It has been said again and again. Your competition is not the business next door. Your competition is not the next town or the next region. Your direct competition is are the other destinations (and other distractions) all over the world that could cause your prospective visitor to never even arrive on your shores, yet alone at your doors.
But sometimes, pictures speak louder than words.
This week at ITB the world’s tourism destinations were on display. An attractive, dizzying whirl of infinite travel possibilities, all chasing a finite visitor spend.
So take a glimpse at your competition.
Which destinations really stood out?
India was again incredibly impressive. I have previously posted here about the Incredible India campaign and I am a big fan of the marketing and strategic efforts being made by India to dramatically grow its inbound tourism. Those efforts were in full flow at ITB and business was clearly being done.
The efforts seem to be paying off – compared to 2006, foreign tourists earnings grew 33.8%, with 2006 having previously registered a growth of 19.2% over 2005 (more facts and figures here). As hosts of the 2010 Commonwealth Games and with an aggressive tourism growth strategy in place, it seems likely that growth will continue.
Poland – not surprisingly given its geographic proximity to Germany, Poland’s presence at ITB was extensive and compelling. With dramatic landscapes, historic buildings and deep culture it represents an interesting potential competitor to Scotland. Poland also now has an extensive expatriate population working across the EU and beyond, who are effectively prospective return visitors (just as the Scottish and Indian Diaspora represent prime targets in their “home” markets).
Euromonitor predicts the hosting of Euro 2012 will be a significant development factor for Poland’s tourism industry: “This third largest sports competition in the world will intensively impact the development of such sectors as hotels, foodservice and transportation. Rough estimates are that about EUR50 billion will be spent in the coming years to ensure that the complete infrastructure is in place for this large event.”
The Faroe Islands – now with a direct flight from London’s Stansted Airport, Faroe is in its own words “bypassing Shetland” where the visitors from London previously used to land. Like Shetland, its remoteness is an attraction, but it comes at the price of high transportation costs (though it does not regard itself as being as expensive as Iceland, for example). Also like Scotland’s Northern Isles, the Faroe Islands lead on the natural environment and historic culture and it is focussing product development on areas like cycling, hiking, seabirds, diving and fishing.
Scandinavia – sited right next to the UK stand (embracing an individual presence for Scotland, Wales, England and London) was the united front of Scandinavia. Featuring Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, the Scandinavian group has some of the strongest destinations for natural beauty, environmental and eco-tourism. Most of the group are experiencing fairly consistent tourism growth.
Like parts of Scotland, some of Scandinavia suffers from extreme seasonality in its tourism, with summer the most popular time to visit. Iceland, according to Euromonitor, has managed to curtail this somewhat in the past few years with strategies to attract convention and incentive travellers as well as those looking for a city break. Evidence suggests it is en route to becoming a major destination.
So, how does a destination compete with the rest of the world?
To get insight into this I’d recommend checking out the Country Brand Index research by FutureBrand. This highly useful and in-depth annual research ranks key tourism destinations according to factors such as assets, reputation, experiences and perceptions.
Australia leads the overall country brand index. India was number 1 for authenticity in the 2006 country brand index, with New Zealand leading in 2007 (all extremely strongly marketed destinations). Sweden topped the environmental rankings in 2007, with Croatia named as rising star. (Poland also appears in the top 10 places on their way to becoming major destinations).
In their 2006 report, FutureBrand explained:
“A country’s ability to be authentic, deliver authentic and communicate authentic is probably one of its biggest destination advantages today.”
“People want to experience the true essence of a different place. This is the magic of a country brand.”
But in such a competitive market, destinations are struggling.
“Within the sea of print collateral, few country brands stand out. In addition to having similar language and tone, many ads and brochures share a similar look and feel. In fear of narrow-casting or focusing on one core asset, many countries go in the reverse direction and link to sweeping and generic words like “truly” or “amazing.” They feature hero shots of sky, beach and other stereotypical images of “paradise” and “culture,” employing a wide palette of bold colors. This attempt to grab consumers and invite them to think about vacationing as the realization of dream, discovery and relaxation has become undifferentiated in a saturated marketplace.”
The destinations I highlighted above have not made this mistake (nor do other leading destinations, including in my opinion Scotland). They have a strong sense of identity and authenticity and they focus on the core values at the heart of the brand.
Many of Euromonitor’s top 150 city destinations worldwide, which account for 27% of the global inbound tourism in terms of arrivals, also demonstrate these same features. This suggests that authenticity and a focus on unique, defining character is a far more potent strategy than attempting to promote a destination as a generalist “something for everyone”.
Do you agree? What country destinations do you think the competition should be aware of?
This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 1:05 am and is filed under Brand research, Conference learnings, Destination research, National tourism strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.