Raising the Profile of Zambia
We are delighted to share that our work with Zambia Tourism Agency (ZTA) has been shortlisted for International Campaign of the Year at The Travel Marketing Awards 2025. Read on to discover how The PC Agency crafts standout international campaigns that deliver tangible results.
© Livingstone’s Adventure
The Brief
In January 2024, the PC Agency was appointed by Zambia Tourism Agency to raise the profile of this largely undiscovered destination among trade and media in the UK, USA, Germany and France. The overarching goal, to help Zambia achieve their goal of 2 million visitors arrivals in 2024.
The Strategy
Our team devised a multichannel marketing and communications strategy to ensure maximum presence for Zambia across all four of the markets. Activity over the course of the campaign aimed to highlight Zambia’s wide variety of experiences, focusing on the six key pillars of; wildlife, culture, adventure, MICE, heritage and water (as home of the Victoria Falls). Beyond this, our work looked to highlight the lesser known experiences in Zambia, to lengthen stays, encourage repeat visits and extend travel into shoulder season.
© Kafunta Safaris
Our Activity
To kick off our campaign, senior team members travelled to Zambia to experience the destination, meet with key stakeholders and understand the challenges facing the tourism sector. Alongside this our trade team conducted a product audit, to analyse the areas of Zambia sold among the travel trade and to find any possible gaps to introduce the destination. Meanwhile a brand awareness study took place across four markets to further our understanding of the public’s perception of travel to Zambia.
Based on findings, our core trade and media focused activity included:
Media Activity:
Hosted a media event for 15 top-tier journalists, directly resulting in a two page feature in Wanderlust magazine.
Distributed 67 impactful press releases, highlighting to media the key pillars of travel in Zambia.
Secured opportunities where journalists could syndicate coverage in multiple outlets and maximise reach. For example, securing syndicated coverage across 170 German regional newspapers, with a total reach of 3,200,000.
Hosted trips to Zambia for a total of 30 press and influencers across all markets, enabling first hand experience of the destination and generating top tier coverage in Condé Nast Traveller, The Smithsonian and The Telegraph.
Secured interviews at key trade shows for ZTA with CNBC, TTG, Breaking Travel News and Travel Bulletin to discuss the potential of Zambia’s tourism sector.
Trade Activity:
Coordinated attendance at 4 key trade events, including ITB, WTM, Experience Africa and the African Eagle Workshop in Paris with key trade contacts to identify training and fam trip opportunities.
Hosted a drinks event alongside Zambia’s private sector partners on the opening night of Experience Africa, securing 100+ trade attendees.
Hosted key decision makers from 5 top tour operators including Carrier, Far & Wild, Freedom Destinations, Yellow Zebra Safaris and Indagare.
Distributed 26 insightful trade newsletters, achieving an average open rate of 27.19%, above the industry standard.
Launched a trade facing competition in the US and UK, generating 774 entries and generating a combined reach of 84,988 via trade mailings and trade media coverage.
© Royal Zambezi Lodge
The Results
Across the course of the year the PC Agency conducted a total of 578 trade and media appointments, uncovering opportunities for top tier coverage, partnerships and to host trade and media. This led to a total of 743 pieces of coverage and social content with a combined reach of 659,583,593. This figure contributed to 66% of the global 1 billion view target set by ZTA at the start of 2024.
Overall, our team contributed to growth in Zambia’s tourism sector with international visitor arrivals reaching 2,199,820 visitors in 2024, a 58.02% increase from 2023. Broken down into the four key markets, visitor arrivals from the USA, UK, France and Germany were up 6% in total.
If you’re looking to elevate your brand’s trade and media presence on a global scale, get in touch with us at hello@pc.agency to explore how we can help.
