Polish Tourism Organisation recently staged three training sessions for tourist information centre staff in the regions of Świętokrzyskie, Zachodniopomorskie (Western Pomerania) and Mazowieckie (Mazovia). Attended by 80 participants, the meetings were intended to upgrade their skills of creating image-related information and promotional online content.

Dynamic development of online marketing, evolving advertising tools in social media and the power of digital advertising in the promotion of regions are the main reasons behind the online training sessions staged by Polish Tourism Organisations (Polska Organizacja Turystyczna - POT) and its regional counterparts. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, promotional operations moved online, putting greater emphasis on upgrading skills of creating image-related information and promotional online content. The meeting assumed the form of an online course to maintain social distancing between attending certified tourist information centre staff.

The three training sessions recently held for 80 tourist information professionals representing the regions of Świętokrzyskie, Zachodniopomorskie and Mazowieckie were aimed at improving their competency, familiarity and performance with information and advertising tools in certified tourist information centres.

The hosting trainers made sure to stop to clarify any doubts about the techniques, forms and tools related to working with Google services. The participants became familiar with key factors determining the successful performance and quality of tourist information centre websites.

The list of discussed issues includes, i.a. vertical portals, company blogs, newsletters, infographics, context-related articles, diversification of content and video formats, as well as posts. The interactive character of the full-training course favoured an exchange of experiences and good practices between participants.

By the end of the year POT will arrange successive training sessions for tourist information centre staff in the voivodeships of Lubelskie, Podlaskie, Opolskie and Śląskie (Silesia).

In total, 2020 will see 200 tourist information centre employees from eight regions of Poland trained as part of the project of developing the Polish System of Tourist Information.