The streets surrounding the tourist sites of the Arc de Triomphe, the Paris Opera or the Eiffel Tower in France include during these days the presence of a fleet of 150 electric taxis with images of toucans, beaches and dancers in typical Costa Rican costumes, as part of an ICT strategy to promote Costa Rica in the French capital and thus attract potential French and European tourists.
Through December and January, the thousands of tourists and local people who travel, walk or drive through Paris will learn more about our country and will be able to consider it as their next vacation destination thanks to the striking images of our nature, biodiversity and cultural activities placed on these modern public transport vehicles.
Disruptive promotional actions
“We continue to innovate and carry out disruptive promotional actions to reach the interest of our target audiences and this time in the French market. For a few weeks during the months of December and January, electric taxis decorated with some of our main natural and cultural attractions have been circulating. This is a particularly strategic investment to promote Costa Rica among potential travelers,” said Ireth Rodríguez, head of promotion and development of the vacation segment of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT).
Rodríguez added that, in winter, Parisians are very receptive to ideas of sunny destinations to escape the cold and promotional actions of this type in this period “capture their attention at a key moment, since many of them are planning their vacations for next summer” she concluded.
Taxis are a powerful advertising medium with a wide presence in Paris and therefore, the campaign is expected to impact an audience of 140 million people. The choice to use electric taxis for this campaign also reinforces the image of Costa Rica’s environmental commitment, a destination already recognized for its sustainable tourism practices and preserved biodiversity, aligned with the values of sustainability and respect for the environment of the national tourism model.
Interactive campaign in the “City of Light”
Paris is known as “the city of light”, a cosmopolitan city and a crossroads for international travelers, which maximizes the reach of the campaign and exposes it to a wide and varied audience, but with interest in Costa Rica.
In addition, this activation included a large-format QR code on each of the 150 taxis that invites interaction when the vehicles are parked or stopped. All people who “like” the @visit_costaricafr Instagram account, capture a photo of one of the taxis, send it by private message or in an Instagram story, will participate in a contest to win a trip to Costa Rica for two adults. In addition, they will be able to obtain further information on the many tourist alternatives that our country offers.
According to the most recent data from the ICT, between January and November 2024, 383,498 Europeans visited us, of whom 63,642 were of French nationality. France represents our second largest source market for tourists from Europe.
