More US Tourists Coming to Turkey Thanks to Designer's Ad Campaign

Image An award-winning Turkish visual designer based in Los Angeles has helped increase American tourist numbers to his homeland by 30 percent thanks to a strategic advertising campaign.

“Bringing tourists to Turkey is not only possible by taking the photos of the Maiden’s Tower, Ephesus and Ölüdeniz and advertising them in Times Square and The New York Times,” visual designer Emrah Yücel recently told Anatolia news agency. “A strategy is necessary behind this activity; it is necessary to know American people. We pay attention to give the right message in right times.”

Yücel won a job tendered by the Culture and Tourism Ministry and began a poster campaign earlier this year that used visuals resembling Hollywood movie posters to increase the number of U.S. visitors to Turkey from 100,000 to 130,000 over the previous year, according to official ministry data.

The designer, who has worked in Hollywood for many years, said his promotion team attached great importance to Easter and Thanksgiving, which are very important to Americans, as well as April 23 Children’s Day.

“When preparing posters for places like the Maiden’s Tower, Ephesus, Nemrut, Ölüdeniz, Cappadocia and Side, we added characters that would appeal to the feelings of Americans,” Yücel said.

“For example, we used a child figure in front of the ruins of Side. When seeing it, an American child feels like he is a hero in Troy and his mother decides to go to Turkey when realizing the motivation of the child. Rather than the Trojan horse that we know, we used the one used in the film ‘Troy’ that was given as a gift to Turkey by Disney Studios,” he said.

Americans love to spend holidays in theme parks populated by cinematic figures, he said. “Such strategies have carried us to success.”

He said they had built up a profile of American tourists visiting Turkey and made their plans accordingly.

“There are many bachelors among the visitors. This is one of the reasons why we used a single woman in the poster of the Maiden’s Tower,” he said.

“One of the most interesting pieces of data is that all of the American tourists who spent at least 10 days in Turkey on a recent trip to the country had previously come to the country and stayed one or one-and-a-half days. It was a surprising fact for us. We learned that they saw a Turkey that was totally different from the image they had in their minds during the one-day trip, and they came once again for a longer vacation,” Yücel said.

The designer said Turkey’s image abroad was very different than what Turks had and that one of their goals was to change this perception.

A majority of the American tourists to Turkey were older than 50 and stayed in luxurious hotels, spending $3,600 per person, Yücel said.

“This mass of people is our main target. We aim to increase their number. We also want to serve gay tourism, faith tourism and honeymooners,” Yücel said, adding that 2.57 million people clicked on their Internet advertisements on a daily basis – a 100 percent increased compared to last year.

Who is Emrah Yücel?

Emrah Yücel, who moved to New York and then Los Angeles 17 years ago after working for the advertisement sector in Turkey, has prepared visuals and posters for a number of famous Hollywood films. He works in fields such as website design and promotion for his Los Angeles-based company Iconisus. He also serves as the chairman of the Turkish Film Council, which he founded in the United States.(Source: Anatolian Agency)
Last modified onSaturday, 06 May 2017 10:07