Pivoting during the pandemic
Case study
The Faroes is a collection of 18 islands northwest of Scotland, halfway between Iceland and Norway; human population – 50,000, number of sheep – 80,000.
Challenge
Tourism is the third-largest industry on the Faroe Islands, and accounts for 14% of employment across the 18 islands.
When the tourism industry had to shut down in March 2020, due to Covid-19, guests had to postpone their planned trips to the islands and were, of course, greatly disappointed. The Remote Tourism campaign was created to give people the opportunity to experience the Faroe Islands without being there in person, and to inspire them to visit the islands in the future.
Strategy
The concept enabled curious virtual visitors to experience the Faroe Islands in real time via a local guide, whose movements were controlled via a joypad (via mobile, tablet or PC) on the remote-tourism.com website. Just like an arcade game, tourists could make the guides jump, run and manoeuvre in various directions during the 60-minute tours. So how did we take this initiative and create a buzz a thousand miles away?
The campaign was launched through building a tailored media list and distributing a simple press release. This was followed with intensive media liaison with a tailored and targeting pitching strategy.
Travel PR also distributed invitations to key news and travel media to join the first virtual tours to the Faroe Islands, plus organised an exclusive advance tour for one or two key journalists to take over the remote tourism tool themselves.
Impact
Within 24 hours of its launch, the Faroe Islands enjoyed more virtual visits than its normal physical visits spread across a whole year and, in just six weeks, 700,000 people ‘visited’ the Faroe Islands from all over the world. Two weeks after the islands reopened in summer 2020, all hotels were sold out. The impact on the community was tangible; tourism jobs were saved, and the campaign gave millions of people a vibrant, exciting outdoor travel experience from the comfort of their own home during quarantine.
Ever since Visit Faroe Islands started working with Travel PR in 2010, their services have been nothing but first-class. The excellent team are competent, hardworking and deliver on promises. Travel PR have played a major role in Visit Faroe Islands' international PR work and have been instrumental in helping us reach our marketing goals on a yearly basis.
Visit Faroe Islands
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