Switzerland becomes an influencer stronghold for a week

Influencer management has long since developed from a niche discipline into an integral part of every marketing campaign. Influencers are people who place their posts professionally on blogs, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or other social media channels. These are followed by many and often very dedicated "fans and followers", which helps these social media stars to gain influence. They are playing an increasingly important role in tourism, especially if they focus on a specific aspect such as nature photography, hiking or biking. It is a challenge for tourism organizations to identify the right influencers and attract them to their destinations.

New approaches to influencer management

Switzerland Tourism (ST) is now the first national tourism organization to take a new approach to influencer management. With the "Switzerland Tourism Influencer Summit" from 26 to 31 August 2018, ST is the first national tourism organization to host an international tourism influencer conference. The aim is to position ST internationally as a competent and progressive organization that only works with the best and most professional influencers worldwide. The 29 participants come from 21 countries. They are a hand-picked group of specialists who are among the leaders in their respective fields. Only those who meet these qualifications are allowed to take part in the conference. This quality standard will define the level of ST's influencer management far beyond the conference.

Conference and discovery tour

ST's Influencer Summit consists of two parts. From Sunday to Tuesday, all influencers meet in Vevey for a specialist conference with tours, exchange of experiences, workshops and presentations. The focus here is on further training. Speakers from Facebook, universities and specialist areas such as copywriting and photography will explain how tourism influencers can work most successfully. Examples from Switzerland in general and from Vaud in particular will be discussed and practiced.

In the second part, the influencers travel to a destination in Switzerland from Tuesday evening to Friday morning, depending on their area of expertise, where they produce Swiss content for their own social media platforms. The hiking specialists travel to Crans-Montana, the mountain bikers to Flims, the alpine lifestyle and luxury experts to Gstaad, the architecture influencers to Lausanne and Basel, the nature photographers to the Bernese Oberland and the culinary and lifestyle influencers to Zurich. The hashtag #inLOVEwithSWITZERLAND will always be used to ensure concentrated global attention for the content from Switzerland on social media.

New path thanks to partners

Each of ST's foreign markets selected the most important, most influential and most suitable influencers. This was based on a list of criteria defined in advance by ST's social media department. However, the careful selection of the best influencers and the organization of a high-quality conference are only part of the preparation. As the official airline of the event, Swiss flew the influencers to Switzerland so that they could enjoy the advantages of our country on their way to the conference. The influencers' travel within Switzerland was made possible by the Swiss Travel System. And Vaud Tourism and Montreux-Vevey Tourism are the Swiss hosts for the influencers from all over the world.