We have designed and carried out an integrated PR campaign under the order of the Tunisian Ministry of tourism aimed at raising tourist interest in the country.

Public Relations & promotion campaign embraced the following actions:

The project person:  The most popular person on TV Belarus Kseniya Volkova has been involved in the project to heighten an attention rating to it. The one from Belarus who took part in the TV-program "Survivor", she was conferred the titles of "Most popular person 2002-2003"and "PR person 2003". Our advertising and PR expertise reveals that "opinion leaders" raise interest in projects, to a great extent; people tend to give more confidence in the data. Moreover, the interaction improves with all mass media. For instance, bringing out additional information in press not planned before made larger the campaign under way.

Information occasion:  An extraordinary information occasion always calls audience attention to any project hitting the headlines. This project information occasion turned out to be the international old Citroen cars Rally "Tracbar" across Tunisia.

TV-programs:  The highly rated Belarusian ONT channel aired a series of 4 one-off TV-programs, 30 minutes each. Their broadcast was at the prime-time (9.00 p.m. on Sunday), repeated at the peak time (7.00 p.m. on Tuesday). This program has more than 20% of rating and more then 50% TV SHARE.

TV advance advertising:  Each TV-program was repeatedly promoted in the prime time blocks during the week before the program broadcast. In total, more than 100 commercials were placed focusing on the thrilling moments of TV-programs with logotypes and sponsors' caption cards.

Live radio air:  Some radio stations conducted meetings with the project participants on the days of the TV-programs air. The expedition members spoke about its course, suggesting a mixture of travel opportunities to go to Tunisia, answering radio hearers' questions on this country, to say nothing of courtesy words to the project sponsors.

TV-program advance advertising on radio:  Within the week before the next TV-program air, FM radio stations inserted its advance advertisements together with courtesy calls relating to the project sponsors. In total, there were more than 100 radio commercials.

Official press:  The project enjoyed cooperation with official information partners, especially, with large editions of the highest readership rating. All of them printed weekly the TV-programs advance advertisements and articles, making excursus into what had remained off-screen. Having Internet sites, the newspapers placed articles on their servers, and Internet information resources operated them for their news headlines.

Some example:   Sovietskaya Belarus, Argument and fact-1, Argument and fact-2, Argument and fact-3, Antenna-1, Antenna-2, Antenna-3, Autodigest-1, Autodigest-2, Autodigest-3, Autodigest-4, Autodigest-5, Autodigest-6.

Additional press:  A number of newspapers and magazines published additional materials (initially not planned) about Tunisia, in various contexts attention-catching to this country.

Some example:   Znamia Iunosti, Perehodni vozrast, Gastronom-1, Gastronom-2, Tourism and rest, Entertainment and rest-1, Entertainment and rest-2, Entertainment and rest-3, Entertainment and rest-4, Entertainment and rest-5, Immigration vestnik-1, Immigration vestnik-2, Immigration vestnik-3, MK mobil-1, MK mobil-2, Kultur.

Articles on the Internet:  Stories about Tunisia and photo galleries were published in more than 20 popular travel-oriented Russian and foreign resources. Furthermore, a variety of tourist forums lead on-line and off-line meetings with the project participants and organizers.

Some examples of the Russian resources:  Travel.ru, Tours.ru,Votpusk.ru, Ayda.ru, Kleo.ru, Vokrugsveta.com, Lib.ru, Mayakinfo.ru, Otzyv.ru, Pilgrim-club.com, Belvirtclub, Turgid.ru.

Some examples of the foreign resources (French):  Campingcar, Tranquille.ch, I-voyages.net.

Some examples of the foreign resources (English):  Virtualtourist, Mytravelguide.

Photo exhibition:  A series of the author's photos produced within the project took part in the photo contest, organized by the Kodak representation and the Belarusian Designers Union. The jury rated it highly.

Activities and mentioning:  Apart from the press conference, the project organizers took part during three months in diverse actions, talk-show, performances and so forth wherever the project and its sponsors were mentioned. So, for example, the TV-program "Belarusian in Africa" was represented at the international festival of TV-programs in Odessa where it won the main prize in the nomination "From the sea up to the sea" and photo by our team photographer Tatiana Parfishina was represented at the festival "Press adventures 2003" in Sochi where it won the main prize in the nomination "Photo diaries". Different mass media from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine covered this event broadly.

Marketing studies:  Together with the specialized sociological organizations we studied marketing opportunities of the tourist market of Belarus targeting to increase tourist interest in Tunisia and considering necessary activities for it.

Cooperating with travel agencies:  We worked in the field of preliminary cooperation with a number of travel agencies willing to cooperate with their Tunisian colleagues.

Clubs, social and other associations:  We cooperated with a number of social organizations, clubs and training centers for using Tunisia as a platform to hold international meetings, club actions, training seminars and sports competitions.

Consultations:  The Tunisian Ministry of tourism and large Tunisian travel agencies were provided with specified business plans to expand their further activities in the territory of Belarus in view of the existing legislation and the market situation.