The three popular celebrities Nilam Farooq, Luca Hänni and Christoph Maria Herbst travelled through Switzerland on the routes along the E-Grand Tour of Switzerland and the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland.

Touring is popular in Germany, the most important foreign market. Switzerland’s easy accessibility as a holiday and travel destination (by direct train or car) is a key argument when promoting the Grand Tour of Switzerland (GToS) and the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland (GTToS). The Switzerland Tourism ST team in Germany therefore focused on the topic with various activities and on several channels – from April to September 2022. The aim of these measures was to present Switzerland to B2C and B2B customers, as well as to the media, as the number one travel destination for touring.

A touring campaign in three phases

In the first phase of the national advertising campaign, clips and images of Roger Federer and Anne Hathaway were broadcast on the network of Europe’s largest media company from April to May. This includes TV stations such as RTL and the publishing house Gruner + Jahr with magazines such as “Gala” and “Brigitte” as well as their digital offshoots. The media campaign was able to draw attention to touring tourism with the help of the two celebrities Federer and Hathaway. In total, the collaboration resulted in 70 million contacts.

Switzerland electrifies with Christoph Maria Herbst, Luca Hänni and Nilam Farooq

In the second phase, starting in June, the topic was further explored as part of the project “Electrifying Switzerland”. The three famous personalities Nilam Farooq, Luca Hänni and Christoph Maria Herbst travelled through Switzerland on the routes along the E-Grand Tour of Switzerland and the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland, taking their combined 1.2 million social media fans with them on their touring trip.

The videos created from the trip with singer Hänni, actor Herbst and actress Farooq were used in the continuation of the campaign from July to August 2022. With an interactive advertorial on focus.de, for example. This digital campaign resulted in an additional 50 million marketing contacts, bringing the total to 121 million contacts.

The final phase of the GToS offensive was aimed at tourism professionals such as trade journalists, travel agents and tour operators. As part of the “24 Hours of Switzerland in Berlin” event, participants were able to get to know the GToS and the GTToS through workshops, presentations and performances – and for 24 hours at a prestigious location in Berlin. All these activities were made possible thanks to the close collaboration and commitment of the regional and destination partners. These included Graubünden Holidays, Lucerne-Lake Lucerne Tourism, Made in Bern, Matterhorn Region, Ticino Turismo and Vaud Promotion. STS, STC, Mammut also supported the event as strategic partners, as did the most important German tour operators for ST, Ameropa Reisen, FTI Touristik GmbH and TUI.