Tourism Flanders’ overall goal is promote Flanders internationally as a tourism destination and to increase the number of overnight stays in Flanders. Their marketing-communication strategy focuses on inspiring potential travelers and providing easy access to information about what Flanders offers in the hopes that they book a flight or stay. Following the traveler’s decision-making process, the main goal of their website is to inspire, inform, facilitate book and create customer loyalty. Tomas Vanderplaetse, Online Marketing Manager at Tourism Flanders, says, “Previously, we worked mostly with microsites and external landing pages. Each of the 14 markets all worked with their own web agency and CMS system. This meant that a lot of time and budget went to selecting these agencies and in developing content for each market.” “We decided to centralize this process through a single system, to reduce costs and to enable all of the markets to work together,” he continues. “We chose SDL Tridion since we knew we wanted a system with a strong central approach that provides the same functionality to all of our sites and the ability to manage languages. Among the vendors we short-listed, SDL’s BluePrinting capabilities provided the clearest solution to our objectives,” says Vanderplaetse. Following the launch of their US website, Tourism Flanders will launch thirteen sites in nine languages to service their regional markets. “We have been very happy with the implementation of SDL Tridion by SDL partner, Amplexor. They clearly know the system very well and were able to capture our requirements in the implementation,” concludes Vanderplaetse.

1. Case study: Travel & Tourism
Tourism Flanders
Inspire, inform, facilitate and increase loyalty
Tourism Flanders’ overall goal is promote Flanders internationally
as a tourism destination and to increase the number of overnight
stays in Flanders. Their marketing-communication strategy focuses
on inspiring potential travelers and providing easy access to
information about what Flanders offers in the hopes that they book
a flight or stay.
“We chose SDL Tridion
Following the traveler’s decision-making process, the main goal
since we knew we wanted a
of their website is to inspire, inform, facilitate book and create system with a strong central
customer loyalty. approach that provides the
same functionality to all of our
Looking for a unified approach sites and the ability to manage
languages. SDL’s BluePrinting
Tomas Vanderplaetse, Online Marketing Manager at Tourism capabilities provided the
Flanders, says, “Previously, we worked mostly with microsites and clearest solution to our
external landing pages. Each of the 14 markets all worked with their objectives.”
own web agency and CMS system. This meant that a lot of time and Tomas Vanderplaetse
budget went to selecting these agencies and in developing content
Online Marketing Manager at
for each market.” Tourism Flanders
“We decided to centralize this process through a single system, to
reduce costs and to enable all of the markets to work together,”
he continues. “We chose SDL Tridion since we knew we wanted
Web Content Management
a system with a strong central approach that provides the same
Solutions:
functionality to all of our sites and the ability to manage languages. SDL Tridion
Among the vendors we short-listed, SDL’s BluePrinting capabilities Marketer empowerment
provided the clearest solution to our objectives,” says Vanderplaetse. Customer experience

2. Tourism Flanders approaches their international
audiences by creating uniquely tailored messages
for all of the regions in which they promote the
beauty of Flanders.
This market specific approach means that regional
teams create and collect the most relevant messages
and offers for the 14 markets in which Tourism
Flanders operates.
Adapting to local markets
Using SDL Tridion, Tourism Flanders now provides
local markets with website design, branding and
Integrating with social media
navigation, making it easier to provide consistent “We recognize that today’s traveler uses external
navigation and identity for their regional markets. review sites and other sources for information when
they research and plan their trips. So we’ve included
Local markets have the ability to tailor content for
links on our main site that lead website visitors to
their target audiences along themes that will appeal
both social media and external review sites.”
to local audiences.
“Rather than creating this functionality on our own
Regional content editors can provide themes,
site, we decided to use the sites that people already
images, accommodations and events relevant to
go to,” says Vanderplaetse. “When someone who
local marketing initiatives.
has visited Flanders has a good experience and
reviews a hotel or activity, this positive feedback also
benefits our marketing goals,” he concludes.
Rolling out the site
Following the launch of their US website, Tourism
Flanders will launch thirteen sites in nine languages
to service their regional markets.
“We have been very happy with the implementation
of SDL Tridion by SDL partner, Amplexor. They
clearly know the system very well and were able to
capture our requirements in the implementation,”
concludes Vanderplaetse.
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