Brief & problematic of the destination

In 2017, hurricane IRMA hit the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic, which was lucky to be spared with minimal damage. Following the media coverage of this natural disaster, many people were afraid to go there. In order to reassure travellers, continue to develop its seaside tourist appeal with its loyal targets and prospect a new category of clientele more attracted by authenticity, discovery and encounters; the Tourist Office of the Dominican Republic wanted to strengthen its digital presence on the French market by developing its social networks and carrying out communication actions with influencers.

The agency’s response and the actions implemented

Since 2017, Travel-Insight has supported the Tourist Office of the Dominican Republic on its digital communication for the French market. In 6 years, many actions have been implemented to promote the pearl of the Caribbean, which is now positioned as the number 1 destination in terms of sales among French tour operators.

The first mission of the agency was to take over the social networks of the destination which at the time were very underdeveloped with a presence only on Facebook and Twitter. The goal was to be able to quickly develop the B2C community which was very present on Facebook in 2017 in order to break the codes of the destination and offer trips off the beaten track.

Following hurricane Irma, Travel-Insight immediately set up an influence operation to send 3 content creators on site in order to create content and reassure travelers. 3 key profiles specializing in travel have been selected: Bruno Maltor, Alex Vizeo and Travel Me Happy. The influencers left in turn for 3 months to travel the island and show their communities the different facets of the Dominican Republic. Each trip has been tailor-made according to the audiences of each but also their favorite themes in order to cover all the regions of the island and all the tourist offers (seaside, luxury, nature, adventure, culture , gastronomy…). This operation made it possible to reach more than 2 million people in 3 months and to have unique content with more than 15 videos broadcast on the social networks of influencers and the tourist office, blog articles, as well as numerous photo posts to promote the destination.

In the continuity of this operation, the agency wanted to go further by organizing alongside Bruno Maltor a physical event “Le Verre du Voyageur” special Dominican Republic. As soon as he returned from his trip, Bruno Maltor’s community met in Paris in a dedicated place for the evening to share their experience and discoveries. More than 1000 people took part in this evening in the colors of the island in partnership with XL Airways and the tour operator Vivez Les Iles. A special POS for the event was designed by the agency’s artistic department, with a photocall to leave with souvenir photos, goodies and a contest game integrated into the photocall to win the same trip as Bruno Maltor.

Building on the success of this first influence operation, we repeated the operations with content creators in order to continue the tourist development of the island. In total, more than 70 French influencers left with us to discover the Dominican Republic and its different regions through blogtrips and one-shot operations. A great deal of work on the development of the Samana region, a natural and wild region, has been carried out and this peninsula in the north of the island is now positioned in second position after Punta Cana.

All of the influence operations that continue today allow the Dominican Republic to constantly renew its content for its social networks and change its image as a seaside destination around Punta Cana by becoming the number 1 destination in the Caribbean. adapted to all desires and all targets.

In parallel with its operations, the agency has developed over the years the social networks of the Dominican Republic, by creating an Instagram account, a Linkedin page or even recently a TikTok account in addition to Facebook and Twitter which were already existing. Each month, Travel-Insight is responsible for proposing a social media plan for the destination by creating editorial and visual content (photos, videos, motion design), moderating all social networks (responses to comments, private messages, special requests) and manage all advertising budgets on them.

During the Covid-19 crisis, social media communication continued with the implementation of special actions, such as activities to do at home during confinement in order to always exist in the minds of travelers. In 2022, the Dominican Republic is the foreign destination on the French market with the best engagement rate on Facebook and TikTok.