A dozen French celebrities recognized for positively standing out in different fields such as singing, acting, film directing, sports, photography, musical composition, science and environmental conservation were brought together by a common affinity: their interest and admiration for Costa Rica.
Precisely in this month, as part of the promotional actions of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) to maintain the position of our country and connection with potential French tourists who will visit us in the future, 10 promotional videos with short three-minute interviews, were produced, led by the famous French television journalist specializing in tourism and documentaries, Philippe Gougler.
Gougler, who is also knowledgeable about Costa Rica by making news coverage, has a long history and is popularly known as “Don Tourism” for his participation in specialized travel programs on television and radio in France.
The audiovisual series is called “Costa Rica, a sanctuary of life told by…”, is a production of dynamic interviews for the famous French personalities to tell about their unique experiences lived in our country or their desire to visit it.
According to Ireth Rodríguez, ICT Promotion Manager, this campaign aims to continue innovating with promotional actions that allow us to maintain an emotional connection with our French audiences.
“For four months, Costa Rica will be shown from the gaze and narrative of French celebrities in charge of explaining in their own words what attracts them to Costa Rica, why they want to visit it or what caught their attention once they visited it.” detailed Rodríguez.
With the support of the French Public Relations agency Indigo Unlimited, the videos will be broadcasted as the starting point of the campaign on the ICT’s Instagramaccount in France https://www.instagram.com/visit_costaricafr/ and will be promoted through a campaign in social networks, in the digital news related to celebrities. The viewing of these short interviews will last four months and three videos will be released per month.
Likewise, the agency manages actions to position the news in French national media such as Lepoint.fr, Lefigaro.fr, Konbini and media that speak on the subject of celebrities such as madamefigaro.fr, Journaldesfemmes.fr, voici.fr, elle .fr. At the same time, digital actions will be activated to promote the videos and the campaign in current media, fashion, culture and lifestyle such as GQ, Konbini and Vice.
Costa Rica with a reputation for sustainability and unique destination
The most outstanding criteria for selecting the celebrities was professional or personal experience related to Costa Rica or a career linked to sustainability, the protection of the planet, together with a positive image in the French public.
The list includes singer ElodieFrégé, actor, writer and film director JéremyBanster, as well as dynamic freediving world champion and France Arthur Guerin-Boëri. Joining the list are Greg Lecoeur, a multi-award winning wildlife photographer who dedicates his life to the marine world, actors and actresses Gregory Fitoussi, VirginieLedoyen, Hélène de Fougerolles and journalist Patrick Poivred´Arvor.
Finally, the film music composer Éric Serra and the environmental and social activist, science communicator, documentary director and photographer YannArthus-Bertrand complete the group.
For the singer ElodieFrégé, the perception of Costa Rica is direct and clear: “There life is sweet, the dishes are delicious, the colors of nature inspire you to become a painter, in Costa Rica I find a lot of calm and peace. I have the impression that the Ticos have a real respect for what nature has offered them”, expressed Frégé in one of the editions of the audiovisual series Costa Rica is a sanctuary of life.
For his part, JéremyBanster, actor, writer and film director concluded that “Costa Rica represents the El Dorado of well-being, of pure life, this bubble that can still be found on the planet. The quality of life, the joy of living… very often I dream of buying a plane ticket and going to live in a tree house over there.”
Before the Pandemic and according to statistics, in 2019 more than 77,000 French tourists visited Costa Rica and it was the third-largest source market on the European continent, only surpassed by Germany and the United Kingdom.
