Tadej Pogačar's historic achievement at Tour de France strengthens the visibility of Slovenia as the homeland of top cyclists

With his great performance, Tadej Pogačar presented Slovenia as a sustainable homeland of top athletes. Primož Roglič also put an important stamp on the promotion of Slovenia, as did the fans who cheered for the Slovenian cyclists both at home and in France – they were equipped with the I feel Slovenia flags, distributed by the STB. In connection with this year's race, the STB carried out a series of successful communication activities, including the launch of the Cycling fans of Slovenia communication campaign.

During this year's Tour de France, the eyes of cycling enthusiasts from all over the world were once again on Slovenia, where as many as five professional cyclists who took part in this year's race come from. Tadej Pogačar took part in La Grand Boucle for only the third time this year and stood on the winners' podium again. He won three out of 21 stages and for the third year in a row, he also won the 1st place for the best young rider under 25. Although Primož Roglič left the race before the end due to an injury, he is among the winners of social networks, where more than 60 thousand mentions of him were recorded.

As ambassadors of Slovenian tourism, Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič in cooperation with the Slovenian Tourist Board have made a key contribution to the increased attention of the global media, cycling enthusiasts and other members of the public, and to the strengthening of Slovenia's visibility as a global cycling superpower and a destination for top active holidays.

New sports and tourism online platform: Sport fans of Slovenia

To promote Slovenia as a destination for active holidays during this year's Tour de France, the STB launched the Sport fans of Slovenia landing page, which connects domestic and foreign fans of top Slovenian athletes and promotes Slovenia as a top destination for active experiences and various recreational sports. During Le Tour, cycling enthusiasts got a new landing page – Cycling fans of Slovenia – and a series of virtual fan props to create a fan atmosphere on social media networks. By doing this, the STB got actively involved the international fan community and successfully communicated tourism and cycling content about Slovenia. This resulted in exceptional interest in Slovenia as a cycling destination.

Cycling Fans of Slovenia: a fan campaign that connects domestic and foreign fans of Slovenian cyclists all over the world

To promote Slovenia's visibility during Le Tour, the STB launched the Cycling fans of Slovenia campaign, which encouraged a virtual fan atmosphere among domestic and foreign fans of cycling and Slovenia. By sharing photos and videos of cycling experiences in Slovenia and using virtual cheering props, a chain of good wishes via social networks was created, which encouraged Slovenian cyclists to achieve the best possible results in the race. On this occasion, the STB prepared a special series of fan GIFs and filters for Instagram, which can be found with the keywords I feel Slovenia and Cycling fans of Slovenia, as well as a special filter for Instagram stories, which can be found under the keyword Cycling fans of Slovenia. By using them in photos and videos, they highlighted the cycling fan fever even more. The STB also invited all tourist destinations, cycling clubs in Slovenia and many recreational fans to participate. For the destinations, a special package of the Cycling fans of Slovenia campaign graphics was created.

More than 4 million impressions on social networks

The STB generated more than 120 posts on social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok) during the more than three-week long Tour de France. Together with advertising on social networks, this resulted in more than 4 million impressions of posts and over 105 thousand views of the Cycling fans of Slovenia landing page. The STB also developed a special graphic image of Cycling fans of Slovenia, which connected cycling enthusiasts from all over the world on social networks with diverse stories and experiences of Slovenia as the homeland of top athletes and a green destination for active holidays. Users created 61 photos and videos to promote the cheering atmosphere in the Crowdriff prize game. During the race, a prize quiz "How well do you know Pogačar, Roglič and cycling Slovenia?" was also held, in which more than 600 users participated.

Twitter highlighted the STB's campaign as an example of good practice

This year's leading communication theme – outdoor activities and sports tourism – is also highlighted in the STB's global digital campaign in cooperation with Twitter on the profile of the organizer of Tour de France, A.S.O. Slovenia presented itself as an exceptional destination for outdoor activities and cycling with three different videos that were played before the start of the video announcements (the so-called pre-roll) on the Tour de France Twitter profile. The campaign generated 22 million views of 3 video ads, one of which was dedicated to Tadej Pogačar, the second to Primož Roglič and the third to highlighting outdoor holidays in Slovenia. The promotional campaign took place during the race in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Croatia, Serbia, the United Kingdom, USA and Canada.

In just over three weeks, the campaign achieved exceptional effects that are well above the average for this type of campaign. This is why Twitter decided to feature the campaign as one of the success stories on its Twitter Marketing website after the campaign ended.

In addition, the YouTube Masthead campaign achieved more than 8 million impressions of Slovenia's video on outdoor holidays.

The Cycling Fans of Slovenia Strava Club cycled six times the distance of Tour de France

At the start of Tour de France, the STB established the Cycling fans of Slovenia Strava club and invitated the most passionate cyclists to cheer for the two ambassadors of Slovenian tourism, Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič, by collecting cycling kilometers. In 24 days, 59 cyclists covered more than 20,000 kilometers, which is six times the distance of Tour de France (3,328 km).

The Slovenian pavilion at the opening stage of Tour de France

The STB and the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Copenhagen organized a fan pavillion at the opening spectacle of the Tour de France. In the I feel Slovenia pavilion, Slovenia was presented as an excellent choice for active outdoor especially cycling, adventures.

Jumbo Visma Academy attends the preparations camp in Slovenia during Tour de France 

The young cyclists of the Dutch Jumbo Visma team, whose professional team also includes Slovenian tourism ambassador Primož Roglič, completed their preparations in Slovenia just in time of La Grand Boucle. The cyclists, who will compete at Tour de France in years to come, completed a preparatory camp in Rogla and were impressed by the excellent conditions for training and accommodation for the athletes. In an otherwise busy schedule, they also took time to get to know Slovenia and its beauties.

Robert de Groot, head of the Jumbo Visma development team, said at the end of preparations in Slovenia: "Slovenia's varied terrain provides us with excellent conditions for quality training. It was not too hot, not too cold and there is not much traffic - this means that we feel safe on the roads. The hotel is first class with an excellent gym. Slovenians are generally a very friendly nation. These are the reasons why we consider Slovenia as an excellent environment for training and we hope to return here every year."

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