Strategic low-season solutions for year-round success

With more than 300 days of sunshine a year, it’s easy to see why the Côte d’Azur, also known as the French Riviera, is one of the most popular summer destinations in France. Drawing visitors to the area in the winter was a different story, which prompted multiple destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to turn to us to increase tourism throughout the year.

Atout France is the country’s DMO, and they partner with destinations throughout the country to drive tourism. Most tourists might think of Paris when they think of France, but there’s a lot more to be found by venturing outside the capital and exploring cities like Nice in the Côte d’Azur.

Drawing beachcombers in the summer is one thing, but when the crowds don’t show up during the winter, multiple organizations knew they needed to combine forces to come up with a strategy that showcased the area’s year-round amenities. The organizations that partnered on the campaign included Atout France, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Tourism Board, and the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“Our strength lies in the unique diversity of our region, where mountains, sea, city, and countryside are all within close proximity,” Chovelon said.

Atout France surveyed nearly 20,000 international travelers in 30 markets about their perception of France. The results revealed who their competitors are and what travelers are interested in, like culture and heritage, nature, and local gastronomy. With this information, the DMOs knew they needed to make a heavy marketing investment to connect with their target audience.

They turned to us for a collaborative partnership to help them better understand the traveler purchasing journey, tell the region’s unique story, and attract their target audience of international travelers. Throughout the campaign we also worked with hotels to optimize availabilities and set up special offers and discounts, which drove demand and appealed to travelers looking for the best price.

The DMOs leveraged our onsite solutions, including display and native ads, in combination with our offsite solutions to launch their “Winter Is the New Summer” campaign.

“It’s important for us to find a good partner to allow us to target audiences with a degree of granularity,” Sophie Mandrillon, Marketing and Partnerships Director for Atout France, said. “That is a key point with Expedia Group: When we can analyze the global market together, then use fine tuning for the travelers we want to focus on, it’s an added value for us.”

Positioning the campaign around the idea of “dream big, live slow,” the campaign used banners with rich imagery highlighting nature, cities, and people visiting the area. The campaign also featured Destination Experience Galleries, which are multi-image placements integrated into hotel search results, as well as interstitial and custom social ads.

Combining our innovative solutions to reach their target audience effectively met the DMOs’ campaign goals. Over 90% of the campaign bookings were for low- or shoulder-season stays.

“We were happy with higher growth during the winter — approximately 20% year over year and 7% overall. It’s quite an amazing result,” Chovelon said.

The campaign generated 153 million impressions and significantly increased bookings during the winter season, including more than 6,000 room nights and 3,000 flights.

These results show that the DMOs were able to reach their shared goal of attaining more balanced tourism year-round.

“Over the next five years, we aim to establish ourselves as a leader in sustainable tourism in Europe and foster a balance between economic growth and responsibility,” Chovelon said.

Atout France shares this goal. “This means working to promote destinations throughout France, highlighting off-the-beaten-path locations, and reducing seasonality to spread tourist flow more evenly,” Mandrillon said.