Marketing director of the So Paulo Convention & Visitors Bureau, Fabio Zelenski tells how he promotes the state of São Paulo on the map of leisure and entertainment tourism
A private entity that aims to promote the state of São Paulo, with 500 members, including hotels, convention centers, bars and restaurants, the So Paulo Convention & Visitors Bureau has reinforced investments in media in recent years with the aim of placing São Paulo on the leisure and entertainment tourism map. In partnership with Abear (Brazilian Association of Area Companies), we are managing to put the state on the map of leisure and entertainment tourism. In 2019, we started buying media, both regionally, nationally and internationally. In So Paulo, business tourism is already well established, even though we know that there is always room for more growth, reveals the marketing director of the So Paulo Convention & Visitors Bureau, Fabio Zelenski. In the following interview, the executive recalls that the pandemic helped boost domestic tourism in the capital and interior of São Paulo, but states that, with communication, the first step is to make São Paulo residents enchanted by the region.
Abear
Since 2019, we began to work very closely with Abear (Brazilian Association of Airline Companies), which created more regional flights in the state of São Paulo. As a São Paulo promotion entity, we partnered with Abear to further promote the destination. We are a private entity, but we work very closely with public authorities, both state and federal, to join forces. In partnership with Abear, we are managing to put So Paulo on the leisure and entertainment tourism map. In 2019, we started buying media, both regionally, nationally and internationally. In So Paulo, business tourism is already well established, although we know that there is always room for further growth. There’s a whole calendar that we want to fill with more events. November is the month in which hotels are 90% occupied because of Formula 1, for example. But in addition to the capital of São Paulo, which has a calendar full of events, festivals and exhibitions, we also have dozens and dozens of municipalities that can also receive tourism. In 2019, we also started promoting tourism in the interior of the state.
Resumption
When we started the strategy, in 2019, the idea was to show São Paulo to São Paulo residents, to Brazil and to the world, because the city has many air connections. In other words, people could stay more days in the capital, taking advantage of these connections. In 2020, the pandemic came and we began to participate in debates about what the recovery would be like. From the moment we began to understand that the resumption would be with local tourism, primarily with São Paulo residents visiting the hotels on the weekends, we launched a protocol campaign. About what the protocols would be for the resumption of events, planes, bars and restaurants and accommodation. With this, we began to strengthen domestic and road tourism, when people started to get in the car and go to a beach, countryside or resort. To this day we have a result of this because people are enchanted by São Paulo.
Expo Frum Visit SP
At the end of 2021, we created the Expo Frum Visit So Paulo event to debate what the resumption would be like, talk about destinations, how people could travel following the protocols. Now, in December 2023, the event reaches its sixth edition. We started using it as a platform to promote destinations and to discuss tourism. It was a B2B event that became B2C, all linked to the promotion of tourism in the state of São Paulo. From this point on, we began to carry out a series of communication actions, with the launch of a campaign, including during the pandemic, media purchases, debate forums and events.
Communication
We communicate in conjunction with the São Paulo State Department of Tourism. They create the campaign and have a media plan together with Secom. The campaign was published in a notice and offered to all tourism entities to maintain the language. From that point on, we bought the media itself. Rino is the agency responsible for this media purchase.
Day M
We had never invested in media like this. The Couvention Bureau exists with three functions, which are three Cs: capturing events, training professionals and communicating to promote destinations. The reason for the entity’s existence is to bring events to So Paulo. But this C of communication allows us to create campaigns to promote destinations, it is in our statutes. In a normal situation until 2019, the resources we were able to raise from our associates were never significant to buy media and promote the state of São Paulo. This has always been very limited. But when we start working together with Abear, it starts to have significant value, as long as it is added to Secom’s efforts in tourism. Still, thinking about destinations that do very well in their promotion, such as Colombia and Orlando, it is a shy resource to think about what São Paulo can have. But, starting in 2019, a new phase in which we begin to invest in media.
Read the full interview in the October 9, 2023 edition
