Seychelles Tourism Board launched another branded taxi campaign in French capital Paris

The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) brought some visual warmth to the French capital Paris with the launch of a branded taxi advertising campaign. Running through the autumn-winter promotional season, the campaign is part of STB’s communication plan for that period.

For the last two weeks of September, 250 taxis were transformed into head turners as the vehicles were branded with the exotic islands’ white powdery beaches and lush green mountains.

The period coincided with the International French Travel Market (IFTM) Top Resa, one of the leading travel and tourism trade shows in France, held annually at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.

This helped the campaign to tap not only into the consumer market segment but also the travel trade professionals.

With the tag line “Seychelles, the call of the islands”, the branded visuals of the destination were transported all over Paris day and night.

STB’s Regional Director for Europe, Mrs. Bernadette Willemin, explained that this autumn-winter period is ideal for the campaign as most European cities tend to be grey and foggy.

“The contrasting impact of our visual depicting sunshine, warm and vivid colours could not go unnoticed even during the peak and rush hours,” Mrs. Willemin.

She added the message was to remind the public that it is endlessly summertime in the islands of Seychelles. As a consequence, the variety and diversity of tourism products and activities are available all year around.

This project compliments other above the line and below the line activities on going in the market aimed at both the consumer and the trade.

Mrs. Sherin Francis, STB’s chief executive, stressed on the importance and the need to upscale STB’s consumer promotions, as well as enhance the board’s communication plan to continue creating more demand.

“We need to be more visible especially in our consumer targeted promotions whilst maintaining and increasing our business to business-oriented activities,” she concluded.

France has always been one of the 115-island archipelago’s leading tourism market. Since the start of the year until the end of September, 32,016 French visitors set foot in Seychelles. This placed France in second place in terms of visitor arrivals for that period.

Using the same ‘The Call of the Islands’ tagline, STB rolled out a similar campaign from January 15 to February 4. That campaign involved the airing of TV spots and digital billboards.