How to successfully use media releases to promote your tourism business or destination

Jul 23

A little mentoring goes a long way – our friend Suzanne Holden from Toowoomba-based Icon Adventures (which normally runs multi-day walking tours overseas) picked our brains on how to write a media release about the new domestic tours she is doing in response to the COVID travel restrictions.

Her media release immediately got published, and she sold out her first new tour!

Our media release tips

Brainstorm angles that provide a story worth publishing (See Suzanne’s thoughts below)
Write the most important information at the beginning, and add detail in following paragraphs
Provide contact details at the end
Link to relevant info on your website (Icon’s homepage features the new tours)
Provide a couple of high quality hero images (Make the file name the photo’s caption and who to credit for the photograph)
Send it to a select group of journalists and media relevant to your target markets

Suzanne came up with these story ideas, and then incorporated them all into her media release as different paragraphs:

Local company pivoting business to take people to the outback (to send to local media)
Using the small business COVID adaptation grant to move with the times (current and topical)
Travel business uses COVID down time to create new adventures
Toowoomba travel business collaborating with outback family businesses to offer micro-adventures (other small high-quality sustainability-focused tourism businesses)

Learn more on how to write a media release

Now use your content everywhere!

Now you’ve put the effort into writing your media release, and it’s been published (and not before, as media won’t publish what has already been published online elsewhere), now

tweak your release to be your next blog article
use some snippets out of it for a few social media posts
do a Facebook live video on the same topic - you have the script!
send it to any partners for them to distribute to their networks
(Suzanne sent it to the two businesses she is collaborating with)
share with your state, regional and local tourism organisations to include in their industry newsletters
lastly, toot your own horn and share the media release or published article on LinkedIn and in industry groups like Australian Regional Tourism’s The Tourism Hub and the Women in Tourism (Australia) Facebook group for some affirming pats on the back from colleagues (especially if you work alone as Suzanne does)

Lastly, we recommend following Icon Adventures on social media - Suzanne is funny, sassy and a great connector.

How’s this for clever? (from one of Suzanne’s emails to clients):

Check out the rest of her short but full-of-personality survey

(After submitting your answers, a message pops up saying, “Thank you! You get A+ for Amazing!”)

Over to you

Have you had success writing a media release? We want to hear about it!

Cristy Houghton

Cristy's unique career has taken her from country NSW to the city lights of Clarendon Street South Melbourne and back again. With an early career in radio as a copywriter and creative strategist, she is now a Jill of all trades as a graphic designer, website builder, blog writer, video editor, social media manager, marketing strategist and more.

In fact, give her any task and this chick will figure out how to do it! Go on, we dare you!

No, really, we DARE you!!

Cristy has won two Australian Commercial Radio Awards (ACRAs) for Best Ad and Best Sales Promotion, and even has an 'Employee of the Year' certificate with her name on it.

Cristy and her husband James have traveled extensively through Russia, China and South East Asia, and have two fur-babies, Sooty (cat) and Panda (puppy). Cristy loves drinking coffee, meeting people to drink coffee, coffee tasting and coffee flavoured cocktails. She also enjoys road trips, TED Talks and watching cat videos on youtube.

http://www.embarketing.com.au