and what people actually enjoyed in Portugal, and that gives people a lot of confidence in booking. We are providing the raw material for a more efficient sale.
“We have double-figure increases in almost every region, and that corresponds to even higher revenues from tourists, so we must be doing something right.”
British visitors to Portugal have increased by 15% between January and August 2014 – compared to a 12% increase from international markets – to 142,000 visitors, with an 11.2% increase in overnight stays which now stand at 534,000 for the same period. Capital Lisbon, in particular, has seen a 25% increase in visitors.
This comes ahead of a significant growth in flights to Portugal for next year, with 600 new flights across the year, including 350 new services from British Airways – mainly to the Algarve, Madeira and the north of Portugal – as well as easyJet, Norwegian, Flybe and Thomson.