Take a virtual journey to Reunion Island

Reunion Island is a fascinating blend of raw, exotic nature and French-Creole refinement; a must for the curious traveller, with 42% of the island declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a hiking mecca with extraordinary routes circling live volcanoes and brushing through forests of ferns and flowers. Visitors can also relax, enjoy spa treatments and yoga and experience the interesting creole food and colourful culture.

Reunion Island Tourism mandated South African destination marketing company, Destinate, to conceptualise a digital marketing campaign for the island. The campaign has increased content sharing and story-telling via social media networks and will see a new interactive blog platform launch just before some of the world's top bloggers congregate in Reunion Island.

And the bloggers are...

The campaign will allow the bloggers the opportunity to explore the destination in a totally new way - living amongst and like locals-in-the-know for a few days.

#GoToReunion will be hosted in association with iambassadors who worked with Destinate on the recent and very successful blogger campaign for Stellenbosch, #Stellenblog.

#Stellenblog, which ran from 2-9 May, reportedly generated more than 42 million online impressions worldwide, with a PR value exceeding more than R9 million to date.

National Geographic Channel Adventure Ambassador, Yann Macherez, will - in his capacity as a Reunion native - lead the bloggers through their trip to ensure they have access to insider knowledge and maximum adventure. He is a renowned photographer and has worked with South African Tourism on a recent campaign.

Two South African travel influencer platforms - Getaway Magazine and News24Travel - will be coming along to take their online communities and readers on a journey of discovery. They will be joined by two travel and lifestyle bloggers from South Africa; Meruschka Govender of Mzansigirl.com and Natalie Roos will represent Destinate, also writing as www.tailsofamermaid.com.

Three international bloggers from the USA, Brazil and Netherlands (covering both traditional and new markets) - will join the trip, along with a videographer based in the USA.

Follow their journey

And South African bloggers:

By following the hashtag #gotoreunion armchair travellers can travel along and be inspired to book their own trip to Reunion Island.

For more, go to welcometoreunionisland.com