It’s always affirming when existing clients petition Flow to work on new projects, as was the case with the South African arm of the Reunion Island Tourism Board.
The tourism blog site Flow built some years ago for the Reunion Island tourism body was due for a revamp, in keeping with a change in its international corporate identity (CI). The site also needed to be targeted at the South African tourist market, and had to showcase a variety of readily accessible travel packages.
We had to bring the site in line with the tourism organisation’s French CI, generate travel content, integrate travel packages that would redirect to tour operators, and ensure that the site appeals to the South African market.
Given the brief, the platform was configured to draw users to curated content written by guest and travel bloggers and tourism influencers. Content management on the site is user-friendly, displays well on mobile, laptop and wide-screen formats, and allows bloggers to upload content themselves during visits to the island.
The integration of travel packages in the form of advertisements has added practical functionality to the site. The website also provides a perfect travel trade platform to link package deals back to partner websites.
Beautiful images were put to good use throughout the site, with large visuals and expansive banners portraying Reunion to best effect. Strategically positioned first-person testimonials serve to strengthen the island’s credibility as a prime tourist destination off the African coast.
“Working with Flow Communications was a real pleasure. The whole team is knowledgeable and patient. They took the time to listen to our needs, came up with great ideas and were attentive to every detail,” says Chloë Francomme, the Reunion Island Tourism Board’s tourism promotion officer for South Africa. “Even after delivering the product, their service remained top-quality, with training on the content platform and participation in the blog launch.”
Other elements that add value to the site include a weather widget; an Instagram feed that uses the hashtag #GoToReunion; and a filter on the blog navigation that enables users to find content that interests them, such as nature, air, earth, sea, flavour, culture or leisure.
With usability top of mind, the approach to the site’s content was to divide it into compass quadrants and highlight what to see and do in the north, south, east and west of the island. Interactive Google Maps embedded in the site make it easy to find the location of places of interest and work out travel distances between them. Current promotions, travel tips and a newsletter round off the site’s offerings.