Tracking Tourism: The Tourism Research Blog Archive for the ‘Brand research’ Category

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?

A fact that often demands repeating at a local tourism level is that your primary competition is not the neighbouring accommodation provider or a visitor attraction up the road, but the other contenders for your target customer’s time and money – such as emerging destinations on the other side of the world.

During a recent Scottish Marketing Association presentation on Scotland’s international image, Judy Torrence, Head of International Image for Scotland’s Government, was asked which country branding campaigns currently had her attention.

Incredible India was one of the campaigns she cited.

On the surface, India may seem an unlikely competitor to Scotland, particularly when contrasted with New Zealand, one of the more obvious contenders. However, in my view there are striking parallels between the strategies of the two countries.

Tourism parallels of India and Scotland

Just like Scotland (which aims to increase tourism revenues 50% by 2015), India has set itself aggressive tourism growth targets. As this article reports, India’s government has set itself the target of 10 million tourists in 2010, which it believes the 2010 Commonwealth Games will help achieve.

India’s total tourist flow was 2.38 million in 2002, 3.92 million in 2005, while in 2006 the figure rose to 4.43 million. Scotland, of course, is a mature market (16 million tourists took overnight trips in 2006), whereas India is starting from a low base, so it is no surprise Scotland’s targets relate to uplifting spend whereas India’s relate to increasing footfall.

Both Scotland and India have a substantial, influential and global Diaspora and both are developing strategies to engage with that Diaspora. Not only that, the Diaspora of similar sizes (20 million for India and by our recent count around 18 million for Scotland) and in some common countries, such as Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Caribbean and of course, England.

India formed its High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora in September 2000 in recognition of the need to develop the significant roles the Diaspora plays as investor, customer, supplier, ambassador and philanthropist. (More on this strategy can be found in this report by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.)

Both countries are implementing strategies to improve standards on the ground. Scotland has Pride and Passion and the 100k Welcomes customer experience training programme, whereas India has the Atithi Devo Bhavah programme, a Social Awareness Campaign aimed at providing the inbound tourist a sense of being welcomed to the country.

As the Minister of State for Tourism states on the official site “‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’ is a nationwide campaign aimed at sensitising people about India’s rich cultural heritage, its preservation, cleanliness, hospitality and bringing out an attitudinal shift among the masses towards tourists. It is a symbolic representation of India’s age old hospitality and with this campaign, we are trying to re-install in the stakeholders a sense of pride and responsibility towards tourists, while positioning India as a popular tourist destination worldwide.”

These are sentiments that I think Scotland’s Pride and Passion would absolutely recognise too.

So, given the parallels between the tourism strategies of Scotland and India, despite their different market maturities, perhaps it is no wonder Incredible India is on Judy Torrence’s radar. However, another reason must surely be the innovativeness and success of the Incredible India marketing campaign itself.

Incredible India marketing in action

One of the challenges of the Incredible India campaign (one also familiar to those marketing tourism in Scotland) is that many images associated with the country and brand are rooted in tradition and the past. The Diaspora particularly is likely to have memories and perceptions of India that are dated due to their prolonged absence from the country.

So India has taken a very modern, often online approach in its marketing. Just last month, Secretary of India’s Ministry of Tourism, Mr Shilabhadra Banerjee, launched an India Brand Channel on YouTube to help communicate the wonders of India to a worldwide audience. It is also well ahead of many destinations in its use of online social media. (You can read more about this in this blog post by Jens Thraehart: Tourism India on YouTube or read our newly released report for An Introduction To Online Social Networks).

Given the ambition and success to date of India and the parallels between two these two Diaspora countries, the Incredible India campaign is certainly one to watch – and in terms of Diaspora engagement strategy, India may also be one of the more relevant benchmarks for Scotland’s own endeavours.