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National tourism boards around the world are paying very close attention to how their peers are using social media for marketing purposes.

In Costa Rica, the Costa Rica Tourism Board (Spanish initials: ICT) was at one point an international leader in terms of using social media to attract foreign visitors as well as fomenting domestic tourism, and the most productive platform has been Facebook. In recent years, however, four English-speaking nations have surpassed Costa Rica in this regard: Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and now Ireland.

According to a recent press release published by fft.ie:

Tourism Ireland has reached three million fans on Facebook around the world […] Social media marketing is a hugely important element of Tourism Ireland’s global promotional programme to highlight the island of Ireland, and the organisation’s ‘social footprint’ is considerable, with more than 50 social media presences in total – including Facebook pages in 15 markets, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and YouTube.

 

Tourism Ireland estimates that the value of the conversations about holidays in Ireland generated by its three million Facebook fans will be worth about €15m this year (i.e. what those conversations, if paid for as advertising, would cost).

Another nation taking to Facebook to stir interest in tourism is New Zealand. As recently published by the New Zealand Herald:

Tourism New Zealand has launched a new campaign using a global partnership with Facebook.

 

The Kombi Diaries, a series of five short films following a couple’s trip around New Zealand is the result of a direct collaboration between Tourism New Zealand and the social media giant.

 

Tourism NZ’s director of marketing, Andrew Fraser, said it was increasingly important to be able to work effectively across all digital platforms and working directly with Facebook was a great opportunity.

News reports such as the two above are being published on a daily basis. The national tourism boards have realized the sheer potential of social media marketing, and they are acting accordingly. Tourism happens to be an activity that is naturally suited for social media discourse; the same can be said of healthcare, and this is something that The Costa Rica Star has discussed in recent weeks. Thereby, medical tourism providers should also pay attention to how social media can help them to generate interest and deliver results.

This article has been contributed by The Goodness Company, a global healthcare marketing agency with offices in the USA and Latin America, offering results-driven marketing and advertising services for progressive, growth-focused doctors, dentists, surgeons, medical centers and hospitals around the globe. In short, The Goodness Company helps connect international medical and dental providers with patients from the USA and Canada and around the world through online properties such as CostaRicaMedicalGuide.com and CostaRicaDentalGuide.com