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Tourism Destination Advertising As Fuel for Crisis Management
Nov 05, 2009 (Daily Champion/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
The global Travel & Tourism industry has emerged as one of the 21st Century's most powerful segments of economic and social growth and development.
Importantly the Travel and Tourism sector has made it possible for nations entering into and emerging within the global economy to proudly and confidently play a part as a tourism destination. In addition to the sector's ability to generate significant, sustainable revenues, employment and investment for nations across the globe, Travel & Tourism has provided a framework for aligning and inspiring national purpose, pride and profile.
The approach taken towards building destination awareness and image is critical to the destination's ultimate appeal and competitiveness. Destination Branding - a clear, compelling and competitive proposition combined with a unique, creative identity and a strong communications strategy - acts as a fuel for establishing and embedding a destination as a serious offering for travellers. And when married to the right media partners the advertising messages of the destination are able to be carried through messengers skilled with reaching the right audiences in the right environments at the right time.
The role of advertising is critical to destination success at many levels. Media has a powerful influence on the destination's Brand and greater industry building efforts. Support of the media as an advertising partner is not, however, simply for when the destination is managing the business of Tourism.
Media - A critical partner in destination recovery
What is often overlooked is the important role which the media plays when crisis occurs and a destination's tourism sector is brought to a standstill. When faced with disaster, be it acts of God or acts of man, travellers make assumptions about the state of the tourism industry - its ability to offer travellers a local experience both in terms of infrastructure and spirit. Safety and security, as well as experience satisfaction, become doubted. When things go horribly wrong the natural assumption is that it will take some time before things are right again.
The ability for a destination to recover and rebuild its infrastructure and its image becomes heavily dependent on the destination's ability to communicate to the world that it is 'open for business'.
Over the past decade an array of disasters, both natural and manmade have hit the world and its tourism sector. From SARS to the Tsunami, 9-11 and H1N1, destinations across the globe have had their tourism industry thrown into periods of paralysis. Destinations have had to fight through these challenges to re-mobilise the industry and encourage travellers to return. Similarly a number of nations have emerged into a new liberation. The end of wars, the redefinition of borders, the beginning of new political eras, and the advancement of societies have all played a part in shifting nations from states of destruction to states of peaceful security.
As destinations have (re)emerged and evolved as new geographies, new societies, new economies and centres of new opportunity the ability for the world to understand and embrace their new ethos has had much to do with the way in which the nation has expressed itself to internal and external audiences from a communications perspective.
For many nations the Travel & Tourism sector has been identified as a powerful means of mobilising national employment, earnings and investment as levers for greater national growth and development, Equally important the Travel & Tourism sector allows the nation to re-present itself to the world with a new face, new spirit, new identity - one built on belief in the future, not challenges of the past.
During times of crisis when the destination is in the headlines, in-the-moment communication conveys the story of the situation. Once the crisis has concluded, however, the communications silence coming from the destination creates assumptions in the minds of travellers around the state of the destination in terms of ability to reopen the tourism industry. These assumptions more often than not are far worst than the reality, causing dangerous delays to destination recovery. Consequently the destination is stunted in its ability to get back on its feet again, operationally and emotionally, as there are no tourists to welcome, to go back to work for, to become excited about.
Destination advertising is, therefore, vital to national profiling and perception change - shifts in mindset critical to attracting travellers and investors and thereby creating a sustainable, equitable tourism industry.
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