Holidays in Creuse are in tune with the times

Creuse Tourism, visionary? This is the impression given by the advertising spots of this tourist agency, all of which focus on a return to nature, calm and wide open spaces. With an average density of 22 inhabitants per km², Creuse – the second least populated department in France – enjoys, like other rural departments, a new and almost trendy look as much as what they offer is in line with the regrets expressed many confined. “We are sometimes asked if we had guessed what was going to happenlaughs Graziella Penot, communication manager for Creuse Tourisme. As we have neither the sea nor the high mountainoFor the past two years, we have focused our communication on sport-nature, and a ‘zen’ return to nature! So yes, we are meeting people’s expectations and we intend to capitalize on them.“

An alignment of the planets which is the result of substantial upstream work. At the end of 2019, the development agency released €277,160 for its advertising campaign for the year 2020. However, it had to review its communication strategy due to the paralysis of the economy caused by the health crisis. If the agency maintained its June television spots and its digital campaign, it had to cancel half of its advertising displays in the Paris metro as well as its communication aimed at foreign tourists. However, the small team knew how to adapt to the circumstances. All of the funds recovered from the cancellations of advertising campaigns were allocated to the solidarity operation “the rest of the heroes”. This initiative launched by the Pyrénées-Atlantiques tourist attraction and development agency consists of offering holiday vouchers to people who have been on the “front line” during the health crisis, such as caregivers. “We chose to go on this operation to promote the destination, to show solidarity and to support our service providers economically.“explains Graziella Penot. The bailiff should in the coming days draw lots for the 110 winners from among the 2,300 participants.

Change of look

Has the moment of glory arrived? Not yet. Like all other tourism players, hoteliers, restaurateurs and tourist sites in Creuse are currently taking the economic blows. The sector has lost its pre-season and restaurateurs no longer hope to make up for the financial loss caused by confinement. However, the new Creuse tourism website has recorded good audience scores since deconfinement, including +36% more visitors between June 15 and 17, 2020 compared to 2019. So the battle for attractiveness is moving on social networks. “Since May 11 we see that people want to escape. From the first weekend of deconfinement, service providers noticed the presence of local tourists who make day trips” she says. However, with the vagueness around the authorizations to cross the borders and the fear of the economic crisis, the trend for the summer of 2020 seems to be to stay in France and if possible not too far from home. New behaviors which should favor the French countryside including the Creuse in the center of the country.”There on social networks, we read that more and more comments from people who say they want to discover the Creuserejoices Graziella Penot. Clearly today people have a better image of the campaign compared to a few months ago.“

The new frontier campaign of “hype”? This is the bet of the departmental agency which is not content just to attract passing tourists. “We would like to convince people who want to change their lives to settle in Creuse to energize the territoryshe explains. Our reception service for new residents is already working on this theme and we intend to take advantage of the situation. Apparently the real estate agencies have registered more requests in recent weeks, it is perhaps the moment to value this advertising campaign to the maximum.“Will confinement and the easier use of teleworking be enough to repopulate the countryside?

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