'We will wait': How tourist boards are struggling to strike the right tone
It is not, perhaps, the problem you prepare for most stringently when you are completing your degree in marketing.
A growing scandal which will tarnish a brand - certainly. A social-media storm that threatens to suck everything into a vortex of negative publicity - text-book stuff. Yet a deadly global pandemic of once-in-a-century proportions which effectively wipes out not just your product but the capacity of your customer base to buy it - and for an unspecified amount of time that may be a few weeks but could stretch out for months? Let’s file that under “very unlikely scenarios”, and move on to the next topic.
So offer up a second of sympathy - if you have any spare emotions left after the many trials of the last few months - for the tourist boards which have seen their best-laid plans for 2020 torn apart by the onslaught of an unseen virus, and are now facing the challenge of attempting to draw tourists back to their destinations without being entirely sure whether the summer season will go ahead, and who will be allowed to visit, even if it does.
“The situation has been complex for two months,” says Gwenaelle Delos, the UK and Ireland managing director of Atout France, the French tourism development agency. “At the start of the year, we were looking to promote all our destinations and welcome British people to France. Now, we are still waiting to hear when travel will start properly again.”
She is hopeful that the coming weeks may bring clarity. “France is just next door,” she adds. “Self-drive holidays will be an option - and travel within France is now unrestricted across all regions, which is a big step in the right direction.” But there remains a sense of a holiday season stuck in an interminable stasis; a troubled pause that is visible on the home page of the official French tourism website (uk.france.fr/en) - which, at time of writing, is playing it vague with a piece on “dreamy beaches in the Basque Country” and a call to “share our memories of trips in France”. This summer as past, not present, tense.
But then, France is not alone in keeping back from walking forward, hoping that a clearer path through the swamp will quickly emerge. Indeed, even the briefest series of glances at the tourism websites of some of our European neighbours reveals the same uncertainty - albeit with different ways to keep the ball bouncing while the players are still off court.
Poland (poland.travel/en) and Slovenia (slovenia.info), for example, are using the Covid-interruption as a juncture in which to stress their eco-credentials. The former is currently topping its website with a gorgeous overhead photo of kayakers on a lushly tree-framed river - and appealing to the virtual visitor with a cry of “don’t cancel, change the date, support tourism”. The latter is talking warmly of a “journey to a green country where the Alps meet the Mediterranean and the Pannonian Plain” - where you can “let your mind wander through vast forests,” even though “it may be a while before we can meet again”.
Both these dalliances with environmentally-friendly messaging, while barely more than holding patterns, are a little more proactive than the tourism sites for Italy (italia.it/en) and Greece (visitgreece.gr), which are sticking to the vicarious-travel theme that was du jour in the early stages of the lockdown (“Seven Italian museums to visit from home with virtual tours”; #GreeceFromHome). But both these sites are perhaps more realistic - at least for the next month - than the Croatia portal (croatia.hr/en-GB), which has made a leap to full-blown optimism with a four-work kicker of “The Vacation You Deserve”, accompanied by an image of four suitably smiley twentysomethings jumping into the sea - though the waters look choppy.
“It has been a challenging time,” says Emy Anagnostopoulou, the director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO) in the UK. “We were ready to announce another record-breaking year based on pre-bookings. But instead, our marketing plans had to be left aside in order to monitor all Covid-19 developments - both in the UK and in Greece.”
She does not, however, see the upcoming holiday season as being completely beyond salvation. “We are optimistic that Greece will claim a large share of the - substantially smaller - tourism pie in the summer of 2020,” she continues. “And we expect that 2021 will be extremely strong for our country, capitalising on Greece’s successful management of the crisis, and on its safety as a destination - as well as its year-round tourism product.”
Few tourism authorities are - understandably - keen to use the C-word more than they need to, and certainly not front and centre of any key window of communication. Which makes the Spanish (spain.info/en) approach all the more striking. Its homepage opens onto a set of sentences that sugar-coats precisely no pills. “Spain is giving everything it’s got in a united, responsible fight against the spread of the Covid-19 virus,” it announces. “We will soon be able to welcome you again with open arms. You’ll soon be able to marvel at our landscapes, feel our sun on your face and share in our lifestyle. Until then, look after yourselves and those around you. Thankyou for your support. #SpainWillWait”
It is - a brief round of applause and a murmur of appreciation - a very clever piece of self-promotion, presented as caution. Because while the words draw you down towards that concluding prohibitive hashtag, the picture on which the text is superimposed pulls you instead in the direction of the pertinent line about marvelling at landscapes and feeling the sun on your skin. It shows one of the intricately decorated interior walls of that Moorish miracle the Alhambra - pierced by a delicate arch-window through which the whitewashed walls of the Andalusian city of Granada are visible, drenched in bright light. The old cliché about absence making the heart grow fonder rarely feels more appropriate.
Of course, extended moments of stillness can also be a chance to shout into the silence. And where some tourist boards are clearly unsure about how best to unpick the tangled knot that is 2020, others have glimpsed an opportunity to try something a little different.
Step forward the northern regions of Norway, Sweden and Finland. Traditionally, these winter-defined parts of the Nordic landmass have competed with each other for visitors, despite the fact that some overseas markets - Britain included - tend to see them, not a little unfairly, as much of a muchness when it comes to ice hotels, husky excursions, wood-fired saunas and encounters with the aurora borealis. But sensing that this is also a quiet time in which to make a loud statement, the three nations have banded together to promote their uppermost areas beneath the banner of “Arctic Europe” (thisisarctic.com).
It is such a simple a piece of branding that you wonder why it hasn’t been used before.
“As these Nordic regions are fairly small and resources are limited, it makes sense to do things together, and join forces for a bigger impact,” explains the company’s Rauno Posio. “Arctic Europe is competing against some big destinations, and thus far, it hasn’t been that well known. This collaboration allows us to put ‘Arctic Europe’ on the map.”
“It’s a win-win-win situation for everyone,” he continues. “For locals, economies and travellers. For businesses, this is a great opportunity to learn from each other and grow. And travellers, they can easily experience three locations, from fjords to fells, in one go.”
Then there is New Zealand which - having demonstrated admirable poise and purpose in shielding its citizens from coronavirus - has found a spark of inspiration in the boredom and restriction of lockdown. Last week, its tourism authority (see newzealand.com/uk) released a video which spliced footage of self-isolating families with epic images of its mountains and coastline. While the country’s borders are currently closed - and may remain so to foreign holidaymakers until 2021 - the message is clear: This is not forever.
“A forced pause can be cause for reflection on what is most important,” says Tourism New Zealand’s marketing director Brodie Reid. “With barely a place on earth untouched by the global pandemic, its far-reaching negative impact is devastating and undeniable. Yet in times of crisis, there lies opportunity. A time to pause, reflect and repurpose both ourselves and the world we live in. As old ways break down, new ways break through.”
