Hospitality and Tourism public relations is essentially about creating new and exciting experiences.

The business of public relations (PR) ranges across different industries, and travel and tourism PR is one of which that is more than meets the eye. It requires knowledge and expertise in many fields, from food and beverage (F&B), events or even medical and healthcare as these are some of the many motives driving tourism.

Travel and tourism PR covers many aspects of tourism spending. Based on Singapore Tourism Board’s statistics, most tourism receipts in Singapore are generated from accommodation (20%) as well as sightseeing, entertainment and gaming (20%) while shopping and F&B are among others. Each year, the total tourism receipts amount to about SGD 23 billion.

In Malaysia, the total tourism receipts generated are increasing every year, having generated RM 72 billion in 2014. The accommodation sector holds the largest share of tourist expenditure, followed by the shopping sector. Such statistics show that hospitality and tourism PR has to address a wide range of aspects covered in tourism spending, and not simply just accommodation and F&B. Knowing which sector of tourism spending is more significant will also help brands to know which important elements to incorporate to resonate with the tourists’ needs and be a relevant brand.

However, while it is important to look at tourism spending and receipts, ensuring that every single detail of a property adheres to its brand personality is just as important, as not every property wants to be marketed as a hospital for the sick or a budget hotel. Without establishing a unique brand personality, it is hard to build a solid presence within the industry since there is no differentiation from the rest. Hence, PR experts are the ones who can help a brand develop a unique personality and brand touch points with their local and regional knowledge, which is key in being able to deliver effective brand messages catered to the different target audiences’ socio-cultural preferences.

Besides having a good grasp of industry knowledge, establishing dependable media contacts across different media genres is also essential to help grow a brand’s presence. It is important for PR agencies to know the best media contacts for specific media genres, such as F&B titles for F&B outlets, tourism titles for properties, business titles for hospitality operators and entertainment titles for events, so on and so forth. With trustworthy media contacts, releases to the media will be much faster and more focused, which is advantageous in garnering more positive awareness.

Here at Brand Inc., our established relationships with the leading travel and hospitality media outlets in both Singapore and Malaysia have allowed our hospitality and tourism PR team to maximise publicity and create substantial consumer buzz about our clients. With over 10 years of experience, we have been the appointed PR agency for Sofitel and also Far East Hospitality, a leading hospitality owner and operator in Singapore; and a regional operator with a total of 9 brands and over 14,000 rooms.