Organizing a blogtrip or promotional campaigns with influencers is the specialty of our digital communications agency specializing in tourism.
After organizing numerous blogtrips for clients such as the Office de Tourisme et des Congrès de Paris and the Comité Régional du Tourisme de Provence Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, last June we were lucky enough to organize a trip with bloggers for our client Viva Wyndham Resorts.

In December 2016, the Viva Wyndham Resorts hotel group created a new brand called V Collection.
Two hotels have seen the light of day in the Dominican Republic: the V Samana, which as its name suggests is located in the fabulous Samana region in the north of the country, and the V Heavens located in Puerto Plata.
These upscale all-inclusive hotels are unique in that they are reserved exclusively for adults.
To introduce this new range to the French market, we organized a week-long trip in partnership with theDominican Republic Tourist Board, inviting 3 bloggers.
The bloggers Love Live Travel, Mademoiselle Voyage and Evasions Gourmandes set off with Célia from the agency to discover the V Samana hotel and the sublime Samana Peninsula.
A look back at the organization of this blogtrip:

#1.
Déterminer le but du voyage et la communication souhaitée

Beforeorganizing a blogtrip, you need to know how to ask your customers the right questions, ask yourself the right questions and find the answers.
What is the purpose of the trip?
Why invite bloggers?
What’s the budget?
What messages do you want to get across?
Once you’ve found the answers, you’ll be on the right track, and you’ll have in your hands a roadmap for a blogtrip that’s bound to be a success.
For our client Viva Wyndham, organizing a blogtrip to the Dominican Republic was an opportunity to showcase the new V Samana hotel, as well as the unspoilt Samana region, still little known to tourists…

#2.
Organiser le blogtrip

Organizing a trip without knowing the country and the products to be promoted is complicated.
We are fortunate to have employees with tourism backgrounds and a passion for travel.
We ensure that they regularly test the products and services we manage and that they discover the destinations we handle.
So, according to their affinities, knowledge and skills, each employee is in charge of organizing the trip.
For the blogtrip to the Dominican Republic, Célia, our associate director, took charge of the project.
As she is passionate about the country and has already had the chance to go there, organizing this trip was a real pleasure for her.

Organizing a blogtrip involves determining the length of the trip, the date and the schedule, always keeping in mind the communication objective. Organizing a blogtrip also means finding partners to reduce costs and capitalize on shared communication.
For our trip to the Dominican Republic, we were fortunate to have the Dominican Republic Tourist Office as a partner, who provided invaluable and indispensable assistance in organizing this blogtrip, as well as the sublime Casas Del XVI hotel in Santo Domingo, not forgetting the incoming agencies Colonial Tours and Flora Tours.

Once the partners and duration of the trip have been determined, the hardest part remains: planning the trip.
When we organize blogtrips, we make sure to give bloggers/influencers free time to work on their blogs and publish content about the trip in progress.
It’s important to remember that they’re not on vacation, but that they’re there for a specific purpose: to communicate about the country and/or the products to their community.
It’s also important to remember to vary the activities and highlight all the partners involved in the trip.

So during the trip to V Samana, we made sure that the bloggers had time to enjoy the hotel and the many facilities on offer, as well as free time and time to discover the region.
The activities were very varied, with cultural, sporting, natural and relaxation activities… So the trip planning allowed us to promote both the hotel and the Samana region.

#3.
Sélectionner les blogueurs à inviter

Once you’ve decided on the schedule for your trip, you can choose the bloggers you’d like to invite.
It’s essential to choose influential bloggers with a solid community, and of course bloggers whose theme corresponds to that of the trip.
For our part, we have an address book of bloggers/influencers with whom we are used to working, and with whom we are sure to ensure a minimum return on investment for our customers.

Once you’ve made your selection of bloggers, all that’s left to do is to prepare a nice invitation to convince the selected bloggers to take part in your trip.
To tell you the truth, for the Dominican Republic it wasn’t very complicated, and our guests won’t tell you otherwise?

#4.
Peaufiner les détails

Once the list of participants has been drawn up, all that’s left to do is work out the details with the bloggers and partners: passports, food allergies, insurance, printing of the program… Although these are just details, you mustn’t forget anything, because any oversight or error could jeopardize the whole trip.
If this is stressful for you, don’t worry, it’s what we’re here for, and we’re used to it as adigital communications agency specialized in influencers.

#5.
Jour J : direction Samana !

After months of preparation, the big day finally arrives and we’re all like children on Christmas Day.
Off to the Samana Peninsula! Over the course of a week, we had the chance to discover Santo Domingo and the Samana Peninsula, staying one night at the Casas Del XVI hotel before moving on to the V Samana hotel for the rest of our stay.
The bloggers had the chance to discover the Los Haitises National Park, the Cascade el Limon, the country’s three most beautiful beaches, meet the locals on a quad bike outing… They also had the chance to discover Santo Domingo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in a 1950s car, relax at the V Samana’s spa, pool and beach, or go horseback riding on the magnificent Playa Coson, which runs alongside the hotel.

In just one week, Marion, Claudia, Anne Sophie and Arnaud were able to discover an unusual Dominican Republic, far from the crowds of Punta Cana.

#6.
Le bilan

Thanks to the excellent work carried out by our bloggers, this promotional trip reached over 550,000 people with more than 100,000 interactions.
All the work produced by the bloggers represents a media value of over €11,000.
Following the trip, 10 people booked a stay at V Samana for a minimum of one week, with an average shopping basket of around €1,500 per person.
The return on investment is very positive, and the trip was a success.