Tourism PEI using visitor photos to promote Island

The Island's tourism department says user generated content is the next big thing when it comes to marketing P.E.I.

Increasingly, photos and videos taken by tourists visiting the Island are being used to market it to potential visitors.

• P.E.I. tourism numbers continue to rise

Brenda Gallant, Director of Marketing with Tourism PEI said times are changing when it comes to tourism marketing.

"In today's day and age, more and more we're finding that you still need your traditional marketing campaigns, but you do need to find as many ways as you can to reach the individuals or potential travellers," said Gallant.

"A lot of times they really like that user generated content or that voice of authenticity, so we also use a lot of the content we find online that visitors are posting."

Connecting with shared photos and videos

Gallant said more and more, Tourism PEI will retweet or repost some of the beautiful images that come from the visitors, as they have more value when they are not coming directly from someone involved in marketing.

"If you have visitors here who are taking video, who are taking photos, sharing with their friends on social media, that is tremendous value for us and very hard to quantify, but absolutely something that we want to see continue happening."

Focus on digital marketing

Gallant said the province spends $4 million annually on tourism marketing. The bulk of that is geared towards Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and spent on on ads for television and radio, and more and more, on digital advertising. This means that for anyone who has ever googled P.E.I. or looked into accommodations on the Island, their day to day web browsing will include those tourism ads.

"We do know the IP addresses and you're able to serve ads that way, so that works really, really well for us," said Gallant adding, "because it's people who are already predisposed to PEI and it's just that little reminder to tell them: book now."

The Island's tourism department has been involved in a number of other tourism initiatives this year, including a $45,000 P.E.I. food truck campaign in Toronto and Montreal, where samples of lobster poutine were distributed to people in exchange for their entry into a contest, a way for the department to maintain contact with would-be visitors.

The department also spent $354,000 on transit bus wraps in Toronto and Montreal, and $140,000 on a partnership with speciality cable channel YTV.

List of user generated content launched

But moving forward, Brenda Gallant said the focus will be on user generated content, which offers the most economic way for the Island's tourism department to stretch its budget. She added the content is free, and it appeals to modern travellers.

The province plans to expand the user generated content on the Island's tourism website in August.

"Because we've seen so much user generated content come through, with stunning photography, and really feel a need to be able to share," said Gallent.

"Most of it's coming through instagram, so that's where we're going to be pulling from, and you'll be able to see Prince Edward Island from a traveller's perspective."

Gallant said the tourism industry is estimated to have brought $400 million to the Island in 2015.

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