Green-list destinations: making your client stand out

There have already been lots of articles about anticipated green-list destinations in travel sections; it’s realistic to expect many more around the traffic-light system’s expected launch on 10 May.

Personally, Laura at Metro has asked me to write a round-up of some of the first green-list countries once we know them. Some parts of that will be obvious – the entry demands, etc. – but then I’ll need to focus on somewhere to go, a place to stay, etc, meaning opportunity for many of your clients.

Rather like when countries changed status under the government’s current travel system (while holidays were permitted), I anticipate a flood of releases about clients in each green-list member – all of which I’ll read. But the trick here is to give journalists a reason to cover your client.

Simply saying “Italy is on the green list and my fantastic client Hotel Richard is open” is insufficient. That feels to me suspiciously like you’re going through the motions; a release for the sake of it. Instead, and to repeat myself, you want to motivate me to pick Hotel Richard over all the rivals. That might be because of something new and genuinely noteworthy (at the hotel, or nearby), of an anniversary, or of an offering (new or not) that hooks onto emerging lifestyle trends. Failing all else, it could be a stonking image.

Less is more here. Send me a scattergun list of four clients in one country and that only seems to betray a lack of confidence in each individual suggestion. I’d rather just have your strongest one or two offerings. A page-long summary of a single client is also slightly offputting for similar reasons. What I (and every journalist writing similar articles) will be scanning each email for is that stand-out angle – that detail which elevates Hotel Richard above every other suggestion I’ve had for Italy, or whichever country it is. So ensure that angle is introduced right away, at the top, ready to hook me in!