In a continued effort to promote the Capital Region USA (CRUSA) brand and attract visitors from around the globe, TIG Global, a subsidiary of MICROS Systems, Inc. and leading interactive marketing company for hospitality and travel, has created and launched four fully-translated and optimized websites as well as a full-scale international online marketing campaign for the tourism coalition.

In September 2009, TIG Global launched a new English-version website for CRUSA, a not-for-profit tourism coalition comprised of the Virginia Tourism Corporation, Destination DC and the Maryland Office of Tourism Development that partners to market the region to international travelers. The new website was created to meet the unique business goals of the organization as a whole, as well as to highlight the distinctive aspects of each of the partnering destinations.

“Determining how to best attract an international audience online was a challenging task for us,” said Matt Gaffney, President/CEO of CRUSA. “With the ongoing success of our redesigned website, we turned to our trusted partner and leader in international online marketing, TIG Global, to assist us in producing a customized interactive marketing campaign that compliments the site, while catering to CRUSA’s target countries.”

The new campaign includes five fully optimized versions of the CRUSA website, with a translation toggle at the top for visitors to choose between English, Spanish, German, French and Portuguese. In addition to translating the website, TIG Global also initiated an aggressive international pay-per-click marketing campaign in the target countries that runs on the three major search engines – Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Additionally, TIG Global is creating a strategic inbound linking strategy that will enhance CRUSA’s natural rankings across domestic and international search engines. Lastly, TIG Global will place display advertisements for CRUSA on relevant travel websites, increasing its brand presence for a worldwide audience.

“As the capital of the United States, Washington, DC is naturally one of the most popular cities for international tourists, but there’s so much to do across the region including Virginia and Maryland, that it’s important to help travelers put things in context and assist in maximizing their time in the Capital Region,” commented Angie Briggs, vice president of destination business development for TIG Global. “Through the translated interactive marketing campaign, we are providing CRUSA with a competitive advantage by driving qualified travelers from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Mexico, Brazil and beyond to their website, and enticing them with what the Capital Region has to offer in an intuitive and user-friendly manner.”