Inventing tomorrow's email: before and after Evaneos

White sandy beaches as far as the eye can see, a hammock in the shade of a coconut tree, the sun setting over the sea... We are immersed in the images and imaginations that make travel and the desire to go far away irresistible. However, between the CO2 emissions of air transport, the pressure exerted on ecosystems by over-tourism and the exploitation of local populations, travel, as it is promoted and practiced, is not sustainable*. Tour operators have a major role to play in the transition to more sustainable tourism: they have to reform their business (organizing trips that are closer to home, supporting local jobs, avoiding "theme park" tours...) but also contribute to changing imaginations to guide their customers towards new ways of traveling. This involves propose new representations, inventing new narratives and propagate them in all communications, commercial email copywriting understood!

Note: This article was co-written with Anne-Laure, Carine and Charlotte of theDéjà Demain agencyan agency entirely dedicated to new narratives, with whom we collaborated completely on this email.

Why did you choose an Evaneos email?

Founded in 2009, Evaneos was born in a very different tourism sector. Back then, people took to the air without much thought. From the outset, Evaneos has sought to restore authenticity and meaning to travel, working with local agencies to better support the economies of the countries we visit and preserve their environment.

Evaneos' aim is to promote more responsible tourism in its destinations: the tour operator is committed to ensuring that at least 85 % of the price of the trip benefits the local economy, and is careful not to fuel overtourism. To better measure this phenomenon, Evaneos has created an overtourism index to identify destinations and times of year to be avoided. It has withdrawn two summer destinations, Mikonos and Santorini..

In the travel sector, where the plane is king, Evaneos has made a second courageous decision: remove "city breaks" from its 2024 catalogThese are trips of less than five days to far-flung destinations, usually by plane.

Evaneos' Director of Sustainability acknowledges that**: ". seeing advertisements with coconut palms can make you want to travel far away"and that they therefore "an important role to play in changing the way people think about travel"..*

This is a real challenge that they are trying to meet in their advertising campaigns, but which they still have to meet in their commercial emails to align their communication with their commitments.

The original Evaneos email to be reinvented

Sender: Evaneos
Subject: You'll love these destinations
Preheader: Your inspiration for a future departure

Analysis of Evaneos email copywriting and imagery

First, let's look at the promise at the time of signing up for this newsletter:

She promises us unusual destinations, hidden addresses and responsible tips, all with the aim of "changing the way we think about travel".

The first observation: a broken promise. And we'll tell you why:

• "So, where are we off to?" A title that creates a sense of urgency and trivializes travel planning. It gives a vision of travel as an everyday consumer good, whereas organizing a trip takes time!
• Main block text The "I've been there, done that" theme reinforces the idea that the only way to experience the extraordinary is to go far away. The enumeration, the fact of moving from one destination to another so quickly, reinforces the idea that we can do anything, that everything is within our reach: a vision of travel incompatible with planetary limits.
• More inspiration" CTA It also helps to trivialize destinations that should be exceptional, the fulfillment of a dream.
• Neither the title nor the text of the main block mentions sustainable tourism values or responsible, or even mention Evaneos' position on true travel.
• No trace of tips for responsible travel as mentioned in the promise at the time of registration.
• Visuals The carousel includes visuals that maintain the stereotype of turquoise seas and white sandy beaches, while the selfies are reminiscent of those taken by influencers who post photos on Instagram from the other side of the world, thus fuelling over-tourism (which Evaneos is committed to combating).
• Where to go", "The concept", "Destinations" tabs: these tabs are unclear about the promise and potentially redundant between "Where to go" and "Destinations". What's more, clicking on "Where to go" lands on a 404 page (not found).
• This email feeds an all-too-common vision of travel, not the promised "other vision of travel". The induced imaginations are incompatible with planetary limits:
  • the imaginary of the exotic: all the destinations mentioned are far-flung, feeding the social norm that "to travel, to escape, is necessarily to go far away".
  • the cult of speed: in the catchphrase encouraging rapid decision-making
  • the "must-do" idea: by listing the sensory experiences (visual, gustatory...) of the regions to visit
  • the imaginary of the "good traveler" as opposed to the "bad tourist", who feeds an elitist vision of travel

Unfortunately, the conclusion is harsh: by not questioning the relationship between air travel and the need to travel, and worse, by relieving the guilt of these "tourists of a different kind", Evaneos maintains the illusion that we can continue to travel without question.

Analysis of email layout and design

• The preheader is visible when the message is opened. We could make it invisible at opening to gain one line in height.
• The unsubscribe link is present in the header of the email, which is an excellent practice (and one that's still quite rare, to emphasize). But the link is non-explicit (which doesn't respect the good accessibility practices): you should have put the link behind "Unsubscribe".
• Putting "My account" on the left is surprising. This type of information is often placed to the right of the logo, not to the left.
• The animated gif of the main block is over 4MB. We recommend limiting the weight of a gif to between 1 and 2 MB to ensure fast loading.
• Text is centeredWhen it's more than 3 lines long, it should be left-railed for better legibility (again, to comply with good accessibility practices) and a more premium rendering.
• Missing non-breaking spacesWe have "?" on the line in mobile version.
• Presence of a carousel thea carousel in emailing is only guaranteed in 54% of cases. Although the fallback version is acceptable, the carousel poses several problems:
  • Accessibility: it hijacks HTML tags, making reading difficult for visually impaired people using screen readers.Eco-design: it requires many extra lines of code for the rescue version.Mobile experience: even if the swipe is well perceived, one of the 3 contents is systematically lost on mobile. So what's the point of the carousel? Is it really indispensable? If not, why use it at all?
• Footer :
  • Writing that does not respect good accessibility practices: presence of non-explicit links such as "this page" and "click here".
  • Great photo credits!

How to rethink Evaneos email?

First, let's choose an angle that aligns communication with Evaneos' commitments and fulfills the newsletter's initial promise.

• The season: the destinations of the moment, based on the index of overtourism, support for the local economy and the traveler's experience? the angle of responsibility towards local economies. E.g. Where to go this winter? but behind this question, little-visited destinations that allow local populations to live all year round.

OR

• Mode of transport: On foot / By bike / By train? environmental responsibility angle (low-carbon travel) by making it desirable to "experience travel": travel begins as soon as you step outside your door, and travel on foot, by bike and by train allows for more authentic discovery.

OR

• Tours or type of trip (nature/culture/gastronomy): take the time to immerse yourself in the local culture, accept that transport is part of the trip, with examples of destinations accessible by train, cycling or walking tours? immersion angle (slow travel).

OR

• Duration: I've got 5 days (close trip) / I've got 2 weeks / I've got 1 month ? more pedagogical angle to propose destinations adapted to duration

OR

• Destinations from the point of view of the trip of a lifetime "Where do you imagine your trip of a lifetime to be?" / "What is your dream trip?

We chose the 3rd angle, that of slow travel. Why did we do this? Because the last quarter of the year is often very intense, so the insight "stop running and go slow" can arouse curiosity and make this type of travel desirable.

Let's list the messages we want to get across

• Ask questions about the mode of transport used Air travel emits 20 to 50 times more CO2 than rail. And it's a very elitist mode of transport: 1 % of the world's population is responsible for 50 % of air transport's CO2 emissions.
• Encourage people to question their destination (over-tourism) According to the World Tourism Organization, 95 % of tourists are concentrated on 5 % of the world's land mass, and 10 destinations alone attract half of all tourists! This degrades the traveler's experience and has a negative impact on ecosystems and local populations. One solution may be to highlight little-known destinations that create fabulous experiences.
• Ask yourself about the departure date For each destination, Evaneos indicates which months of the year are most suitable for travel. The aim is to avoid over-tourism (i.e. everyone leaving at the same time), but also to provide a great experience.
• Invite questions about the relationship between vacation duration and distance travelled A single long-haul flight explodes the target annual carbon budget (2 tonnes/per person/per year). One solution is therefore to encourage people to travel longer if the destination is far away (i.e. avoid taking a long-haul flight to spend 1 week on a beach). Show that travel is a project to be prepared for, not a consumer good to be bought on the spur of the moment. We need to create other reflexes: fly less but better, take pleasure in preparing your trip (tailor-made trips encourage this) and, for nearby destinations, take the train by asking your company to set up the TTR (responsible travel time), which offers extra days to travel by train rather than by plane.
• Invite questions about the authenticity of the experience. The current trend is to make the trip more profitable: number of activities in relation to time. So we fill up! But for an authentic experience, to escape and discover, it's better to take your time. Here again, it's all a question of representations: the language used, the turns of phrase, but also the visuals. Do we represent an immersive, authentic journey by showing travelers' selfies?
• What impact will this have locally? Ask questions about local jobs, the impact on biodiversity (e.g. don't show visitors places where animals are exploited and which have been created just for tourism) and populations (the main emitters are the most affluent populations, while the first victims of the consequences of climate change are and will remain people who have mostly never been on a plane).
• Explain why carbon offsetting is not a solution and should not be used as a means of exonerating ourselves from all these issues.

Evaneos' uniqueness: tailor-made, authentic holidays that support the local economy.

Evaneos has singularities that deserve to be much more highlighted:

• Local heroes Evaneos puts you directly in touch with local agencies selected according to specific criteria: destination expertise, professionalism, responsiveness, French-speaking community, price, commitment to more responsible tourism, flexibility, etc.
• The custom-made 100 % Everything is modular and co-constructed with the local agency, including stages, accommodation and activities.
• Commitment to better travel preserving local ecosystems and supporting local economies at a fair price for travelers and all those who contribute to the success of the trip.
• The Evaneos guarantee from preparation to return: over 600,000 people have traveled with Evaneos partners since 2009. With an average Trustpilot rating of 4.8/5.
• Evaneos 1st BCorp-certified tour operator.

Final result: Evaneos email reinvented

Shipper : Evaneos
Object And if we stopped running?
Preheader : Destinations where time stands still...

Conclusion

It's not easy to promote new imaginations when the heart of our business is so dependent on air travel. But it is possible! Taking a small step sideways, moving away from the imaginary of beaches at the end of the world, making destinations closer to home more desirable, suggesting more responsible behavior without making people feel guilty, is already a step in the direction of awakening people's consciences.

References

• *According to a study published in May 2018 in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change conducted by researchers from the Universities of Sydney, Queensland and Cheng Kung, the impact of global tourism is 4 times greater than previously estimated: it is responsible for around 8 % of total greenhouse gas emissions, three quarters of which come from transport, and 40 % from aircraft alone.
• **Source: Novethic, November 19, 2023 (https://www.novethic.fr/actualite/environnement/climat/isr-rse/le-voyagiste-evaneos-met-fin-aux-city-breaks-ultra-carbones-151879.html)