Getting the Euro

Many state tourism offices contract with sales and public relations representatives in foreign countries. Some focus upon English and German-speaking nations. Others look at the airports - can you get a non-stop flight from Rome to my state? But what can YOU do?

Go on line and search the feature and travel writers in newspapers and magazines abroad. Include them in your press release distribution. However, there are a few pointers you should consider:
1) Convert miles to kilometers and times to the 24-hour clock.
2) Don't use regional slang terminology.
3) Write a special version for overseas. Your local release won't get noticed there. No one cares. So, for instance, you can add that direct flights are available from Brussels to Newark - a much more hospitable airport, I might add, than some of the others. Getting Europeans to the United States is the easy part - getting them to your destination may be a little tricky. Help them out by giving directions by putting a link to Mapquest or Google Map from a particular airport.
4) Many newspapers will be written in the native tongue. Get with your local college or university for some translation assistance. And by the way, you may want to go ahead and translate your release. It's a myth that all Europeans, for example, speak English. They don't!
5) Give enough lead time. Send a story over in time that it can be published - and giving potential travelers time to make their travel plans.
6) Find out publication deadlines and adhere to them.
7) If you charge an admission fee, convert it to Euros or any other form of currency pertinant to where you're sending the release.
8) Add a currency conversion widget to your Website.
9) Search foreign travel blogs and post your information on them.
10) Work with your state tourism office to let them know your attraction, festival, event, retail shop, accommodation can accommodate foreign travelers.

Marketing Tip: Research, establish relationships with editors abroad and send them press releases they can use.