MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands' Tourist Board focuses on digital marketing strategy

“So far, FITB has been mainly focusing on Facebook Ads and Google Ads. These two work very differently” revealed Stephanie Middleton

The current focus of the Falkland Islands Tourist Board's digital marketing strategy is social media marketing using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, confirmed Executive Director Stephanie Middleton. The Board has turned to the popular sites in order to raise awareness of the Falklands and in turn increase the number of visitors in the new website.

 The next step is to convert that interest into bookings through ITT, FIH and international tour operators, as well as directly with accommodation providers, local guides and other businesses, she explained to Penguin News.

She said: “So far, FITB has been mainly focusing on Facebook Ads and Google Ads. These two work very differently. Facebook Ads works by targeting a specific audience, for example people who live in the UK, aged 35-55, male, interested in birds and walking, with an advert.

“So these people may not have been looking for a holiday in the Falklands, but the advert makes them aware of it by appearing on their Facebook page. By contrast, Google Ads works by triggering a pop-up advert when someone makes a specific Google search for Falklands-relevant topics, such as Falklands holiday or bird watching trips.” The real benefit of online marketing is that its success is easy to measure said Mrs. Middleton.

Last month 12,000 people looked at the FITB website and on average each person looked at the details of three businesses in the Falklands. There were over 500 click-through to the websites of Falklands businesses, “and we know from speaking with local operators and accommodation that some of these have been converted to sales.
“This demonstrates how important it is for businesses to have websites, as it provides an informative place to send potential customers,” she said.

She said Facebook activity was very strong in June, “with over 583,000 people seeing our posts, and over 37,000 engaging with them in some way, such as by making comments or clicking through to the FITB website. Tweets were seen by over 23,000 people, and although Instagram is brand new to FITB, they have built up 300 followers in the last month, and that increases daily,” she emphasized.

FITB’s new website was launched in March and the social media aspect is the next phase Readers can follow them on Facebook and Twitter: @FITBTourism, Instagram: @ilovethefalklands, online atwww.falklandislands.com/ www.falklandislands.com, and sign up to their newsletter to follow the messages they are putting out. (Penguin News)