Darias PR Collective

Traditional advertisements focus on selling a destination — hotels, flights and must-book activities. They are promoting a message; they are selling an image. Public relations has a much bigger picture in provoking emotions that draw in the audience, making modern travelers care more about how a place feels than just attractions. Traditional advertisements matter but are slowly becoming less and less effective. That’s where PR has stepped in these last several years.

So why are travel-focused PR teams or agencies using real-life storytelling to promote a destination or a community to bring in their audience and build that rapport?

Storytelling creates an emotional connection and ties in the audience to feel like they are a part of the story. It helps possible clientele remember the destination and encourages sharing, saving, engagement and bookings. Posting videos of communities and their stories, promoting the culture and why locals are so connected to this location makes viewers want to see what it’s all about.

It helps a destination stand out from other competitors. Many different destinations or tourist spots have similar kinds of visitor attractions, so bringing in stories can create a unique identity and branding for the location that’s being promoted. It also supports authenticity. Travelers want to see real experiences, and audiences respond better to human-centered content.

Storytelling promotes meaningful tourism. This includes cultural appreciation, responsible tourism, sustainability awareness and community engagement. While these destinations want tourists to come and visit, they also want to make sure it stays a lovable place for locals — not trashed and littered by visitors — while also still being favored and enjoyed by tourists.

It creates conversation and builds higher interest among journalists and influencers who tend to prefer compelling narratives. Traditional ads can tend to feel overtly promotional, while storytelling can be promotional while feeling immersive and personal. PR representatives know that people remember experiences and emotions more than slogans and ads.

An example is the Visit Iceland campaign, branded as Inspired by Iceland. It is a marketing initiative and platform operated by Business Iceland — designed to promote Icelandic tourism, products and culture.

They have continuously been focused on sustainable tourism, leveraging humour and unique experiences that encourage visitors. Their most popular campaigns include the “A.U.R.O.R.A.S.” comedy series, the “OutHorse Your Email” digital detox and “Better Than Space,” promoting Iceland’s infamous landscapes.

“OutHorse Your Email” was a campaign that provoked a humorous response to sending an out-of-office email by having an Icelandic horse draft it for you. The campaign’s video includes a miniature horse walking along a massive keyboard to type out your response. In turn, this funny yet genius idea promotes a well-needed vacation — to Iceland.

According to The One Club for Creativity, a nonprofit organization that promotes the intersection of art and commerce, the “OutHorse Your Email” campaign by Visit Iceland was a major success. Earning around 3.7 billion impressions and $6.8 million in earned media simply by enabling tourists to have Icelandic horses type out-of-office replies, it drove a 16.8% increase in U.S. travel intent and helped the second quarter of 2022 become the busiest quarter since 2019.

Even something short and sweet boosts rapport, and the campaign promoted their message of reducing seasonality and off-season tourism — another sustainability tactic.

Visit Iceland used a fun way of storytelling through their ads, which boosted their PR, by using their popular horses to step into your office role and take over the job for you. While this doesn’t have a lot of cultural storytelling elements, these ponies take over the narrative entirely by immersing viewers while secretly encouraging responsible and off-season tourism.

This proves once again that PR has a power that regular promotional advertising can’t do alone. 

About the Author

Hi there, I’m Daria Morris, a public relations student at the University of Oregon, columnist and passionate traveler. I’ve worked in Tokyo’s media industry creating and strategising content for international audiences, with a love for how travel shapes communication and storytelling.