Viaggi del Sud Expands Regional Travel Bookings via Local Media
Viaggi del Sud | Naples, Italy
Performance Overview
Viaggi del Sud · Italian search
The Challenge
Viaggi del Sud specialises in curated tours across southern Italy for international and domestic travellers. Competition from OTAs and large tour aggregators made organic visibility for destination package terms extremely difficult. The site had beautiful photography but thin textual authority and almost no links from regional tourism media.
Marketing spend focused on Google Ads and Instagram. Organic contributed less than 15% of bookings despite strong reviews on TripAdvisor. Leadership wanted to reduce OTA commission dependence by growing direct bookings, starting with Italian-language searchers planning Puglia and Sicily trips.
Regional editors cover tourism seasonally and prefer local expertise angles over generic agency pitches. Viaggi del Sud's team had deep on-ground knowledge but no systematic outreach to Campanian and Sicilian news sites.
Campaign Timeline
Destination content upgrade
Months 1-2Expanded Puglia and Sicily hubs with insider guides, seasonal itineraries, and downloadable PDF maps designed for citation.
Regional media outreach
Months 3-6Pitched local travel editors ahead of summer season. Secured features in regional news travel sections and tourism blogs.
PR index launch
Months 5-7Published Southern Italy Overtourism Index comparing visitor dispersion across coastal towns. National and regional pickups followed.
Guest and partnership links
Months 8-10Guest posts on travel blogs. Partnership links from approved hotel associations and local DMO resource pages.
Hyper-local angle development
We positioned Viaggi del Sud's founders as sources on sustainable tourism in less crowded southern towns. Pitches referenced specific municipalities, festivals, and transport changes Italian regional journalists were already covering, with tour data as supporting evidence.
- Built journalist list of 120 regional travel desks and bloggers
- Offered embargoed photography packages for summer preview pieces
- Created Italian and English versions of the Overtourism Index for broader pickup
Destination hub internal linking
New links pointed to destination hubs rather than generic homepage URLs. On-site internal linking connected blog features to package booking pages, ensuring authority flowed toward revenue-generating URLs.
Before vs After Metrics
Before vs After Metrics
Click column headers to sort
| Before | After | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Destination hub sessions | 8,400 | 15,876 | +88% |
| Domain Rating | 26 | 37 | +42% |
| Monthly organic bookings | 312 | 493 | +58% |
| Referring domains | 22 | 53 | +141% |
Results Analysis
- Organic bookings rose 58% with strongest gains on Puglia cycling tours and Sicily food and wine packages.
- Thirty-one regional media links from outlets with genuine Campanian, Pugliese, and Sicilian readership.
- Destination hub traffic grew 89%, improving assisted conversions from research-phase visitors.
- Average keyword position for core package terms improved by 4.2 positions on average.
- Direct booking share increased 12 percentage points year over year as organic trust signals strengthened.
“Regional journalists trusted us because we offered real local insight, not a brochure. Those links brought travellers who actually completed bookings.”
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