Bienvenue! Bienviendos! Willkommen! From French to Spanish to German, a promotional video film crew is aiming to tell global travelers that they are welcome in Savannah.
Visit Savannah partnered with company Brand USA to produce the foreign-language videos for Germany, Mexico, the United Kingdom and France.
The videos are being shot this week at several locations around Savannah, including tourist hot spots such as Forsyth Park, The Paris Market and the Green-Meldrim House. Each video has a different native-speaking host to describe some of the attractions that make Savannah worth a visit.
Jeanny Tsai, a videographer and director with Brand USA, said Savannah’s aesthetics make it an easy destination to film.
“It’s a nice mix of being a place where people actually live — it doesn’t feel overrun with tourists — but you can see how it’s also set up well for tourism,” said Tsai.
Brand USA was established by the United States Travel Promotion Act of 2010 after a decade of declining foreign visitors. Its goal is to provide customized content to actively promote U.S. cities.
The two-minute spots will take anywhere from two to three months to complete and will be used by Visit Savannah through its various media and marketing channels. The videos also will be shown through Brand USA’s consumer arm, DiscoverAmerica.com, which is available in eight different languages.
So far this year, roughly 1,600 Europeans have stopped by the visitors’ centers on MLK and River Street, according to Visit Savannah data, an 8 percent increase over the same period last year.
Host of the Spanish segments, Vange Tapia, said she’d been to a half dozen states to film different cities, but this was her first time in Savannah.
“This is my first time here in Georgia. I’m very excited,” said Tapia. “The food, the culture and the people have been amazingly kind.”
Tapia said she tries to approach each city by seeing where the locals like to visit.
“I want to see how Savannah people live and eat,” said Tapia. “In one of the segments, I talk about how chefs in Savannah embrace food from everywhere but they’re also very true to their own roots and traditions, so it’s a mix of both.”
Val Kahl, an L.A.-based entertainment correspondent, is hosting the French videos.
“These videos will be shown across a lot of different travel channels, tourism offices, both TV and online,” said Kahl.
Kahl said she’s always been fascinated by the South, even though this also is her first visit.
“I love the French and historical influences here, like the boutique (Paris Market) where you get a baguette bag with the t-shirt inside,” said Kahl. “And to see a lot of people speak French, it feels like visiting my cousins.”