ANTIGUA & BARBUDA TOURISM AUTHORITY

Global travel website Tripadvisor has been chosen as a partner for an upcoming global Antigua and Barbuda tourism ad campaign to run throughout the fall and winter travel season of 2012-2013.

This follows the continuing trend towards an aggressive online marketing strategy, to increase awareness and arrivals to the destination.

 

The campaign targets travellers planning trips to the Caribbean with strategically placed banner ads on Antigua and Barbuda related pages, as well as on the pages of other competitive destinations. Tripadvisor’s global reach allows for coverage in the strongest traditional source markets, which include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.

 

At the end of May 2012 Tripadvisor reports approximately 4.2 million users searched their portal for Caribbean content, and that 167,000 users searched for Antigua and Barbuda content directly. Minister of Tourism Hon. John Maginley noted, “Tripadvisor affords us the ability to reach travel-minded consumers focusing on Caribbean travel at that split second, when we’ve got their attention to convince them to book their vacations in Antigua and Barbuda. With a key advantage being that we can redirect the consumers’ attention from the pages of competing destinations to Antigua and Barbuda’s pages, this is what really seals the deal for this campaign”.

 

Marketing Manager Mrs. Charmaine Spencer further elaborated that “the Tripadvisor campaign differs from traditional Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) such as Expedia because Antigua and Barbuda banners on the Tripadvisor site will drive traffic to Antigua and Barbuda’s official website and local booking engine BookAntiguaNow.com. As Tripadvisor serves mainly as an information portal to travellers ‘in the know’, the consumer now becomes our guest to expose current promotions, events, sights and tastes of our islands to ignite their interests to finalize the purchase.”

 

With Antigua and Barbuda page views on Tripadvisor currently being reported as 1.2 million in the month of May 2012, the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority expects traffic to Antigua and Barbuda related pages on Tripadvisor and the official websites to grow significantly in the next few months.

Tripadvisor boasts 75 million reviews and opinions and operates sites in 30 countries and 21 languages worldwide.