by Pitbull promoted Florida. Jackie Chan told tourists to try Hong Kong. And now Idris Elba is helping to bring direct flights to Sierra Leone. In addition to brilliant hotels and a vibrant culture, it seems that travel destinations find celebrity endorsements crucial for people booking a holiday.
Luminaries who have represented the UK include Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Jamie Oliver, Twiggy, Dev Patel, Stephen Fry, Wallace and Gromit, among others. Most of them were recruited for Visit Britain’s 2012 campaign, which, as former marketing director Laurence Bresh says, was a “unique year”, spanning the then Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics.
As a result of these circumstances, Visit Britain received an extraordinary budget, totaling around £125 million. The initial success of the early films – in which Judi Dench celebrated the country’s “abundance of stately homes” and Dev Patel praised the “bustling” Leicester Square – led to a further injection of money, culminating in the “Big” campaigns that are still used. at UK airports.
The need for something flashy and top-notch wasn’t just about prestige.
“One thing that surprised us when we started was that the number of visitors usually decreases during the Olympic year. People tend to stay away,” says Bresh, who at the time was working as marketing director for Visit Britain.
The question, however, is whether or not celebrity-endorsed campaigns actually work. It’s hard to imagine that Jack Grealish’s endorsement would inspire seasoned travelers to make a change. Likewise, a recommendation from Michael Caine might not convince a young tourist to discover a new country. And yet, tourism boards too often use prominent stars to promote their destination.
It certainly worked for Visit Britain. In 2012, some 12 million tourists visited the country, a five percent increase from the previous year. In 2014, the campaign recorded a return on investment of £1.2 billion.
For such a nationally important event as the Olympic Games, images adorned with the Union flag seemed appropriate. But some campaigns rely on the inherent rarity of a celebrity – a single person – representing an entire country. Kazakhstan incorporated Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat into its campaigns. A Mark Zuckerberg impersonator appeared in an Iceland ad. Rapper 50 Cent created a video for Hostelworld.
The Visit Britain campaign began more than a decade ago and the power of celebrity endorsement has changed. Dr Vincent Mak, professor of marketing at Cambridge Judge Business School, believes technology has fundamentally changed the way destinations are marketed.
“Social media means you can reach many more people than a traditional campaign. A single Instagram post from a celebrity can mean a lot more exposure than we were previously able to do,” she says.
Tens of thousands, perhaps millions, of more people will see Chris Hemsworth promoting Australia, or Taika Waititi suggesting New Zealand as a vacation spot, or Roger Federer suggesting Switzerland, if the images are posted to their social media feeds.
Unlike an advertising campaign, the Internet allows for two-way communication. “So, if the public really likes what you’re doing, it can become a huge success overnight, or even [within] a couple of hours. It can also turn into a disaster quite quickly,” says Mak.
The less “authentic” the endorsement appears, the more likely disaster will be. A Beyoncé ad recommending a stay at Butlins wouldn’t seem credible. Therefore, the ideal celebrity promotion is one that is carried out without the participation of a tourist office. Instead of being asked (and probably paid) to say that you enjoy your vacation in Paris, it seems more genuine for a celebrity to mention that they love the 18th arrondissement. By its very nature, this is something that offices dream about of tourism, but over which they have no control.
Perhaps the most successful example of this is Rihanna’s relationship with her home country, Barbados. In her first moment of fame, the singer participated in an official campaign: running on the beach, riding a bicycle on a country road and playing dominoes with the locals. The ads cemented her association with the island, but it was later—on actual trips home, in song lyrics, and even during her Superbowl performance—that the bond really developed.
Cheryl Carter, director of the Barbados tourism office, evidently appreciates the country’s most famous daughter. “We are very, very proud of Rihanna and everything she has accomplished,” she says. “And I think Rihanna has been very smart to continue to position herself as an island girl, because that’s what sets her apart from the rest of her.”
Last year, the singer stopped to buy ice cream at a stand near her villa. “Suddenly, the popularity of the snow cone vendor skyrocketed,” Carter says.
She is keen to point out that celebrities have always been attracted to Barbados, but the connection with the singer has encouraged other celebrities to see it as a holiday destination and has opened the destination to a new group of travellers.
“It’s certainly helped us reach a much younger demographic,” Carter says. “I remember one time I flew to New York and went to rent a car. And the young man there couldn’t have been more than 21 or 22 years old. I gave him my driver’s license and he was like, ‘Oh, you’re from Rihannaland.'”
It’s the kind of thing tourist offices dream of. Even the most cynical tourists would believe in Rihanna’s genuine love for the island and perhaps consider a trip.
However, there are risks when hiring celebrities. “It’s a game,” says Dr. Mak. “There are big profits, but also high risk. Some celebrities can be quite controversial.
“People’s reputations go up and down much faster and much more drastically than before.”
Messi’s continued relationship with Saudi Arabia has drawn ire from some quarters, with commentators pointing to the country’s human rights record (and accusations of “sportswashing”) as reasons why the footballer should not have taken the role. .
Most notable, however, is the “Pitbull incident.” In 2016, the rapper was hired by the Florida tourism department. As part of the deal, Pitbull filmed the music video for his song Sexy Beaches in the state, which included iconic Florida hotels like Miami’s Fontainebleau, and ended with the slogan “#LoveFL.”
So far, this is typical of Mr Worldwide. But it turned out that he had been paid $1 million (funded in part by taxpayers) for the campaign, something that only came to light after government officials pressured the rapper to reveal details of his contract. The marketing agency behind the campaign was subsequently given new management.
It does not seem that the image of the state of Florida as a tourist destination has been particularly tarnished. So do promotions really change where we vacation? Dr Mak believes the campaigns are “a matter of awareness” that is likely to make us more likely to consider a destination, but not necessarily book it. “Finally making a decision about where to go could be disrupted by many other factors.”
If you don’t like spending time on the beach or on long-haul flights, you probably won’t book a trip to Barbados, no matter how much Rihanna likes it.
