One of the most important tasks of a tourist board organization or DMO is to research and analyze the main objectives of your country’s marketing plan to drive tourist traffic to your target region. There are several ways you can promote your country. This article gives insights into the best country marketing strategies that help attract more visitors.

Table of Contents:

What Is Country Marketing?

Like destination marketing, country marketing is also about promoting a specific country to increase the number of travelers to that particular location. Destination marketing, however, can also be an area or city marketing, whereas country marketing focuses broadly on a region.

The main goal of country marketing is to make the region look more attractive than other places, thus increasing the number of visitors and bringing business to the local travel industry. It ultimately improves the target region’s image and makes it more appealing to foreign visitors.

Why Is Country Marketing Important?

To attract visitors to the target country, you must highlight the most desirable aspects of the place. Think about the attraction sites that would draw people and tempt them to visit. For example, you can pinpoint the must-see sites of Cyprus, the birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, or entice visitors to see the Northern Lights in Finland.

The primary goal of country marketing is to make the target region stand out as the best alternative so that visitors choose that place over the others. This can be done by highlighting all the unique and attractive sites of the target region. Successful country marketing can greatly benefit the local tourism industry, including restaurants, entertainment venues, airlines, railways, car rental companies, tour operators, and other sectors.

Table: Benefits of Country Marketing

Benefits of City Marketing Description Examples
Economic Growth City marketing stimulates economic development by promoting tourism, attracting businesses, and increasing investments within the city. Attracting major events like international conferences and festivals that boost local businesses.
Attracting foreign investors through targeted marketing.
Supporting local entrepreneurs and startups.
Cultural Enrichment City marketing showcases a city’s cultural heritage, artistic achievements, and diverse offerings. It encourages cultural exchange and appreciation. Promoting cultural festivals, exhibitions, and events.
Celebrating local traditions and heritage.
Fostering creativity and artistic initiatives.
Community Well-Being Effective city marketing enhances the overall quality of life for residents by attracting essential services, improving infrastructure, and promoting sustainability. Attracting healthcare providers and medical tourism.
Supporting green initiatives and sustainability projects.
Strengthening community engagement and social cohesion.

Who Is Responsible for Country Marketing?

As a DMO (destination marketing organization), you are responsible for marketing a target country. In fact, anyone in the tourism management field is responsible for representing the target country to be promoted. Your role is to drive tourist traffic to the region by implementing various marketing strategies.

As a DMO, your task isn’t just to encourage visitors to come to the subject country, but you are also in charge of providing them with all the relevant information about that region’s top attractions. Most hotels, restaurants, and resort managers appoint their own DMOs to help promote their businesses.

14 Country Marketing Strategies to Attract More Tourists

Many effective marketing strategies can be implemented to drive visitor traffic to a target country. These strategies help enhance the image of the country and boost awareness. To accomplish your key objective as a DMO, i.e., attract visitors to a target region, here are 14 country marketing techniques that will put you on the road to success.

Country Marketing- Country Marketing Strategies

1. Highlight the Main Attractions

One of the most important steps for a DMO is to highlight the main attraction points of the target country. Think of the unique selling features of the region, such as its UNESCO World Heritage Sites, mountain hiking trails, ski slopes, secluded beaches, or holy temples. As you can see, there is a huge number of attractions that can make a country seem more appealing to tourists.

If the country you promote has architectural landmarks, ancient ruins, or medieval castles, for example, these are bound to raise interest in tourists. Tap into the location’s unique features and highlight all the interesting local sites for the visitors. Try to create as many attractions as possible to entice travelers.

2. Identify Your Target Visitors

Knowing your target audience will help you create the best marketing strategies. You must also think about all the reasons why people would want to visit the region. Grab a pen and paper and place your target visitors into several categories. Here are some examples to give you a better idea:

Decide whether the country you’re promoting appeals to a younger generation, pensioners, families, business travelers, students, or couples looking for honeymoon destinations. It may even appeal to thrill seekers or those seeking a peaceful beach holiday. Once you’ve identified your target groups, you can create a marketing strategy that will be most relevant to each group of visitors.

Lastly, consider tapping into the nearby countries’ markets and encouraging their locals to visit your region. This can be done by highlighting the rail network that connects your region with its neighboring countries or the similarity in cultures and languages. The idea is to achieve a good balance in terms of where your target visitors come from so you become less dependent on domestic tourists.

3. Obtain and Utilize Data to Get to Know Your Visitors

As a DMO, your role is to obtain and utilize all the necessary data about your target audiences. For example, if you have a website, you can use Google Analytics or similar online tools to get to know your visitors better by collecting data on their demographics, backgrounds, interests, and motivations.

It’s not just online that you can gather information about your visitors. It’s also possible to find out about the average age of the existing visitors, which destinations appeal to them the most, the types of accommodation they use, etc., by doing offline research. Once you’ve collected this data, you can use the results to utilize the best ways to reach out to your visitors by providing them with relevant information about the target country.

4. Focus on Branding

Almost all businesses use branding to make their services or products easily identifiable and distinct from those of other merchants. Branding can include your logo, overall image, color scheme, or messaging. The main goal here is to highlight the unique features of your target country so that it is easily recognizable and stands out from others.

By developing the right techniques that reflect the needs of your target market, you can easily apply them to a destination. For example, you can post an image of the country with a tagline that identifies the exact location and why it’s an amazing place to visit. By creating hashtags for your followers to use on Instagram, you can use your promotional message to familiarise people with the region.

5. Seek Partnerships

This strategy is all about looking out for partnerships with organizations with similar interests to yours to build trust and gain new resources. Such partnerships can include hotels, restaurants, tour operators, travel agents, entertainment venues, or even local authorities from your country.

To get started, you’ll need to develop country marketing strategies that convince these parties to provide you with support and participate in your campaign. By discussing your goals and branding ideas with these parties, they can implement your marketing campaigns alongside their own advertising methods and generate visitor interest in the target country.

6. Create A Compelling Destination Website

There is no denying the convenience of the Internet when researching a particular region before making travel plans. A website specifically focused on the target country is the best way to showcase the biggest attraction sites to your audience. Such a website lets you communicate directly with the curious reader through compelling videos, images, and virtual reality tours.

The website can provide visitors with detailed information about the destination before they plan a trip. Don’t forget to include the best hotel options, attraction sites, where to eat and drink, etc. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly with a blog section that provides engaging and interesting articles about the country you’re promoting.

7. Use SEO Principles

A compelling website about the country you’re promoting is only effective if it ranks high on popular search engines like Google. This is where a comprehensive SEO strategy ensures online visitors can easily find your website.

Search engine optimization involves using powerful keywords, creating content based on those keywords, and using various techniques, such as images and videos, to improve your ranking. As mentioned, an on-site blog is one of the best ways to optimize your website through up-to-date and informative content using relevant keywords. After all, content is king!

8. Engagement Marketing

Engagement marketing is the use of resources to engage people and encourage interactions. Rather than showing a particular attraction to your audience, you can use marketing materials that allow people to experience the destination. This can be done through user-generated content on social media or your website to allow people to share their experiences and thoughts.

This strategy will help increase the credibility of your target country as it gets promoted through word of mouth without any effort on your part. After all, people tend to trust word of mouth much more than the promotional words of an organization. To go one step further, you can include 360 virtual reality tours of the region to allow users to enjoy a personal experience of the country with a call to action at the end of the video that directs them to your website.

9. Give Visitors an Immersive Experience

Video marketing is an effective technique that helps boost your country’s marketing campaign. Since videos are easily sharable on social media platforms, they can promote the region’s top points of interest or include other travelers’ personal experiences of the country during their visits.

To go even further, virtual reality marketing is another powerful technique that will give your target visitors a more personal experience of the country from their homes. You can include virtual experiences of a hotel or resort, a local restaurant, or virtual tours of the main landmarks of the region – the possibilities are endless!

10. Use Social Media to Promote Your Country

Using Social media to reach online users and promote your country is one of the best ways to get your message across. For example, you can use promotional posts, videos, and even contests to raise interest on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. For example, you can create a hashtag for your country, market it on Instagram and share images that sell the region. All this can be done at no cost to you.

These platforms also offer paid marketing opportunities, such as sponsored ads, to help increase visibility. The biggest advantage of social media is that it lets you target people based on their location, age, or demographics to promote your country.

Example: USA Country Marketing

11. Attract Influencers

Another effective and indirect marketing strategy is using influencers to promote your country. These influencers can be celebrities, vloggers, bloggers, or anyone with many followers on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or their own blog. The idea is to build trust through influencers with an engaged audience.

Remember that the number of followers shouldn’t be the most important factor in choosing influencers to promote your country. You’ll usually gain better results if you partner with niche influencers. While it may sound easier said than done, finding an influencer will take a little effort. You can, for example, offer them free accommodation in exchange for a promotional blog post or video about your country.

12. Promote On Popular Travel Websites

Aside from creating your own website to promote your target country, you should also reach out to your audience through other trusted and reputable travel websites like TripAdvisor.

You can, for example, include images, stories, or videos on those websites and monitor visitor reviews of the country. Just make sure you respond to any visitor comments, regardless of whether they are positive or negative about your target country.

13. Explore Various Online Advertising Methods

You should have gathered all the relevant data about your target audience by now. With this information, you can use the right platforms and display advertising to promote the region to your target audience through your own website and third-party websites.

Most DMOs find PPC advertising an effective method to use. There is also Google Adwords, where you can place your ads within your target users’ searches, such as “Book a trip to Finland.” Paid search caters to a specific market, resulting in higher conversion leads than many other advertising methods. Remarketing is another great technique to reach out to those who are already interested in your website.

14. Create Offline Marketing Strategies

Now that you know your target market, you must determine when they will likely travel to your country. For example, a country like Finland may be best visited in the winter to see the Northern Lights, while Cyprus is more attractive in the summer months.

With this information in mind, you can create an offline marketing strategy most suitable for the target country. Newspaper, radio, TV ads, or national or local travel exhibitions are paid offline advertising methods that you can use to feature your country in areas where your target visitors are based.

Country Marketing - Create Offline Marketing Strategies

Tourism Trends: Opportunities for The Tourism Industry

The tourism industry is constantly evolving, from trends driven by customers and their desire for unique experiences to ones driven by the tourism industry itself through the adoption of new technologies. Tourism professionals need to keep their finger on the pulse and embrace modern elements that capture more customers. Adopting the latest trends early on is vital, from new technologies and destinations to new marketing methods.

The article, “Tourism Trends: Opportunities for the Tourism Industry,” provides an insight into the top emerging tourism trends to watch now and in the future.

Technology Trends Emerging in the Travel & Tourism Industry

Technology is growing rapidly with the help of virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Businesses in the travel and tourism industry have recognized the value of AI for maximizing functionality. From online bookings to customer communication, there is no denying the importance of technology in the travel and tourism industry. As customer behavior and expectations change over time, different technologies help businesses offer a more immersive experience and enhance their customer service.

In the following article, “Key Technology Trends Emerging in the Travel & Tourism Industry,” you will learn the most important tech trends in the travel and tourism sector.

Country Marketing FAQs

A country’s culture, nature, and history are all applicable to marketing. Targeted campaigns and direct work with individual influencers or travel-oriented businesses can help to promote those elements to the public.

Make sure people know about the unique opportunities and culture through tourism packages and an online presence. Social media, reviews, and work with travel expos can also grow awareness of a country as a vacation destination.

Wine-related tourism is an ideal example, as it highlights how multiple towns in a wine region can come together to promote their shared elements. People coming for tours of vineyards, wine tastings, and even dining will usually spread out to enjoy the entire region.

Yes, as the county can be marketed as a whole. The tourist attractions, underlying infrastructure, and services of a country are shared resources for tourism as a whole and the tourism market.

 By fostering cultural exchange with a global audience, the country can enhance how it’s perceived by the world. The resulting economic growth also helps to improve local conditions, which furthers global perception as a tourist destination.

You can use the above strategies to adopt multiple approaches in driving tourist traffic to your target region. As a DMO, it’s a good practice to focus on one strategy at a time and embrace the recommended marketing trends to ensure success.

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This article is written by:

Martijn Barten

Hi, I am Martijn Barten, founder of Revfine.com. With 20 years of experience in the hospitality industry, I specialize in optimizing revenue by combining revenue management with marketing strategies. I have successfully developed, implemented, and managed revenue management and marketing strategies for individual properties and multi-property portfolios.