FRENCH TOP BLOGGER: Marie-Ange jots down notes while travelling in a longboat into the interior of Sarawak.
KUCHING: As part of the social media strategy in promoting tourism, Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) recently engaged two top bloggers from France.
Marie-Ange Ostre and Sylvie Vollet’s official engagement was a combined effort by STB and Tourism Malaysia’s office in Paris.
A special tour programme tailored specifically to the interest of the European market was arranged for both bloggers.
Marie-Ange, who is well known in the travel and tourism circle, is also a photo journalist for the magazine ‘Reperages Voyages’ in France and her magazine is read and viewed on average by 500,000 people.
Her blog called ‘Un Monde d’ Ailleurs’ recorded traffic as high as 600,000 in July 2011, with an average 285,000 visitors per month and social media score at 44 per cent and SEO score at 64 per cent.
They are both very active in the French social media scene and capture excellent images to share with their subscribers and web contacts.
In 2010, Marie-Ange also won the best travel blog award in Paris.
The involvement of the French bloggers would hopefully be a good opportunity to expand the reach via social media in France.
Both bloggers are the first French travel bloggers coming on an assigned trip to Sarawak.
Kuching’s places of interest they have visited included the Sunday Market, Semenggoh Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre, Iban longhouse and the opportunity to stay at Hilton Resort Batang Ai in Sri Aman.
Both bloggers were also tweeting about their journey into Sarawak to about 30,000 followers online.