German National Tourism Board – Youth HotSpots
Germany has become an increasingly popular destination for young people over the past few years. That is why the worldwide sales and marketing activities of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) are focusing on youth travel in 2013.
The theme ‘Germany for young people – vibrant, fashionable, innovative’ caters to a huge tourism segment offering vast economic potential. “Young international travellers are a target group with considerable potential for growth.
From Europe alone, the source region that generates the most overnight stays for Destination Germany, almost ten million trips were made by young people aged between 15 and 29 in 2011,” says Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the GNTB Social media campaign.
‘Youth HotSpots in Germany – Share the moment’
Activities for the theme year are centred around a broad-ranging social media campaign entitled ‘Youth HotSpots in Germany – Share the moment’, which was officially launched at the 2013 ITB in Berlin and will continue until March 2014.
The main communication channels being used at the start of the campaign are the dedicated section of the website and social media platforms, in particular Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
App and microsite for ‘sharing the moment’
The core elements of the campaign are a mobile app and a new microsite. As most youngpeople now take their smartphones with them when travelling or on holiday, the GNTB has brought out a Youth HotSpot mobile app as part of the campaign.
The app is available free of charge from the App Store and on Google Play. It provides young international travellers with an overview of 1,300 open-access Wi-Fi hotspots in Germany, enabling them to access social networks for free.
Another key aspect of the campaign is the GNTB’s microsite at www.germany.travel/youth. It specifically targets young visitors and gives them the chance to find out about Germany before they arrive. An interactive map uses pulsating rings of different sizes to show where there is most going on in Germany in the five HotSpot categories: must-sees, nightlife, shopping, bars and cafes, and festivals and events.
Clicking on the rings on the interactive map opens the towns and cities in which the different HotSpots are located. The original HotSpots were selected on the basis of surveys of young Germans.
Once the campaign starts at the ITB in Berlin, users will be able to update the map with their own HotSpots and share them with their friends on Facebook and other social media. In doing so, they will be creating user-generated content for the microsite and thereby becoming part of the campaign themselves.
This word-of-mouth marketing, which is now very much on-trend, allows the GNTB to make young visitors aware of HotSpots in Germany. Recommendations made by friends on social networks are a particularly important source of information for young people.