In order to promote internal tourism in Ecuador, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Tourism asked to develop a campaign that would prove that Ecuador is a top tourist destination

The country has everything to offer tourists, yet Ecuadorians choose to travel elsewhere and rarely travel inside. Our challenge was to cause a change of perception among Ecuadorian tourists and convince them about Ecuador’s beauties.

Our promotional campaign consisted on inviting a group of 40 travellers to an exotic destination in “Costa Rica” but in reality we landed in Tena’s airpot in Ecuador. We disguised the destination as a Costa Rican village and the travellers had a great time rafting and bathing in the river. After the trip, we surprised them by revealing that they had never left the country.

Their experience was published online, which caused thousands of views, a small diplomatic conflict among countries and Ecuadorian tourists convinced about the great adventures Ecuador had to offer.

We invited a group of 40 travellers to an exotic destination in “Golfito, Costa Rica”. We simulated a long journey but actually landed in the Tena’s airport in Ecuador. We made sure that they thought they were actually in Costa Rica. We disguised the airport, set up souvenir shops and Costa Rican car plates and traffic signs.

Twelve of the travellers already knew about our plan and helped us keep the rest of the group ‘uninformed’. We even recorded a full day of a Costa Rican radio station and played on the way to their adventure so that they didn’t even suspect the were not there. We also hired tour guides with foreign accents. The travellers had a great time rafting and bathing in the river. On their back to the airport, we revealed where they actually were and told them they had never left the country.

We published the story right before a national holiday. The campaign even provoked a minor diplomatic argument between Costa Rica and Ecuador which was quickly solved making an internal campaign into a global issue.

We received 19 MILLION MEDIA IMPRESSIONS

and 1480 MEDIA PLACEMENTS including coverage from CNN, Yahoo News and Mashable.

The ministry of tourism held a press conference along with TAME, the airline involved. The CEO of TAME announced that the even the routes to Esmeraldas and Manta (2 unpopular destinations) had been sold out in a matter of days after the release of the story.

Finally,sales for domestic flights rose by 17% as compared to last year’s holiday. This proved the positive promotional impact the campaign had among Ecuadorians and their perception towards internal tourism. fuente del resultado

Every traveller chose to stay in Ecuador for the Holiday, proving the experiential campaign successful.