The Situation
The country of Georgia was facing a crisis. Its primary source of international visitors, Russia, suddenly suspended all flights to Georgia in early 2019.
The country of Georgia was facing a crisis. Its primary source of international visitors, Russia, suddenly suspended all flights to Georgia in early 2019.
Georgia had other source markets, and even though they weren't as large as Russia, travelers from these other markets tended to stay longer and spend more.
Working closely with the Georgia National Tourism Administration (GNTA) and DAI, we clarified the Georgia tourism brand pillars and brand messaging, matched each with the relevant source markets, and developed an online toolkit the GNTA and private sector stakeholders could use to appeal to the various source markets via social media.
.png)
.png)
.png)
As these communication materials were being rolled out in Q1 2020, Georgia closed it borders due to COVID-19. At that time, we completely rewrote the Georgia tourism strategy and messaging to reflect the new reality. We wrote the COVID messaging that appeared on the GNTA website, and created a portfolio of new social media posts (including a series of online videos) that address the situation. These are currently being used to maintain top-of-mind awareness for when the borders reopen.
