The majority of all travel decisions start with an online search and end with an online booking. Digital plays an increasingly important role in the success of Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism’s marketing initiatives. By providing content that is engaging and interactive, Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism seeks to evoke an emotional connection with would-be travellers. Every piece of content online – from NewfoundlandLabrador.com to YouTube videos to comments on Facebook – must standout in a busy online world and should also encourage travellers to journey off the beaten track to this unique destination.
Tourism operators can leverage their online presence with Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism by participating in digital marketing opportunities on NewfoundlandLabrador.com and within our social media networks. It’s critical that tourism operators participate in a way that enhances visitors’ online experiences and that will ultimately bridge the gap between trip decision and trip purchase. There are a number of ways for tourism operators to get involved:
NewfoundlandLabrador.com
Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism’s consumer website NewfoundlandLabrador.com is a trip planning website. It is the call-to-action throughout Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism’s advertising and communications initiatives such as TV advertising, online pay-per-click ads and travel media stories. NewfoundlandLabrador.com has high visitation and engagement rates, measured by analytics such as unique visitors, time on site and pages per visit.
The website provides rich and engaging content that connects would-be travellers with tourism operators. Online activities on the site include tourism operator listing search, eNews subscription, travel guide order pages, travel packages, interactive maps, regional and activity based content, and links to social media channels.
Tourism operators can publish their tourism listings and travel offer listings on NewfoundlandLabrador.com for free. The listings are displayed in the Plan and Book section (a directory of tourism listings) and throughout the website.
Learn More
NewfoundlandLabrador.com listings
For information contact:
Shelley Magnusson
Website and NL Tourism Portal Lead
Tel: (709) 729-5251
Email: shelleymagnusson@gov.nl.ca
NL Tourism Operator Portal Team
Tel: 709-729-5599 (Portal Team Direct Line)
Tel: 709-729-2835 (Registering Accommodation/Campgrounds)
Tel: 709-729-6857 (Outfitting)
Email: NLTourismOperatorPortal@gov.nl.ca
Social Media
Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism uses its social marketing tools (Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube) to engage with non-residents and visitors to build its brand awareness. The goal is to provide engaging and shareable content that provokes discussion and contribution to online travel discussions about the destination. Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism leverages social sharing tools to share content from NewfoundlandLabrador.com and individual tourism operators.
Through social media, the tourism industry can collectively provide travellers with inspiration and information. Fueling these online travel conversations will lead to increased traffic on NewfoundlandLabrador.com and will motivate trip-decision making, thereby increasing leads back to tourism operators via NewfoundlandLabrador.com.
Instagram www.instagram.com/newfoundlandlabrador
If you are sharing great pictures from your region, make sure to tag our username @newfoundlandlabrador in the post and use hashtag #ExploreNL. We may ask your permission to share it with our followers and pull the photo into our website.
Facebook www.facebook.com/NewfoundlandLabradorTourism
“Like” or follow Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism on Facebook. Chat with users as they plan their trip to Newfoundland and Labrador. Add comments, photos and videos, and send us your stories to share on our page.
YouTube Channel www.YouTube.com/NewfoundlandLabrador
The Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism YouTube channel is an ever growing library of commercials, videos and playlists. If an operator has tourism-related videos on YouTube, they can send us a link and we may add it to our favourites or add it to applicable playlists that are pulled into content areas on NewfoundlandLabrador.com.
Hashtags
#Explore NL Use the official hashtag when you post on Instagram to join in the conversation and make your post easier to find by people interested in Newfoundland and Labrador.
#IcebergsNL You can use this hashtag to alert us when you post an iceberg picture. Please include the location and time. We can then share these images with our followers who are interested in icebergs.
User Generated Content
User Generated Content (UGC) includes pictures and videos posted on social media by visitors, tourism operators, and local ambassadors. UGC images are shared by Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism on social media and are also pulled into most pages on NewfoundlandLabrador.com You can help us by posting great photos on social media, tagging us and using the official hashtags #ExploreNL and #IcebergsNL. If your business is TAP approved we will add a link to your business profile in the photo to generate leads to your business.
Social Media Content Tips
- Keep it professional. Separate personal and professional business accounts.
- Build conversations and relationships. Encourage interaction by sharing posts from fans, starting conversations, engaging in discussions, and asking questions and opinions.
- Share engaging content. Share interesting, compelling and unique content, including visuals (photos and videos).
- Stick to your brand. Speak from a consistent brand voice and feature photos and videos that capture your brand.
- Deliver value to fans. Reward ambassadors and give exclusive access to content, offers, or promotions.
- Post regularly. Create a content strategy and schedule so you can schedule posts ahead of time.
- Know your target audience. Post content that is relevant to your brand, products and services.
- Know our target audience. Feedback on government policy and initiatives should be sent to appropriate contacts within government. Such content is not appropriate for consumer-facing social media sites. For a list of contacts, visit the contact us page.
Social Media Listening Tips
How to Enhance Customer Relations Through Listening and Feedback:
Tourism operators should be monitoring the internet to see what’s being said about their business (positive or negative).
Conversations are happening online regardless of whether operators are there or not, so it’s important to have an active voice and presence online to receive feedback and communicate with potential and former customers.
Operators should show their audience that they are receptive to feedback and are transparent. The online world is the perfect medium to improve customer relations and influence brand perceptions.
Tourism operators should monitor their social media channels as well as Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism’s. Use tools such as Hootsuite and Google Alerts, and be sure to monitor travel sites such as TripAdvisor.
IcebergFinder.com
IcebergFinder.com is a website that helps visitors and locals alike to locate icebergs across the province and share their own sightings. Users can post photos and locations using their mobile devices and Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism can tag operator businesses such as b&b’s, restaurants, experiences and tours helping to drive leads and traffic to them. The website is augmented with information from satellites and visual sightings from Visitor Information Centres ( VICs). Help us plot icebergs in your region so we can drive visitors to tourism operators by uploading photos directly to IcebergFinder.com and use #IcebergsNL and @IcebergTweets to join the conversation on social media.
Learn More about Icebergfinder.com
Contact
Laurie Dempster
Digital and Social Media Lead
Tel: (709) 729-2859
Email: lauriedempster@gov.nl.ca