Visa's NotATourist campaign taps social sharing for travelers

The campaign will run until August 31 in countries in the Asia Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.

The idea is to help travellers explore destinations as local inhabitants -- not as tourists -- and lure them to new destinations beyond the regular tourist sites, said Karim Beg, Visa regional head of marketing for Middle East and North and West, Central Africa, via email.

In Africa, the campaign is targeting the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Senegal, using what Visa says is crowdsourced content from travelers.

The global payment company will supplement the content generated by travelers with basic, essential travel information as well as offers from merchants and comments from travelers.

"Share your experiences with the rest of the world and earn travel badges," Visa urges, in its marketing material for the campaign.

The Visa Explore app offers the content that travelers have shared and uses geo-fencing to find the best deals around a visitor's location, with merchant offers popping up on a map. It has push notifications that can send updates to travelers, pops up ATM locations and offers quick access to emergency assistance and concierge numbers, according to Visa.

"Visa has hundreds of amazing offers that can be availed locally, regionally or globally but finding these offers is challenging because they are spread across multiple websites and platforms," Beg said. The Visa Explore mobile app acts as a sort of one-stop shop for offers and traveler commentary, tailored to a visitor's specific location. In a press release, Visa said that among other things it is trying to reach millennials via the new app-centered campaign.