The Ministry of Tourism presented three new advertising campaigns targeting domestic and international travel markets to the tourism industry executives and the press at the Hotel Embajador in Santo Domingo last week. The campaigns are: “This is the Best country in the World” for the domestic market, “The Republic of Colors” for the US market and “It Has it All” for the European market and as the new international tourism slogan.
The domestic campaign pulls a smile from all focusing on very possible comic everyday incidents that show what special people Dominicans are. The campaign grabs the viewer’s attention before going on to encourage Dominicans to see their country.
Minister of Tourism Francisco Javier Garcia says there are places in the DR that foreigners rave about that Dominicans themselves have no idea of. “It’s time to bring tourism closer to Dominicans,” says Javier, making the point that Dominicans spend their money on traveling abroad and are unaware of all the great local destinations.
This campaign also includes a move to promote excursions to be offered by the Dominican Association of Tour Operators (Opetur). This will be known as “Around Dominicana in 80 Caravans” and will be promoted in schools and companies.
Fernando Baez created the domestic market campaign, through the Uniko agency. It is made up of 15 two-minute spots highlighting leading Dominican destinations.
“The Republic of Colors” was created by US-based advertising agency BVK, under Herman Echavarria and Gonzalo Gonzalez. The DR account is primarily handled out of their Florida office. The campaign originally aired in 2008. In the 2009 version of the campaign, the focus is on how the DR is an “in” destination. For this campaign two 30-second spot commercials were created and will air on CNN, E Entertainment, Fox News, TNT, ESPN, Bravo, Food Network, The Golf Channel, Sony and MSNBC, among others. Two radio commercials will target the Hispanic market.
The third campaign presented, “It has It All” is targeting the European traveler. This campaign is based on a 3-minute video, and won second place in the ITB world fair held in Berlin earlier this year, as the best institutional documentary for the quality of its images and music. Footage is by filmmaker Juan Basanta, and music by Juan Luis Guerra.