How Should a Tourist Organization Optimize Working with Social Influencers?

How Should a Tourist Organization
Optimize Working with Social
Influencers?
Case: Switzerland Tourism North America
Bachelor Thesis 2016
Student : Lauriane Zosso
Thesis advisor : Roland Schegg
Department of study : Tourism & Management
Submitted on : November 28th, 2016

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Abstract
Tired of being bombarded with marketing messages, consumers have lost trust in brands.
Paid advertisement is no longer effective and brands have to find new marketing practices to
connect to consumers with more authenticity. Influencer marketing is an increasingly popular
method in which a brand partners with key individuals who exert influence over an online
community. Brands can thus tap into a network of trust. Influencer marketing is digital word-of-
mouth: it is based on recommendations from someone consumers align with.
The purpose of this paper is to find out how a tourist organization can optimize working with
social influencers. The paper focuses on the case of Switzerland Tourism North America (ST
NA). The market has just started working with influencers, but faces several challenges and
needs recommendations to go further. This problem is solved with empirical research: to
complement the existing literature on the topic with practical insights, a qualitative survey was
conducted on national tourist organizations, destination management organizations and social
influencers.
Based on the analysis, interpretation and discussion of the results, a step-by-step guide
was created. The featured recommendations, which were validated by experts in the field, are
sorted into key phases: the incorporation of influencer marketing at the core of the company,
the implementation of an influencer campaign, and the following-up of the campaign. These
recommendations are tailor-made for ST NA, but can also be used by any other tourist
organizations.
Keywords: influencer marketing, digital influencer, social media, tourist organization

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Foreword
Trends and technologies have evolved, and influencer marketing has become the new hot
topic among marketing circles. The author has always had a great interest in digital marketing.
During her bachelor studies at the School of Tourism and Management, she specialized in e-
tourism. During her internship at Switzerland Tourism North America, the author wanted to
understand how the company could be more proactive and implement new marketing methods
in order to keep up with trends and industry changes. As influencer marketing seems to be one
of the most efficient marketing practice nowadays, the author decided delve deeper into the
topic and find out how it should be optimized at Switzerland Tourism North America. The aim
of the paper is to give recommendations in the form of a practical step-by-step guide. Previous
research have been done on the topic of influencer marketing but few are specific to tourism.
However, while this paper was being written many studies have been conducted. This
represents one of the main difficulties of the work, the topic was constantly evolving.
The research question “How should a travel organization optimize working with
influencers?” was answered based on empirical work. To complement the existing literature
with practical insights, a qualitative survey was conducted on national tourist organizations,
destination management organizations and social influencers.
The author is grateful to the people who facilitated the carrying-out of this paper. She thanks
her thesis advisor Roland Schegg for his guidance and recommendations. She thanks
Switzerland Tourism for the opportunity and the North American team for its support, with a
special mention to Paolo Lunardi, Ursula Beamish-Mader, Pascal Prinz and Alex Herrmann. A
very special thanks goes to the interview partners for their time and the valuable inputs they
provided: Tama d’Haen, Janine Jervis, Daði Guðjónsson, Nicholas Montemaggi, Adrian Seitz,
Sibylle Gerardi, Kuno Schürch, Zulfah Fredericks, Nicole Schaffner, Katrin Schmitt, Scott
Kranz, Rob Sese and Erin Faherty. Finally, the author thanks Teresa Faudon and Alex
Goumaz for their engagement and time in proofreading this paper.

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Table of content
Abstract ............................................................................................................................. ii
Foreword .......................................................................................................................... iii
Table of content ................................................................................................................ iv
List of tables ..................................................................................................................... vi
List of figures ................................................................................................................... vii
List of abbreviations ........................................................................................................ viii
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1 - Literature review ............................................................................................. 3
1.1 Influencer marketing: a new and growing practice ................................................... 3
1.2 The social influencer: a key individual ..................................................................... 5
1.3 Challenges of influencer marketing .......................................................................... 9
1.4 The influencer campaign: the key steps ................................................................... 9
Chapter 2 – Research Question .......................................................................................12
2.1 Case Study .............................................................................................................12
2.2 Research question .................................................................................................17
Chapter 3 – Methodology .................................................................................................20
3.1 Explanation of methods and techniques .................................................................20
3.2 Sampling ................................................................................................................21
3.3 Construction of the questionnaires .........................................................................22
3.4 Data collection ........................................................................................................22
Chapter 4 – Presentation of results ..................................................................................23
Chapter 5 – Analysis and interpretation ...........................................................................31
1. Basics ......................................................................................................................31
2. Incorporation ............................................................................................................35
3. Implementation .........................................................................................................39
4. Follow-up ..................................................................................................................45
Chapter 6 - Discussion .....................................................................................................47

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1. Basics ......................................................................................................................47
2. Incorporation ............................................................................................................49
3. Implementation .........................................................................................................50
4. Follow-up ..................................................................................................................52
Chapter 7 – Recommendations .......................................................................................53
1. Understanding the basics .........................................................................................55
2. Set the stage ............................................................................................................57
3. Plan your campaign ..................................................................................................60
4. Collect the results .....................................................................................................67
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................69
References ......................................................................................................................72
Appendix I: Blogger Relation Guidelines ..........................................................................78
Appendix II: Interview with Katrin Schmitt ........................................................................93
Appendix III: Interview guidelines .....................................................................................96
Appendix IV: Samplings ...................................................................................................98
Appendix V: Questionnaires ........................................................................................... 100
A. Interviews with NTOs or DMOs .............................................................................. 100
B. Interview with the Swiss key partners ..................................................................... 102
C. Interview with influencers ....................................................................................... 104
Appendix VI: Interview transcripts .................................................................................. 105
A. Interviews with DMOs ............................................................................................ 105
B. Interviews with ST Swiss key partners ................................................................... 131
C. Interviews with influencers ..................................................................................... 144
Appendix VII: Coding of the data.................................................................................... 153
Appendix VIII: Presentation of the results ...................................................................... 154
Appendix IX: Official Roadmap for Influencer Marketing ................................................ 168