Romania is a beautiful country, with unspoiled natural beauty and a rich history, but it never settled for a clear touristic brand identity, nor a defined strategy. While neighboring countries in Central Europe like Greece, Hungary (Budapest), Czech (Prague), Bulgaria are well positioned, Romania still muddles through. Same goes when it comes to health tourism, where Romania has a clear price/quality advantage, but it is outperformed by the likes of Hungary, Turkey or even the more expensive Austria. Our objective was to put Romania on the European tourist map with a different type of country brand campaign. So, what could the home country of the most famous teeth offer (yes, we mean Dracula)? Romania, the Most Beautiful Dental Clinic in the World.

Our idea came from a commerce insight. If in the UK you could pay up to 280 £ for a dental filling, in Romania you would get 3-in-1 for that price: the dental treatment, a guided tour, plus three nights at a 4* hotel. We created a new way to shop for vacations and dental treatments.

IDEA: REBRAND ROMANIA AS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DENTAL CLINIC IN THE WORLD

By partnering The Romanian Society of Esthetic Dentistry and The Romanian National Association of Travel Agents endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism, we’ve launched A NEW BUSINESS MODEL THAT COMBINES HEALTH & TOURISM.

A booking platform with Fix & Visit packages that match dental treatments with tourism attractions, POWERED BY A CURATED MIX OF PROVIDERS. Additionally, people can use our chatbot to customize their holiday. Then, they are contacted by a dental tourism trained specialist, to further tailor their dental holiday.

Romania has the highest economic growth in the EU, but also a very low level of tourism with 5.3% share of GDP versus neighboring Bulgaria with a 12.8% and Hungary with 10.2%.

Meanwhile, Romania is the country with the most dentistry graduates in Europe.

But only with 15% of the dental services coming from dental tourism, half of the 30% share in neighboring Hungary. So, while dental tourism is a promising business, it’s still below potential.

State institutions estimate that health tourism could potentially reach 3-4% of our GDP.

Considering the high prices in Europe as well as the NHS employee crisis in the UK we found a new role.

To compete with other countries, Romania had to stop acting like one. Instead, it became The Most Beautiful Dental Clinic in the World. We brought tourism and dentistry together under a new business model endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism.

https://thebeautifuldentalclinic.com is an e-commerce platform that reinvents shopping for tourism and dental services. Users can choose from pre-set Fix & Visit packages, but also customize their packages by interacting with a chatbot. We advertised the platform with an international PR film that presented Romania’s beautiful attractions through the lens of dental service offers.

We hijacked the whole tourism ecosystem, from classic billboards in London and across the UK to postcards, souvenirs and travel influencers. The new country brand was promoted at the ‘UK and Ireland’s Travel Fair’ in Birmingham where visitors could experience Romania in VR while sitting on a dentist chair and getting a dental check. Every execution led users to our booking platform, where they could book a Fix & Visit package for Romania.

On the platform, we also invited visitors to become a travel agent for Romania by downloading the dental chatbot code on their own websites.

Earned Media = 15 times more than the paid media investment.

Reach 11M.

70% increase in the total amount spent by foreign tourists on medial tourism.

Even more, this segment of tourism was the only one registering a positive evolution. The leisure one decreased by 50% while the spiritual/religious one by 30%.