The question is, will it work?
By MediaStreet Staff Writers
Myanmar Tourism Marketing is using traditional channels to hawk its tourism message: an updated national website for consumers, plus enthusiastic blogs, and festival information. They also have a YouTube channel, a Twitter account, Instagram and a Facebook page. Okay, standard practice these days.
But thrown into the marketing mix is now bait for micro-influencers. They want to attract travel journalists and Instagrammers to visit the country and share their experiences. English-born travel writer Andrew J. Wood recently published an article mentioning that “visiting Myanmar is the right thing to do” while Instagrammer Hayley Anderson, with more than 120K followers, said, “Love how everywhere we have visited has been so different!”
So far, Myanmar Tourism Marketing is happy with their influencer efforts, and are continuing to invite bloggers, Instagrammers and other social media influencers to share their experiences under @visit.myanmar or by using the hashtag #MyMyanmar.
What they want is for paid and unpaid influencers to convince mainstream travellers that Myanmar is a magical place to visit all-year-round. The launch of this media campaign comes at a time when the country is in the world’s media spotlight. Myanmar Tourism Marketing’s first posts were initially focused on expressing its support for all displaced people in Northern Rakhine State and Bangladesh and indicating that traveling to Myanmar continues to be safe. But more than that, they also want to keep people interested in spending their tourist money in the country. The tourist board needs influencers to bang the drum of “business as usual” on their behalf.
The message is that Myanmar offers safety and security; the temples and food are exquisite, there are festivals and warm and friendly people.
For travellers with moral concerns, Myanmar wants you to know that it continues to support people all over the country from any race of religion. “Myanmar is a huge, multi-racial country offering colourful festivals, beautiful beaches as well as stunning nature for tourists,” says May Myat Mon Win, Myanmar Tourism Marketing Chairperson. “Missing out on this would be a big loss for yourself as tourists, but also a big loss for those thousands of people working in tourism in Myanmar who have nothing to do with the issue in Northern Rakhine State.”
So the question is, will this new campaign work? Let’s keep a bead on it and see for future reference.