Gepubliceerd op: 26-5-2023
Case study European City Breaks
As a travel PR-agency we are constantly looking for interesting marketing and PR activities for the travel industry and for Dutch and Belgian press. As we are big fans of city trips here at the Baltus Communications office, five years ago we initiated a new concept: ‘the European City Breaks’ press event.
In a nutshell: the European City Breaks (ECB) event is an unique opportunity for both the destinations and the press to meet each other on one date in one venue. We invite cities in Europe to come over to Amsterdam to promote their city to Dutch travel press. The media loves this concept as they can meet a great deal of cities in just one day. In addition to European cities, we also approach low cost airlines, rail companies and hotel chains to participate plus a number of intercontinental cities with a strong city break image like New York City, Marrakesh and Istanbul. Continue reading for a more thorough explanation.
Objective
The objective of this event is to bring together Europe’s leading and lesser well-known city break destinations on one location where they can get in contact with the Dutch press. Every destination is free to promote whichever aspect of their city they want to expose. The press than has the opportunity to select the cities they are interested in find out more about the latest developments, the best upcoming events, new promotional themes, attractions, press trips, etc. etc.. All of this in just one day and on one location! With our overflowing agendas nowadays, it is a relief for all parties to be present together.
Participants can reserve a table at an excellent location where they can set up their brochures and banner and have face-to-face chats with the journalists present. The last two editions of the ECB event took place in Restaurant Fifteen in Amsterdam which has a great location near the city’s central station.
Strategy
-
The set-up of this event takes months of prep work which starts with making a hit list of all possible cities that might be interested to participate. These naturally include capital cities, but also regional capitals and lesser known, yet still interesting destinations.
-
Create an overview of events already taking place during the year which can be of competition of the ECB event. Naturally hosting such an event in the week after the ITB is not the smartest move. Therefore we try to select a suitable date.
-
With representatives coming in from all corners of Europe, it is important to host the event at a location that is easily accessible for everyone. Therefore we chose to let the event take place in Amsterdam and close to its Central Station.
-
The next step is to invite city tourism boards with a personal and tailor-made invitation.
-
Next to tourism boards, other players in the travel and hospitality industry are also invited to participate. Such as airlines, accommodations, publishers of city guides and other relevant parties that are related to city breaks.
-
In the weeks before the event we invite our complete database of Dutch print and online press.
Results
After months of preparation the European City Break press event was organised in 2010. With an average of 25 participating destinations and approximately 70 journalists present, this day was a great event. It resulted in many individual press trips, more exposure for the participating destinations and content for media. With the event being such a success, we decided to host the event again which has led to three events thus far.
Business oriented magazines such as TravMedia and TravelPro published feature articles to inform the industry of this event and many travel reports were written in a wide range of newspapers and magazines.
In 2015 it was organised in the stunning venue of Het Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam and 100+ media and bloggers tuned up. Please follow our European City Breaks Pinterest board to stay up-to-date and get inspired.
Terug