Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Taj Mahal on Twitter

Last month the Taj Mahal in India joined twitter with its handle @TajMahal, becoming the first historical monument to join twitter. The handle now has over 180k followers, less than one month since its start. The twitter handle posts tweets from the Taj about visiting the monument. The handle also asks its followers to regularly post their memories of visiting Taj and this has seen Indian as well as international tourists post hundreds of pictures and experiences. The handle keeps coming up with other questions for its followers such as asking for books written on Taj or asking people to spell Taj in their language.

I found this initiative to be an innovative way to market Indian tourism within India and abroad (although I do think that the initiative is more targeted toward driving domestic tourism). While there are multiple platforms online about the Taj, it’s very own twitter handle generated a lot of buzz and interest. The twitter launch was done on Indian Independence day and received much media attention. It was a well-crafted marketing initiative.

With significantly high mobile penetration in India and rising disposable incomes that allow more people to travel within the country, I think it is an excellent marketing strategy to create higher recognition for a monument / place / city on digital media to drive tourism. Involving people in the dialogue makes it more interesting for all to follow. 

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