Brand USA – the nation's destination-marketing organization – will be creating personalized, video welcome messages for international travelers who are considering trips to the United States. The messages are the centerpiece of Brand USA's “One Big Welcome” project.
“We want to have real people talk briefly about their favorite U.S. places as they invite prospective USA visitors to come to those places,” said Christopher L. Thompson, Brand USA's president and CEO. “These documentary-style messages can convey the warmth and authenticity of actual people – not actors – from all parts of our vast, diverse country.”
Brand USA plans to launch the project at IPW, a five-day exposition staged yearly by the U.S. Travel Association. The event, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., this year, June 3-7, allows more than 1,000 U.S. travel organizations – representing destinations, attractions and accommodations throughout the United States – to interact with 1,300 travel buyers from 70-plus countries.
IPW attendees who stop by Brand USA's exhibition space can create their own video welcome messages with an on-site production crew, June 5-6. After the videos are edited into short segments, Brand USA will share them with media outlets during IPW and post them on a variety of digital and social platforms.
Also, those who have made individual welcome messages will be encouraged to share them on their personal social-media feeds, using this hashtag: #VisitTheUSA.
Following IPW, through the summer, Brand USA will invite its destination partners and other travel-industry partners to produce additional video messages that welcome prospective travelers to the United States. Participants will draw on their own experiences and recommendations for places to visit – whether it's a local eatery, a popular nightspot, or even a favorite historical attraction.
