* This week has seen the launch on Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian television channels and over the Internet of a campaign designed to entice people to take spa and city break holidays in Estonia. The campaign is being organised by Enterprise Estonia in association with the shipping company Tallink and Estonian Air.
“Our aim is to grab the attention of northern European culture enthusiasts and spa lovers in the 25-50 age bracket and to increase visitor numbers outside the peak tourist season,” explained Ülari Alamets, a member of the board of Enterprise Estonia.
“What we are dealing with here is the first big joint campaign between the state and private sector of its kind,” Alamets added. “We worked together very well, bolstering the campaign and yet also saving money. We will certainly think about doing the same again in future.”
The number of Finnish guests staying in Estonian accommodation facilities has decreased over the last two years, and given the fact that the majority of Finns have visited Estonia at least once, the critical factor is to motivate them to visit places they have not been to.
In Sweden and Norway, Estonia is considered to be most interesting as a travel destination to older people, and awareness of the country is limited. Nevertheless, the satisfaction of those who have visited Estonia with their experience is generally high, and the levels among these people who would look to travel more extensively in the country is three times higher than among those who have never visited. As the proportions of the segments of the population who have been to Estonia remain so small (just 12% of Swedish citizens older than 15 years of age and a mere 7% of Norwegians in the same category) the critical factor with these countries is expanding the customer base.
Spa and city break holidays are being advertised in separate clips, each lasting 20 seconds. These clips also promote the services of Estonian Air and Tallink.
In Finland the advertisements are being shown on the television channels MTV3 and Nelonen, while in Sweden they are appearing on Kanal 5 and TV 4, and in Norway they are being broadcast on TV 2, TV 3, TVN and Discovery. The consideration in selecting these channels was reaching as great a number of the target group as possible.
The promotional clips are being supported by 40 offers from local companies on the main site that promotes Estonia as a travel destination, www.visitestonia.com, with businesses from Tallinn, Haapsalu, Kuressaare, Tartu, Pärnu and Ida-Virumaa being primarily represented. There are 22 offers related to city-break holidays and 18 associated with spa vacations. The website also provides text-based information about the development of Estonia and tourism options and is running a competition whose prizes have been donated by members of the Estonian Spa Association, the Tallinn City Enterprise Department, the Peppersack restaurant, Tallink and Estonian Air. In total 20 holidays will be drawn, 14 for spa vacations and 6 for city breaks.
The campaign hopes to produce 50,000 individual visits to the website introducing Estonia as a travel destination by people from the target markets. Growth in the numbers of tourists coming from these countries of up to 20,000 is also expected.
The part of the campaign promoting Estonia was carried out as part of the programme to increase the awareness of the country as a travel destination, cofinanced through the European Regional Development Fund. As a result of the partnerships with Estonian Air and Tallink discounts of up to 56% were obtained when purchasing screen time. The total cost of the campaign has amounted to 14.7 million Estonian kroons, of which 9.1 million kroons was covered by Enterprise Estonia.
The advertisements will be broadcast in Norway and Sweden for two and a half weeks and in Finland for four weeks. The Internet-based offers will continue to be displayed until the end of the year.
Other activities throughout the year in the Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian target markets
Estonia’s tourism potential was promoted at joint stands at the Reiseliv 2006 trade fair in Oslo, the Matka 2006 trade fair in Helsinki and the Tur 2006 trade fair in Gothenburg.
Enterprise Estonia has also organised seminars and contact days promoting Estonia as a travel destination for tour operators in Oslo and Stockholm.
It has hosted foreign journalists, acquainting them with the cultural (including design) options of northern and western Estonia, as well as the opportunities for golfing and spa vacations, with the aim of winning advertising space in the foreign press.
An enormous amount of tourism-related information has been distributed at a range of foreign events, such as the visit of the Cinema Bus to Helsinki from 29 August to 2 September this year. The Mardilaat trade fair being held in Helsinki on 25 November will see the usual exhibition by Estonian tourism companies supported by Enterprise Estonia’s Tourism Development Centre. The focus of this year’s fair, as per the campaign, is on city breaks and spa vacations.
For additional information please contact :
Andrus Nõmm
Senior consultant with the Tourism Development Centre of Enterprise Estonia
E-mail : andrus.nomm@eas.ee; telephone: +372 627 9784
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