Cap on his head, a big smile on his lips and a forest landscape in the background, Benjamin films himself in a selfie while greeting his 49,000 subscribers on YouTube. “Yo the GlobeTolters!” Says the 30-year-old, better known as Tolt on social networks and specializing in low-carbon travel. “If I talk to you about Seine-et-Marne, it probably won’t inspire you much for your next vacation…”, he admits, recalling that the department is best known for hosting the huge Disneyland Paris park. . “But we will try to show you that the largest department in Ile-de-France has plenty of other things to offer you!”
A dozen shots of a few seconds then follow one another to catchy music, like a trailer. Then, for twelve minutes, Internet users will be able to discover interviews with restaurateurs, shopkeepers or managers of local establishments, and a series of sequences in which Tolt films himself in the middle of a hike, in the middle of a water sports session, discovering of the Château de Fontainebleau or tasting the culinary specialties of the region.
Influencers and “territories”: funny combination. Said like that, it’s a bit like Kim Kardashian in the land of Cochonou… But judge, rather. Highlighted in a sticker of the same format, the assets of the Lozère department have been seen in recent months by 124,000 curious people on YouTube, those of Creuse by 110,000, and those of Haute-Marne by 80,000. the attractiveness agency of Seine-et-Marne, at the origin of the Tolt project, the advantages are multiple. While half of the department’s tourists are under 35, this partnership allows it to reach new targets, while building the loyalty of local travellers, seduced by the videos and speeches of their favorite blogger.
Since 2019, the organization has also intensified its relations with influencers, for partnerships that can reach “several thousand euros”. Bruno Maltor, one of the leaders in the sector with 328,000 subscribers on YouTube and 476,000 on Instagram, has published content for the department, as have the couple of photographers Elisa and Max, from the YouTube channel Les Bestjobers (21,000 subscribers on YouTube, 155,000 on Instagram). “It has become unavoidable, all territories do it. The results are very encouraging”, specifies Seine-et-Marne Attractiveness. After Bruno Maltor’s visit to the Moulin Jaune, an artists’ residence located about fifteen kilometers from Meaux, the place had to open an additional weekend to accommodate the influx of tourists – on TikTok, the video of the young man on the subject had been viewed nearly 150,000 times.
Full-fledged media
Everywhere in France, the departments and regions do not hesitate to invest massively to make their territories known on social networks. For the Grand Est region, an annual envelope of 20,000 euros is dedicated to partnerships with influencers or travel bloggers. “This budget can be increased if we join forces with development agencies and tourist offices in the departments”, specifies Anouck Sittre, press and influence project manager for the region’s regional tourism agency. Blogger Clara Ferrand, whose Wild Road Instagram account has 42,000 subscribers, has just completed a roaming stay in the Vosges mountains, and will soon begin a second journey in the Meuse by canoe-kayak.
For these trips, the region ordered him stories on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, a photo report, a reel (short video posted on social networks), two contests, and several blog articles… For an invoice “of a little less than 10,000 euros”, according to Anouck Sittre. If such an amount may surprise, the project manager already knows that the potential benefits are well worth this initial investment. “Behind this partnership, there is substantive content, a constructed, targeted, quality communication. This allows us to reach tourists who would not otherwise have been interested in our territory”, she argues. His conclusion is clear: in 2023, social networks have become a “full-fledged” media on which you have to be present to succeed in selling your destination.
According to the Kolsquare platform, which specializes in connecting content creators and customers, 84% of users have already followed recommendations from travel influencers. “Influence is the medium that plays the most on affinity, since the community lives the life of its influencer in real time. It loves it, trusts it, is in constant search of this authenticity”, decrypts Quentin Bordage , founder and CEO of the company, which since 2018 has “more and more regions and departments” among its customers.
“Real Strategy”
On social networks, the activity has gradually become more professional, inflating the prices of these content creators. According to Kolsquare, a YouTube video can now cost up to 2,500 euros for a nano-influencer (10,000 subscribers or less), and reach more than 50,000 euros for those followed by 3 million people or more. Ditto for Instagram posts, whose prices can vary between 165 and 25,000 euros depending on the number of followers. “For a four-day report, a week of post-production, blog articles, photos and video, my rates reach around 1,500 or 3,000 euros,” explains Teddy Vermeil, known under the pseudonym Lezbroz.
With his brother, the young man has already worked for around forty French territories. On YouTube, a video recently produced for Mayenne Tourisme, worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster with drone images, sublime landscapes and professional editing, was viewed by 5,000 Internet users. On Instagram, where he is followed by nearly 110,000 people, a series of colorful photos promoting the department’s “French art of living” have generated dozens of comments from locals rediscovering their territory and curious tourists. to visit it. Joël Balandraud, president of Mayenne Tourisme, is delighted. “There is a real strategy behind this choice to work with influencers: we have rejuvenated our image, defined our values and highlighted eco-tourism, sharing, local products… We trusted them, and that walk,” he said.
While these partnerships are mostly remunerated, some contracts are also concluded without an additional check for influencers. Mountain biking, wine tasting, photos in the lavender fields, hiking trails… Between June and October 2022, the Destination Luberon attractiveness agency, for example, hosted 13 content creators on its territory, for an all-inclusive trip. but “without remuneration”, indicates Bianca Ogel, responsible for promotion and marketing of the organization. “It’s give and take: we bring visibility to the territory, and we, we discover pretty addresses, good producers, we have a good time”, testifies Adeline, 32-year-old Instagrammer and participant of one of these met. Followed by 30,000 subscribers on the social network, the 30-year-old claims to benefit from a “very receptive” community to this type of content, often curious to retrieve the addresses of her stories to organize their own holidays. The success is confirmed: in 2022, Destination Luberon reached more than 95,000 subscribers following these meetings, and garnered tens of thousands of likes and views on published posts – the majority of internet users were women, aged between 45 and 54.