The tourism products of Novi Sad and its surroundings are an interesting segment for everyone involved in the promotion of tourism, either through traditional or new media, as well as for those who organize tours of tourist destinations around the world. This is precisely why we organized visits by tour operators from various parts of the world, such as: the Russian Federation, China, the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey, Greece, as well as other countries in the region. The guests had the opportunity to visit the city center, Petrovaradin Fortress, Fruška gora, but also to try gastronomic specialties and quality wines. These tours helped to put our city on the map of travel agencies that take tourists on organized tours.
Reportages and articles have been written about Novi Sad for print and online media, and clips have been filmed in which beauty, charm, ease of life, culture, tradition of Novi Sad and all the unique things that make up the spirit of our city are visually conjured up. In the organized visit, we had visiting journalists from the former Yugoslav republics, but also from countries such as: Argentina, Brazil, China, Israel, the Russian Federation, Greece, the United Kingdom, Germany and numerous others.
On the global “BBC travel” platform specialized in travel, in 2019, Novi Sad was especially highlighted as the holder of the title of European Capital of Culture 2022, when it was characterized as “an open and tolerant city with friendly people who are proud of their cultural diversity”. In the same year, the “Euronews.travel” portal featured recommendations on how to spend the weekend in Novi Sad. As a desirable destination to visit in 2019, Novi Sad was included in the “Best in Travel” list, which has been compiled by the travel guide and magazine “Lonely Planet” since 2004. The importance of appearing on the list is also indicated by the fact that tourists often call that magazine the “tourist bible”, because the information written by journalists in those guides has been checked several times and is considered an extremely relevant source of information, for the most meaningful travel around the world. On the wings of successful promotions of Novi Sad on world platforms, we used the importance and recognition of the “Tripadvisor” site and on two occasions invited tourists from five targeted countries to visit our city.
In the past, video clips and shows about tourist products of Novi Sad were broadcast by numerous domestic and international television stations such as: “TV 5 Monde” (France and Belgium), “Travel Channel” (USA), “beIN İZ” (Turkey) and others. In co-production with television stations from the country, we made a large number of video contents in which the city was presented, and the series of shows “Novi Sad forever” was broadcast several times on Radio-Television of Vojvodina.
Continuously following all the trends in the promotion of tourism products of our city, we recognized in time and became active in the field of digital marketing, thus approaching potential tourists who choose their trip based on what they see, either on social networks, on the Google search engine, in the media or on billboards, walking slowly through the streets of their city.
If we “scratch” a little at the statistics of our social networks on Facebook and Instagram, an average of more than 200 posts are published on the walls of those networks each year, with more than 500 posted stories that disappear after 24 hours. For the purposes of promotion, we designed and created more than 200 video solutions through which Novi Sad was presented, some of which were viewed more than 1.5 million times.
As for the promotion through the “Google Ads” tool, advertising solutions in the form of banners or videos published on the organization’s official YouTube channel appeared on users’ screens more than 142 million times, which generated more than 500,000 clicks to our official website. The video materials that we published on our YouTube channel, which represent event announcements and numerous tourist attractions, recorded a total of more than 2.6 million views.
Another segment of the promotion to which we paid considerable attention refers to advertising through the portal, where we focused on potential tourists from the region who follow online media and whom we invite to visit Novi Sad. Also, in addition to online media, we also sent invitations in the form of audio or video clips through traditional media – television and radio, either at the local, national or regional level.
In recent years, bloggers and influencers, who, on their profiles, recommend what to visit in Novi Sad and the surrounding area, have been extremely important in the promotion of tourist destinations. It is precisely the influence they have on a large number of followers, thanks to the impression they convey in real time, that makes all those followers potential tourists of Novi Sad. Robert Dacešin, one of the most famous and most followed influencers and bloggers from the Balkans today, recorded and published two stories on his YouTube channel in which he presented the most important tourist attractions and the unique gastronomic offer of our city. Both videos have a total of more than 180,000 views. Travel stories about Novi Sad were made in their own way by, among others, Jovana Kvržić, Boris Radošević (better known as “Lutajući putnik” on Instagram)), Zoran Matić (better known as “Putnik namjernik” on Instagram), Branimir Kamber (better known as “KAMBERizam” on YouTube), but also numerous others who came to our city, as well as representatives of domestic, regional and foreign media, through the Tourism Organization of the City of Novi Sad or in an organization with the Tourism Organization of Serbia, the Tourism Organization of Belgrade, the national carrier “Air Serbia”, the “Pupin ” hotel and other businessmen.
This is only a part of the promotional activities that were carried out in the previous period and which, together with the overall work of the Tourism Organization of the City of Novi Sad, contributed to the fact that the statistical results are on an upward trajectory from year to year. Certainly, the continuation of promotion is part of our job and we will try to follow the trends and changes in the promotion of destinations in the coming years and use everything available, in order to continue the trend of growth in tourism results.
Written by: Bojan Petrović
