We've been posting all week about the important of public leadership for the tourism industry. Today's final installment looks at what the private parties can do, and what happens if promotion stops.
A good example of private-sector initiative comes from the 30-year-old Greater Seattle Business Association, the country's largest LGBT chamber of commerce. GSBA runs its own promotion, Travel Gay Seattle, with the slogan "Where Out Is In," which is responsible for moving Seattle from 19th to 9th place as a destination for the closely watched gay travel sector. "Ahead of Philadelphia!" the GSBA's Rene Neidhart told the Seattle City Council.
But is it enough? Enough to make a difference? City council member Jean Godden, who chairs the budget committee, calls even the modest TIA assessment "a good thing, a step in the right direction."
An instructive example from Europe. Italy was once the most visited country in the world, until, in 1993, in the midst of an austerity crisis, its citizens voted to eliminate the country's cabinet-level Ministry of Tourism. The thinking was, Italy has everything, from La Dolce Vita to the Sistine Chapel, and it's on everybody wish list, so there's no need to spend a bundle on telling our story. Wrong! Within a decade, Italy had fallen from first to fifth in both international arrivals and tourism revenues. They're trying desperately to catch up, with a new tourist board and a new tourism minister, but it's a tough battle to claw back once you've been deposed.
France, on the other hand, invested heavily in tourism promotion and did a decent job of overcoming its reputation as hostile to foreign visitors. Sunny Spain, which has an even more positive image, sees fewer visitors than France but earns more from tourism than any European country. France wants to wring a few more euros from its 77 million tourists; they've started by moving tourism into the Finance Ministry.
Poor Italy: all those priceless art treasures, all that delicious pasta, all that magnificent scenery, and they're stuck in fifth place.
Buon Natale! Merry Christmas!
Leave a comment