National Travel Day

WEDNESDAY 2 OCT OVERVIEW National Travel Day is a brand new creative concept from Lonely Planet Traveller Middle East. It will be the first annual day geared towards inspiring and encouraging travellers of all levels to think, plan and even book a trip away.

Everything from making the most of the upcoming Eid later in October to lifetime trips and winter breaks, the day will focus people’s attention on different destinations and make it easier than ever to book a holiday – using discounts, promotions, tips and inspiration brought you by Lonely Planet Traveller Middle East and their partners in National Travel Day. THE ETHOS Lonely Planet Traveller Middle East is part of the globally successful Lonely Planet brand, which has sold 120 million guide books in the last four decades. It sits in a unique position in the marketplace - the first consumer travel magazine in the Middle East from a global travel brand and it is able to tap into an unrivalled global network of travel advice, tips and experts.

Our tagline is ‘global travel inspiration from local experts’ and this is what we wanted to bring to life, in order to give back something to our readers and future readers. The magazine has had a fantastic reaction so far and we want to take this further to establish our position as the travel experts in the region. By partnering with the right brands in each area of travel we believe we can together offer readers, travellers and holiday makers something really different – real savings, real advice and real inspiration.

EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES The day will be split into two broad sections: 1.) Events 2.) Giveaways and promotions Events There will be two events: SPEAKERS EVENT The Speakers Event will happen at a five star hotel in the evening of Weds 2 October (Hotel sponsor in Dubai to be confirmed). We have secured a number of high profile travel experts, adventurers, photographers and TV presenters to come and share their travel expertise and insights into destinations and more with an interested audience.

The audience will sign up for a free ticket through our standalone website, nationaltravelday.com.

FILM SCREENING EVENT Running on the same night, Weds 2 October, there will be a film screening event for around 100 people held at Wafi Rooftop Gardens. The films are tbc at present but we are speaking to a number of high profile travel and animal documentary producers who are keen to show exclusive and fascinating travel related films to a captive audience.

GIVEAWAYS AND PROMOTIONS There will be two strands to this: GIVEAWAYS We will giveaway hourly travel related prizes on Facebook and Twitter creating a real buzz online throughout the day. These giveaways will be promoted in the six weeks leading up to the day. We currently have 2.5k likes on Facebook, we are looking to double that in the run up to the day.

PROMOTIONS Our bi-monthly newsletter goes out to 14,300 people. We are looking to create a super one off email newsletter packed full of special promotions for the particular day – so think 10% off airlines if you book within a week, money off hotels, 2 for 1 offers etc. We are approaching all our clients, and potential clients for this and had already had a huge interest. People will be able to sign up to the newsletter through our standalone website – again we’re looking to see a huge spike in newsletter sign ups over our marketing period.

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES TITLE SPONSOR $50,000 Title sponsor will get in addition to the relevant Exclusive Sponsor benefits:     

An opportunity to sponsor the 2 Oct promotional newsletter, which will include the top and bottom banner advert and a large MPU box for an exclusive competition.

Premium logo placement on all marketing collateral alongside Lonely Planet Traveller and depicted as our overall title sponsor. Please see below.

An opportunity to talk directly with our consumer database of over 14,000 via HTML on the day of the event and a follow up a week later (pre-Eid – 2nd and 9th October).

Longer time allocated for branded speaker/video to five minutes and will occur straight after the welcome speech.

The title sponsor will have the largest stand area allocated and will have the opportunity to host a VIP section for guests and you will be allocated tickets for the film screening (number tbc).

Example of title sponsor placement

EXCLUSIVE SPONSOR $25,000 There will be eight exclusive sponsors in the key travel areas of: Banking Insurance Hotel Airline Insurance Technology Car Hire Travel Agent The sponsorship covers both events – the speaker event and the film event and the digital activity. Each exclusive sponsor will receive the below.      

Branding to appear on screens and all event collateral pre, at and post event which includes print and digital activity.

An area will be allocated for each sponsor at each of the two events, which can be used for rollerbanners, marketing material, data collection and information giveaways.

Each sponsor will have a 3 minute slot allocated at each event for a speaker and/or video to target the captive audience.

Product placement into LPT goodie bags given away at each event.

Each event will end with a raffle draw and each sponsor will contribute one prize to each draw.

Each sponsor will be allocated 2 VIP tickets for the Pavilion and 5 tickets for the speaking event.

Example of Exclusive Sponsor placement

PRE-EVENT PROMOTION  Sponsors’ logos will appear on all print and digital marketing activity for the six week period before 2 October, promoting the event.  Mentions across social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter etc and another related blog posts.

ON THE DAY  Button advert with link and discount or promotion on the bumper promotional newsletter to go out 2 October.

MARKETING STRATEGY The team at Lonely Planet Traveller Middle East have a strategy in place to start from after Eid Al Fitr. 

Coverage in national print press. We will be promoting the concept of National Travel Day across newspapers and magazines. The fact that we will have so many travel brands involved means we have a better chance to getting more coverage.

We are currently speaking to a number of high profile PR agencies to get their five star brands involved and want to launch this campaign at a high level. 

Radio support. Lonely Planet Traveller Middle East will be co-hosting Dubai Eye’s weekly travel show from June and we are looking for them to support with advertising in return for being a media partner.

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Social media support. We are looking at various ways to create a real social media buzz including a number of bloggers and freelancers to help us make National Travel Day a ‘trend’ on Twitter for example.

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Barter advertising. This is an avenue we’re looking at. From cross promotion in other key CPI brands like BBC Good Food Middle East to other sources.

For commercial enquiries contact Carol Owen 055 880 3817 Carol.owen@cpimediagroup.com For marketing/editorial enquiries contact Georgina Wilson-Powell 050 574 2884 Georgina.powell@cpimediagroup.com