“We guide them”, “we play the big game”… how tourist offices try to use influencers

De nombreux sites d'Occitanie, comme ici dans le Gard, souffrent de surfréquentation. Midi Libre – MiKAEL ANISSET

Les influenceurs peuvent aussi promouvoir un tourisme durable et de bonnes pratiques, c'est le travail des offices de tourisme qui organisent au maximum la communication oturistique de leurs territoires..

Netflix, TikTok, Instagram, Google…No one can any longer ignore the importance of social networks and influencers in terms of tourism, in this world of communication and ultra-competition. But in Occitania, we made the choice to use them rather than endure them. At the CRTL, the region's regional tourism and leisure committee, for the first year, a call for applications was launched from this community to ensure the digital promotion of Occitan tourist sites.

Marc Farré is deputy director of marketing at CRTL and led this operation called "les globe-trotters d’Occitanie". Around forty candidates responded, around ten were selected: "We do not pay them, we have opened sites for them or organized private visits so that they can film in good conditions and distribute their posts to their community". Two well-known influencers, Bruno Maltor and Hourrail, are regularly used to promote "destinations in the region accessible by soft mobility, mainly the Occitanie Rail Tour", underlines Marc Farré. Incidentally, all these beautiful people are regularly "directed to little-known sites. If we are called to do a story in Cap d’Agde in July, we obviously won't hold them".

On the importance of being on social networks

A sign of the times, the CRTL has recruited a community manager, Guillaume Payen, also a blogger and influencer, to control digital communication and try, as much as possible, to direct tourists to sites that are often less known.

Influencers are very demanding of exceptional sites and, at the Sud Cévennes tourist office, we also organize special visits over several days: &amp ;quot;When an influencer contacts us, we redirect them to our tourist office, it's obviously important for us to be present on social networks", insists Guilhem de Grully, emblematic director of the Demoiselles caves in Saint-Bauzille-de-Putois. Private visits to the superb cavity are organized in the best conditions: visit by lantern, in the old-fashioned way: "We give them the all-out effort to make beautiful images&quot ;.

Avoid overtourism

Xavier Borg, director of the Cèze Cévennes tourist office, seeks "to be very active on social networks. For a long time, rural areas were shunned in favor of big destinations and this allows us to showcase our gems, our 650 km of hikes but also to remind us that all activities are possible, as is the presence of local products, that is. ;is very important".

Promotion and organization, because "now with online reservations, we can organize visits. There is never any more queue at the entrance to the Demoiselles caves, underlines Guilhem de Grully with interest.

No promotion in Sète for July and August

In the very constrained and popular city of Sète, "we are very careful to avoid concentrating our digital communication on the same spot, a district of the city or a specific place. We are more focused on themes like festivals, gastronomy, natural spaces, jousting tournaments…", explains Corinne Beaujard, deputy director of the ;rsquo;tourist office of the Singular Island. Here too we organize trips with hand-picked influencers to "guide them. We did this in particular before Stopover in Sète. We regularly organize blog-trips and instameets to control our tourism policy as much as possible".

By carefully avoiding communicating about summer attendance, "particularly in July".A way of using social networks to fight against overtourism. With more or less success…

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