Promotional campaign »Tourism makes Ljubljana« made it to the finals of "City Nation place awards 2021"

Seven categories, several finalists in each

The »City Nation Place Awards« will be presented for the seventh time this year. The jury classified between five and six submitted projects in each of the seven categories: Best Citizen Engagement, Best Communication Strategies (including three subcategories: Economic Development, Place Brand and Tourism); Best Use of Data, Best Use of Design and Place Brand of the Year. The awards will be presented as part of the annual City Nation Place Globe conference, to be held at Glaziers Hall in London from 3 to 4 November.

The Tourism Makes Ljubljana campaign entered in the first category of the competition, which evaluates the most successful involvement of citizens, and is competing for the award together with Eidenhoven, Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Tasmania and the Nordic Region.

The campaign that impressed the jury

In recent years, Ljubljana Tourism has been monitoring the attitude of citizens towards the development of tourism in Ljubljana, as the local population represents one of the pillars of sustainable destination development. Namely, their attitude towards their city is of key importance, as they co-create the city and are its best ambassadors, so Ljubljana Tourism wanted to further expand the understanding of the importance of tourism as one of the central economic branches with the campaign.

The campaign was prepared by Ljubljana Turizem in cooperation with the Herman & partnerji agency. Its goal is to promote a positive attitude towards tourism by showing a wide range of quality restaurants, shops and other services in the city and region, which offer many jobs and to acquaint the general public with projects which are (co)- financed directly from tourism revenues.

The implementation of the campaign between April 20 and June 1 included advertising on roadside posters (City Lights), social networks and in the media. Six creatives were designed, each representing one of the adjectives with which we like to describe our city. The Ana Desetnice festival makes Ljubljana lively, the bike park presents it as active, the Ljubljanica embankments and the boat connect different parts of the city, outdoor photo galleries contribute to the cultural offer, the gastronomic guide Gault & Millau / Ljubljana quality leads visitors through selected culinary and other tourist offer of the city, that becomes even more romantic during the festive December. The motifs that adorned the campaign were also equipped with a QR code, through which citizens could get to know the projects in depth. The campaign was supported with communication on the social networks of Ljubljana Tourism, where it reached as many as two million views by citizens in one month; one citizen was addressed as many as 16 times.

Information and inspiration for place branding

The organizer of the conference and awards City Nation Place provides information and inspiration to place branding teams – from cities, regions and countries -  around the world. The organization presents itself as a forum for collaboration and sharing best practices on place branding and place marketing strategies in order to generate sustainable tourism and economic development, build cohesive communities, and encourage global cooperation.

The City Nation Place Global conference was first organized in London in 2015 and continues its tradition every year to this day. In 2017, in partnership with Resonance Consultancy, the conference received the American edition. In addition to the aforementioned conferences, City Nation Place also encourages international connections by organizing events in Asia (Singapore), Latin America (Costa Rica) and the United Kingdom.