US starts a $150M tourism campaign in May

US starts a $150M media campaign to promote itself to travelers worldwide, an initiative from Brand USA approved by American Congress, as Los Angeles Times writes.

The campaign is a response to the drop in the country’s overall share of world travelers in the decade following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with many travel industry leaders blame the nation’s tougher visa requirements and airport security measures for cutting overall visitor numbers and spending totals.

In an effort to get foreign travelers back, the campaign will employ a fully integrated marketing strategy, using a mix of 60-, 20- and 15-second television spots, as well as digital, billboard and print advertisements and a robust online presence and social media strategy to reach potential visitors. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages will showcase country specific promotions and engagements and the newly re-launched website DiscoverAmerica.com will act as visitors’ information portal for trip planning.

Besides the official coordinating the efforts, New York-based JWT was the one that developed the campaign, with the marketing offensive scheduled to start in Canada, UK and Japan, than Brazil, South Korea, India and Germany.

According to MandMGlobal.com, the budget to be spend on the campaign in the first 3 months is of $12.3M.