DESTINATION PARTNERSHIPS The world’s first and leading destination marketing partner for green and responsible tourism
Confidential, responsibletravel.com
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responsibletravel.com in numbers ● Founded in 2001 ● Holidays sold worth £100 million ● Over 350,000 monthly site visitors ● A database of over 161,000 ● Average traffic to lead conversion rate 3% ● Average enquiry conversion rate 11%
● £350,000 is spent per annum marketing responsibletravel.com ● Over 700,000 enquiries ● Over 5,000 holidays and 2,500 accommodation products ● Over 2,000 members ● Over 7,000 independent traveller reviews ● Over 17,300 Facebook friends, 7,300 Twitter followers and 5,600 LinkedIn members
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What is responsible travel? We have always felt that travel should be more than just a brief stay somewhere. A holiday with responsibletravel.com is a deeper connection to the people, landscape, food, culture and environment. Responsible tourism is about creating better places to live, and better places to visit.
“Travel like a local�
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How we select our tourism businesses All tourism businesses on responsibletravel.com have been screened for their commitment to social and environmental sustainability. We call this “The Promise”. Environment & Community Tourism suppliers must show how they address at least 2 environmental & at least 2 community sustainability issues most important in their local area.
Environmental issues
Community issues Friends & neighbours – using local products & recommend our neighbours’ services. Campaigning for change – recognising local issues & campaign to address them Volunteering & charity – support local project & people through charity, fundraising or volunteering
“The Promise”
Wildlife – commitment to conservation & education Waste – freeing land & water from rubbish & pollution Water – understanding the need to conserve resources
A fair deal – offer local people good working conditions, fair wage & training Local crafts & cultures – support local craft-makers, artisans & cultural attractions to conserve heritage
Travelling with respect create good relationships between tourists & the local community
Energy – reducing consumption & using renewable sources Buildings – use local materials to tell the story of the landscape Transport – recommend low carbon, sustainable transport Suppliers – use suppliers with the same environmental values
Click here to hear more about our views on responsible travel... http://www.responsibletravel.com/views
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responsibletravel.com audience Young couples
Lone travellers/with friends
• Time poor, cash rich, often work in the City or in media • Will look for romance, relaxation and some adventure. Like to go off the beaten track • Go on short breaks and one big holiday per year • Like to book independently, avoid family holiday season
• Wide age range, from 20 – 40 • Meeting likeminded travellers is very important, want adventure and to see new places • High spend on a big holiday for themselves once a year, they do lots of research and are open to several points of interaction with companies e.g. Database marketing, social media, PR ...Small group adventure...Volunteering...
...Honeymoons...Tailor made...Short breaks...
Families • Affluent, with children of all age ranges • Value for money is key • Like to get away from mass tourism but safety and convenience are also important • Likely to read the Guardian • Likely to go abroad once plus a couple of UK half term breaks ...Family adventure...Accommodation... UK half term...
• £2,100 –average booking • Well educated • Curious • Globally & Older couples environmentally aware • Newly retired, lots of time to • High disposable income discover the world • Like culture/getting back to nature • Experience seekers • Travelling with a trustworthy brand is • Love nature crucial
...Cultural tours...Wildlife & walking...Europe...
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visitors to responsibletravel.com by country United Kingdom
Although based in the UK, responsibletravel.com reaches a worldwide audience of interested and engaged travellers.
Rest of World France Germany South Africa
Ireland Canada
India
Australia
USA
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How can your destination harness this opportunity? responsibletravel.com can build a brand around the real stories from your destination’s extraordinary travel experiences. We focus on what makes your destination unique and distinctive to international travelers looking for authentic opportunities to ‘travel like a local’.
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Product Recruitment Our product recruitment packages allow you to fast-track and streamline your responsible tourism offer as we identify, recruit and screen small scale, local tourism businesses to become members of responsibletravel.com
Starting from: £125 per product page recruited How the product recruitment process works: •
Working with you and through our own desk research we will identify a selection of local, small-scale tourism businesses suitable for inclusion on responsibletravel.com
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We will contact these businesses on your behalf by telephone.
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Our specialist product recruitment team will conduct an in-depth telephone interview with each business, asking questions to ensure they meet our criteria for responsible travel – “The Promise”
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Our team will then write up each product page on behalf of the tourism business and make this live on responsibletravel.com.
Find out more about responsibletravel.com membership here: www.responsibletravel.com /membership
Benefits: Raise the profile and increase visibility of your destination. Bring together and market a coherent responsible tourism offer. A much more streamlined & fast-track approach than simply introducing responsibletravel.com to your local operators.
http://www.responsibletravel.com/productrecruitment What do we ask? Click the link above to find out more about the product recruitment interview...
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Destination travel guides
Build your reputation as a leader in responsible tourism...
The guides are our top level marketing programmes and are a partnership between responsibletravel.com and tourist boards. They are an extremely effective way to increase a destination’s profile, drive leads and build its reputation as a green and responsible destination.
Your logo here
The guide is instantly found when searching for holidays in your destination
You can choose the sub-headings & main guide content
Products are shown relevant to what page the guide user is looking at 9
Destination travel guides
The benefits to you... •
Raise the profile and increase visibility of your destination as a leader in responsible tourism
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Bring to market and drive enquiries to your destination and to your small-scale tourism providers
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A guide that differentiates itself from others in the consumer market
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Over 50,000 homepage views monthly linking back to the guide
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The guide is fully integrated onto your main country page, which highlights relevant products per page and integrates the product search function
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Is written by a travel journalist who is familiar with green and responsible tourism
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Includes travel secrets and real stories from local people in the form of podcasts and video
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We help you aggregate products and build a guide that will inspire site visitors to book holidays
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You will be reaching an audience who are globally and environmentally aware, love nature and culture, have access to high disposable income, are experience seekers, curious and want to learn and explore
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The cost for 12 months includes production, hosting and an ezine marketing package
Our current partners are...
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Destination travel guides
How we tell your destination’s story...
Through unique content, podcasts, videos and images we will tell your destination’s story and travel secrets , creating a guide which allows tourists to explore what makes your destination special, and to ‘travel like a local’.
Unique content • One of our experienced, professional travel writers will visit your destination and write unique content for the guide. • Our writers regularly write features for the UK national press and specialise in responsible tourism. • You own the rights to the content • Unique content is vital for SEO purposes and helps the guides perform strongly in google rankings
Multimedia approach Podcasts Recorded on the ground by our experienced travel writers, our podcasts bring to life the real stories behind green and responsible tourism. Covering everything from an agrotourism entrepreneur, tour leader, or organic farmer to someone who has something special listed with responsibletravel.com
Video We can also include video clips to allow readers to really immerse themselves in your destination.
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Responsible travel like a local – Guide & Map Explore the hidden places... Starting from £7,500: (duration 12 months) Benefits for your destination, region or city are: •
A partnership with the world’s first and leading portal for green and responsible tourism
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User friendly and helpful planning tool for consumers
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Includes accommodation, activities, where the locals go, what the locals know the destination or city for, videos and podcasts
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Promotion of your logo with links back to your site
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Promotes your destination as a responsible place to visit
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Design your own additional upgrades such as green networks for walking and cycling, hosting the map on your own site and marketing as detailed in this pack
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Trackable features
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The cost for 12 months includes free screening, recruitment and copy writing of 15 products, unique editorial for an additional 20 items and a link from our homepage to the map’s country/location page Please note: all prices quoted are plus VAT where applicable
Click below for a live Map Guide example: http://www.responsibletravel.com/helsinki
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Ezine packages
Our most popular solution... E-magazine editorial feature sent to our database of over 160,000 interested & engaged travellers who have access to high disposable income. Profiling travel ideas and product from responsibletravel.com with an emphasis on a focus of your choice. Starting from £4,000: (duration 6 months)
Benefits •
Drives increased booking enquiries to your destination.
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A link back from the feature to your destination product pages
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The article appears on your country page of responsibletravel.com & is shared via our social media sites.
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Ezine average open rate of 18%
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Reporting provided on ezine open rate and income generated by the campaign if requested.
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Banner advertising placed on key pages of responsibletravel.com for 6 months.
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A second ezine can be purchased for £2,000 Please note: all prices quoted are plus VAT where applicable
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Marketing packages Homepage ‘Destination of the Month’: (duration 1 month) •
We can offer you the ability to promote your destination on our homepage. Spec: 470 x 248 pixels for £500.
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The ‘Destination of the month’ space can link to your own site for £1,000.
50,000 monthly homepage views Builds brand awareness
Facebook ‘Destination of the Month’: (duration 1 month) •
Your destination features as the main banner image on our facebook page £1,000 per month and designed by responsibletravel.com’s in-house creative team
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As part of travel guide packages we can also include a tab linked to the guide.
Banner advertising: (duration 6 months) •
ROS 737,000 unique page views monthly
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£10 CPM - Banner advertising available – 310 x 170 pixels
17,300 Facebook fans
Please note: all prices quoted are plus VAT where applicable
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“Travel like a local” Mini Guides The honest opinion that consumers can trust
Price £3,000 £3,500 with reporting
Responsibletravel.com is creating a series of online travel guides showing destinations in an open, honest and consumer friendly format. To deliver this we use interviews with local people, tour guides & organisations to highlight the lesser-known sights, activities and cultures in your destination. We also want to raise awareness of any environmental and social issues with the aim to education travellers on how to best respond to these. For a live example please visit http://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/namibia/travel-guide
Unique magazine style with 8 pages and 2 minute destination summary
Consumer-friendly, honest bitesized content
Input from leading ethical tourism writers
“The honest opinion that consumers can trust”
Stand-out, sharable quotes
Competitively priced Helps to increase enquiries to your destination
Additional marketing such as advertorial (£2.5k) and ezine packages (£4k or £6k) can be purchased
NB:- To ensure that we remain impartial as a travel portal that provides independent advice there is no editorial control or reporting for mini guides. However, any additional ezine marketing purchased includes reporting. Product recruitment will be required if you have less than 15 products listed on responsibletravel.com at a cost of £125 per product
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Category sponsorship www.worldresponsibletourismawards.com Price: £3,000 for 1 year, £5,000 for 2 years The aim of the World Responsible Tourism Awards is to champion the heroes of responsible tourism from around the globe. This prestigious event is organised by responsibletravel.com and World Travel Market, with support from consumer & trade UK media partners. The judging process is designed and organised in partnership with the International Centre for Responsible Tourism at Leeds Metropolitan University. For the benefits of sponsoring a category click here... http://www.responsibletravel.com/awards-sponsor
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Fast-track recognition for your destination’s support for the global green agenda Public & trade profile through partners such as The Metro, TTG UK, Nordic & Mena, Selling Long Haul, Green Hotelier & Cosmopolitan Magazine. Presented at World Travel Market on World Responsible Tourism Day One representative from organisation to present the award to the category winner Sponsors logo displayed on the stage and voiced by the presenter Awards print publication including sponsors’ logos made available at the Awards ceremony and throughout WTM on World Responsible Tourism Day Sponsor’s logo, copy and video content uploaded to the Awards site Awards and sponsors credits in the diaries of 2,600 journalists Additional coverage from Awards’ brand partners, WTM’s global media partners and BBC
Please note: all prices quoted are plus VAT where applicable
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Business to business Business to business advertising Price – £300 This is a unique opportunity to communicate with the largest network of responsible travel businesses in the world committed to responsible tourism. This newsletter is sent weekly to a growing database of over 3,100 tour operators, accommodation owners and tourism service providers with news, events, members’ tips of the week, and PR and communications updates.
Please note: all prices quoted are plus VAT where applicable
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Bespoke solutions With over 12 years of experience in Responsible Tourism, responsibletravel.com can help your business achieve its ambition to become a leader in green, responsible and sustainable tourism. We can offer an array of solutions tailored to your needs and budget. Here are some examples and ideas of previous bespoke projects that we have worked on. Web platform for your business: www.our-land.co.uk Our approach is to use what we have learnt with responsibletravel.com to build a new and sustainable business model with tourism products that will be serviced and maintained by a web platform.
Design your own ‘Green Awards’: Awards partnership for Tourism Authority of Thailand This is an ongoing partnership and the objective is to assist and lend credibility to the Thailand Green Travel Awards, now in its 4th year. responsibletravel.com establishes a thorough process for gathering nominations in the awards to complement the rigour and integrity of the judging process. This service is available to any tourist board wishing to conduct a similar scheme.
Recruit new operators to your destination: Malta Tourist Board We can develop green and responsible tourism in a destination through identifying tour operator members of responsibletravel.com that could be interested in adding the destination to their portfolio of products.
Press trips We have an active press office in-house with excellent press relations. Justin is regularly asked for comment on industry trends/topics in relation to responsible travel and tourism. Based on this we are in a very strong position to offer our recommendations to conduct press trips with a focus on green, responsible and sustainable tourism. NB: For all of the above, prices are available on request
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Case studies and testimonials Visit California
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It made sense for us to partner with responsibletravel.com as a brand and as a marketing partner, and we’ve only been pleased with the results and the working relationship so far. California is a state of real authentic, off the beaten track product which fits perfectly with the message that responsibletravel.com conveys. The partnership has allowed us to get this wide array of messaging conveyed perfectly. As the first U.S. state to partner with responsibletravel.com we were very particular in our requirements and had specific messaging we needed to get across. The team at RT understood this, taking on board all of our requests. The content that we’ve achieved and now own as a result of this partnership has been invaluable to us. We’re excited to continue to see results drive forward as a result of the campaign and would recommend the team and platform of responsibletravel.com to any destination which meets the site’s core values.
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Bethany Schuh – Travel Trade Director, Visit California
Campaign objectives... -
Increase awareness of California as a responsible tourism destination Increase enquiries for, and sell more California holidays To create new, exciting content with a responsible tourism focus
What we delivered... A successful product recruitment campaign An online guide to responsible tourism in California Unique , SEO-friendly content, built around local stories and extraordinary experiences. Fully integrated marketing programme with responsibletravel.com
Results so far (1st quarter) 912% increase in enquiries to California 40 new California product pages recruited
A diverse , exciting and successful array of marketing activities 19
Case studies and testimonials Ministry for Gozo
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responsibletravel.com’s reputation as the world’s first and leading destination marketing partner for green and responsible tourism , and their proven ability to promote and market off-the-beaten track destinations, prompted us to partner with them and develop an “insiders’ guide” to Gozo , to subsequently raise the profile of our unique and diverse local cultural and active tourism experiences. We invited the responsibletravel.com team to visit Gozo and review our responsible tourism offer. They discovered a wealth of opportunity on the island and therefore the product recruitment and travel guide campaign was a natural next step. This project has been extremely valuable in enabling small-scale, local tourism businesses in Gozo to reach an international audience and we have been extremely pleased with the results achieved over the last two years. The guide has driven an increased booking value to Gozo this year of £36,593 – a 365 % return on investment – and this partnership has enabled us to increase our visibility and build our reputation as a destination committed to responsible tourism.
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Manuel Tabone – Director, Tourism & Economic Development, Ministry for Gozo
Campaign objectives...
Results so far (year 2) 93% year on year increase in enquiries to Gozo products 44 new Gozo product pages recruited 61% increase in average booking value, driven by a very effective google pay-perclick campaign
- To increase awareness of Gozo as a responsible tourism destination - To increase enquiries for, and sell more Gozo holidays - To create new and exciting content with a responsible tourism focus.
What we delivered... A successful product recruitment campaign An online guide to responsible tourism in Gozo Fully integrated marketing programme This has included a very successful google pay-per-click campaign, increasing the average Gozo booking value by 61%
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Brands who have partnered with us
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Contact us Trudi Pearce Head of Destination Partnerships Email: trudi@responsibletravel.com Phone: 01273 829 270
Mobile: 07711 498 258
Responsible Tourism Destinations
Skype: trudi_responsibletravel Twitter: @TrudiPearceRT
Sarah Bareham Marketing Assistant
Facebook www.facebook.com/responsibletravel
Email: sarah@responsibletravel.com Phone: 01273 829 269
Skype: sarahbareham Twitter @r_travel
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