Journalist Press Trip Feedback Report December UK Group Press Trip 2016 Lemongrass Marketing and the Bodensee Tourism Board
About the press trip attendees: Anouska Proetta-Brandon, Social Media Influencer and Blogger Anouska is a highly influential UK/Irish Social Media Influencer and Blogger. She works with multiple global fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands and currently has over 95.5k followers on Instagram, 8.4K on Twitter and 31.7K on Facebook. Her personal blog receives around 35,000 Unique Monthly Visitors. Anouska s social media and blog following is highly valuable with her personal blog receiving a similar amount of monthly views as the specialist travel magazine National Geographic Traveller, one of the UK s best travel publications, does in print. Ashley A. Miln, Food and Travel Journalist, Destination Delicious Ashley is the Editor of the specialist food and travel publication Destination Delicious. Destination Delicious is a luxury travel and lifestyle online site that receives 55,000 Unique Monthly Visitors. The site is designed to provide destination inspiration with a 'delicious' twist. The publication s audience is made up of those interested in travel, food and cultural events. Personally, Ashley has travelled extensively and is extremely passionate about finding new foodie destinations to tell her readers about. As well as being the Editor of Destination Delicious, Ashley is an experienced freelance journalist and copy writer. For this trip, she also wrote a commissioned piece for The Sun.
Anouska s feedback and thoughts: Anouska Proetta-Brandon, Social Media Influencer and Blogger Thank you so much for inviting myself and Lucy on this trip it was so much fun! Christiane was amazing and such a sweetheart, so fun to explore the markets and loved Ashley, we all got on really well. Thank you for putting such a good group together! What your highlight of the trip was? (Feel free to list more than one!) I really, really enjoyed all the food we had. The group was amazing and generally just a wonderful atmosphere. The Christmas markets were all really beautiful! Feedback on the accommodation? It was lovely, I would have liked to have spent more time in each location but understand there was lots to see. I loved the Steigenberger Inselhotel, such great views from the window! How you found the activities included in the itinerary? I think all the activities were super fun, however I think there was perhaps a lot planned for such a short stay. It was hard to get a feel of each place and be able to soak it all in when we are on moving quickly from place to place. Final thoughts? it was such a great trip and I loved every minute. It made me fall in love with Lake Constance and I would love to go back in the summer, it made me want to spend so much more time there! Find out more about Anouska here: anouska.net/about/ www.instagram.com/anouskapb/
Feedback summary: Anouska Proetta-Brandon, Social Media Influencer and Blogger Comments on Anouska s feedback: Anouska absolutely loved her time at Lake Constance and reported back that it has become on her favourite places that she has ever visited. She has already been in touch to say she would like to visit again in 2017. Anouska was full of praise for Christiane Stein and the Bodensee Tourism Board and really enjoyed finding out more about a region she knew little about. Her comments on areas to improve were extremely constructive. As a blogger and social media influencer, her requirements for press coverage and content vary from traditional journalists who require a lot of information. Anouska s followers are more receptive to imagery and stories of her personal experiences. She highlighted the below points: To be able to spend more time in each location to become fully immersed in the area and take enough photographs to create content and showcase a place as well as possible. To spend more time at each partner hotel to get the full experience of the property and be able to fully inform her followers about her personal experiences. Some time allocated for personal time so journalist / bloggers can explore alone and find discover their own stories to tell
Ashley s feedback and thoughts: Ashley A. Miln, Food and Travel Journalist, Destination Delicious How you found the accommodation? I loved the accommodation and the Hotel in Constance, Steigenberger Inselhotel - the view from the balcony was AMAZING! Vadian Hotel was really unique and I liked the story behind it. The How you found the activities included in the itinerary? The activities were good, although some of the activities weren't as relevant for the content I'd personally cover - e.g. the children's museum in Ravensburg / the town halls, etc. Are there any areas, if any, you feel could be improved? Building in some down time - even if it's 1-2 hours. We had about a 5-minute break at most, so we were all quite tired. It would be great for future trips if there was flexibility anyone to explore or capture any additional content outside of what was covered in the itinerary. What your highlight of the trip was? (Feel free to list more than one!) Lindau, hands down! Such a beautiful town and lots to see/do there. I could have happily stayed for a week! Overall, it was a fab trip and Christiane was so lovely; it was a pleasure spending time with her and hearing her passion for the local area. She also told me about all of the local cuisines/specialities, so that was fab- and tasty! Find out more about Ashley here: www.destinationdelicious.com/ www.instagram.com/destinationdelicious/
Feedback summary: Ashley A. Miln, Food and Travel Journalist, Destination Delicious Comments on Ashley s feedback: Ashley really enjoyed her time in Lake Constance and was so excited to discover a new foodie destination to tell her readers about. As a the focus of her stay was the Foodie offering in the region there were some general activities not relevant for her writing but they were still of interest to her personally. For the next press trip Ashley suggested allocating further free time in the itinerary to allow journalists to explore areas in more depth and enjoy their own personal experiences. She would also have liked some time to fully relax and enjoy each hotel.
Comments from Lemongrass Marketing on the December Group Press Trip: All the attendees of the December Group Press Trip really enjoyed their time at Lake Constance. Both Ashley and Anouska confessed it was a region they personally had little knowledge of and came home full of praise for Bodensee. They were both extremely complimentary of the Bodensee Tourism Board and Christiane Stein whom they described as amazing!. Areas that excelled: The Christmas Markets: These were extremely well received by the UK press when pitched and many journalists have expressed an interest in reviewing them in 2017. For Anouska and Ashley they provided really strong topical content for their publications. Flight Support: The offering of flight support was vital for securing the attendance of Anouska on the trip as well as Ashley who wouldn t have been able to provide this personally during December. The Bodensee Tourism Board: The detail in the itinerary provided was really appreciated by the journalists who were able to plan idea for their content ahead of time and research in-depth where they would be visiting. After analysing the feedback from both attendees Lemongrass have highlighted ways that the next group press trip itinerary could be adapted to further accommodate journalists and bloggers. Extend time in partner hotels This will allow the journalists to provide more in-depth reviews and content for partners and be able to better inform their readers of each properties offering. Extend the time in each individual destination This will allow the attendees to fully immerse themselves within an area and gain an understanding of its atmosphere. This is important for them when writing content and telling stories to their readers and followers. Allocate free time within the itinerary This gives journalists a chance to make their own memories and create their own experiences. It also allows them to focus on things that really appeal to them. They may want to spend more time photographing a set of buildings, try another local cuisine or just spend some time alone to start writing or planning their piece. Overall, Lemongrass feel the first group press trip to Lake Constance went extremely well. The journalist/blogger feedback was extremely positive and it has resulted in brilliant press and social media coverage that will be sure to raise awareness of the region across a variety of readerships and followings.