BTO in damage control campaign
Pauline Dikuelo | Thursday December 11, 2014 19:08
In an interview with the Mmegi Business, BTO public relations and communications manager, Keitumetse Setlang said due to the negative reporting which they had received lately from Survival International, as well as the Ebola outbreak, they had decided to embark on a restoration campaign.
“The purpose of this campaign is to influence change in the mindset on how the world views Botswana and ensure that foreign tourists should continue visiting Botswana. Furthermost, we want to ensure that we do not loose our space on the international market,” she said.
According to Setlang, the organisation would be embarking on an online and television campaign and they would conduct a commercial campaign in the BBC Channel. He said it would be featured in the BBC World News, World Business Report, Africa Business Report, Sport Today, as well as Focus on Africa. She added that they would have an online campaign, which would be strategically placed across relevant section of BBC.com platforms. The online campaign is expected to reach an audience of 880,000, which she said would soon increase as BBC had cemented its partnership with Android.
Setlang also explained that they would also run a six-month campaign in the Travel Channel. The campaign, which has been divided into three categories, is expected to feature a normal 30- second commercial in the first month, followed by the promo campaign in the second and last month.
“We will run a 30 days campaign where viewers will answer questions on Botswana tourism and win themselves a holiday experience in Botswana. We will also air a minute vignette of the winners experiences in Botswana and run it as a testimonial campaign,” she explained.
She further pointed out that they were still looking for partners for this campaign who would get the international exposure as well because the logos of sponsors would appear in the promotional piece.
BTO also plans to spread the campaign on the social media networks and also have a tourism ambassador who will be expected to market and expose Botswana to the outside world. The local and international media will also be used to take the good stories of Botswana to the world, as they will be included in their travel fairs. “We also intend to be placed in the Global news in accordance with the standard advertising in Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, South Africa, South Asia, North America and Latin America,” he stated.
The cancellation of bookings in Botswana escalated after the outbreak of the Ebola, which affected the tourism industry.
According to tour operators in the Okavango Delta, arrivals have taken a knock in the second half of the year while bookings for next year estimated to have sunk by a sector average of between 30 to 50 percent.
When Ebola broke out this year Botswana was one of the first countries to react and banned all travel from the affected areas in the West African countries to ensure it remained clean. Tourism contributes 10 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) employing 35,000 people.