Sustainable Tourism Post Covid-19

Reading through this Guardian article on Barcelona without the tourists, it’s crazy to think of the new reality we all find ourselves in, post the outbreak of Covid-19.

This is especially true for the tourism industry, in Spain, here in the UK and Ireland, and just about everywhere else around the world.

Hit Pause

I’ve been lucky enough to work in, and then with, the tourism industry and various tourism businesses and projects, since 2014 up until now. It’s an exciting industry, and an enjoyable one for a marketeer.

Every year felt the same. The drive for growth is/was insatiable, and it was a common catchphrase at annual Tourism Ireland conferences that the dial reverts to zero every year on January 1st, with the aim being more visitors and tourists than ever before.

Now everyone, from top to bottom has had to hit pause.

Cities like Barcelona, with 2 million residents, have witnessed approximately 30 million annual visitors disappear in a flash.

Belfast, Dublin, Galway, the Causeway Coast, and the Wild Atlantic Way have all seen exactly the same, and just as the new season was due to start.

Tourism Post Covid-19

For the most part, nobody has questioned the various lockdowns. Everybody has understood what is required.

Despite that, from a tourism perspective, it has been devastating and the ramifications will most likely ripple for many years to come. It’s hard to envisage pre-Coronavirus travelling on the same scale, at least in the short to mid-term.

However, that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.

Both Barcelona and Amsterdam, two major European tourism hubs, are said to be reevaluating their cities, with a greater focus on the wellbeing and experiences of local people and local tourists, after all of this has begun to pass.

One local Amsterdam resident took his children to the historic Wallen district (also known as the red light district), now minus stag parties and hyped-up tourists, and called it a “memory of a lifetime”.

The same could happen here.

Local tourists could experience the Ring of Kerry in all its glory, without massive unsustainable numbers of visitors around every corner. The same can be said of Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, Dublin’s Temple Bar district and more.

Obviously every visitor is welcomed, and they are the lifeblood of the tourism industry, of jobs, and livelihoods. This isn’t about them, it’s about making it more sustainable in future when they’re welcomed back.

Post Covid-19 Tourism in Ireland

Locally, we don’t have to look too far to see the negative impact of tourism.

Countless reports charting the destruction of the world famous Dark Hedges (featured in HBO’s Game of Thrones) have appeared throughout the last half-decade, with tourism speeding up a natural process beyond repair. That’s just one attraction in one corner of the island.

Things won’t be the same for a long time, at the very least, but hopefully this forced pause will allow us to rejig the local tourism industry with a greater emphasis on sustainable experiences and memories, both for local visitors, and those who will eventually be welcomed back to our shores.

In amongst the relentless wave of bad news, it’s positive to see that the “memory of a lifetime” can still happen in 2020, and beyond.

True Partnerships in Podcasting

As a marketing professional I often view life through the prism of marketing/PR/comms.

When big news stories break, or topics become hot, I sometimes wonder what I would do or recommend, if I was sitting around the table at the centre of the storm. Not every day. I’m not that boring, I hope.

However, it was this type of thinking that caught me last Thursday evening during a drive home after a meeting.

Trusting Audiences

For the last decade I have religiously listened to The Guardian’s flagship football podcast Football Weekly, every Monday and Thursday, almost without fail. During that time I’ve become accustomed to also listening to sponsorship or advertising messages, usually placed at the beginning of each episode.

As with much of the advertising we’re exposed to on a daily basis, I’ve become pretty proficient at drowning it out and ignoring it. The only ads/campaigns I can really remember are those by Beer52 and Gillette.

All of this lead to me being slightly shocked when the Football Weekly cast set aside approximately 25% of their Thursday show (15–20 minutes) to let their colleague, and German football expert, Archie Rhind-Tutt discuss his recent absence, and subsequent return, due to mental health issues.

Normally this type of issue is addressed at the beginning of an episode (of any podcast) and then everyone quickly moves on, either due to awkwardness or tight content schedules. Not here.

Instead, Archie was given the time and space to discuss each aspect of his journey as in-depth as he wanted. What’s more, he was (probably*) talking directly to the group (young men) most at-risk of death by suicide in the UK, Ireland, and further afield.

I can’t speak for all regular listeners, but I was a captive, trusting audience and the message hit home with more clarity and attention than 99% of the messages currently being pushed out there via mental health charities and public health campaigns.

Partnership

This leads me to think about the power of true partnerships.

I know podcast advertising is old-hat but that’s not what I’m suggesting here. This example really reveals the power of a real partnership that makes sense, is highly relevant to the target audience, and features someone already deeply embedded into the programme, and thus trusted and listened to by the audience.

I’m not suggesting this be used to sell products or shove brands down throats (because that’s not what this is and it wouldn’t work) but the relevance and utility to public health or wider government comms messages seems clear.

Well done to everyone at Team Football Weekly.

*Obviously I don’t have their listener-ship stats/demos…but football is very popular with young men so…

Marketing Priorities

When this Seth Godin blog landed in my inbox earlier this month, it instantly struck a chord.

The “time and money” principle is something I’ve referenced again and again when discussing projects old and new.

Time 

Effective marketing takes time.

For a small business that could be sitting down for 1 hour per week and planning out content and messaging, for another it could be daily engagement on Instagram or Twitter.  

For larger businesses more time is needed on all levels - strategising, building/creating, measurement, and improvement.

Yet for many businesses, there still seems to be a belief that improvements can be made without any investment.

Money 

The other side, of course, is that businesses can pay.

You can pay for expertise, ads and coverage, or both at the same time.

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As Godin says, it all eventually boils down to priorities.

I’m guilty of falling into the trap too. Of wondering why certain things aren’t happening or progressing, but eventually it usually winds its way back to two age-old problems: time and money.

Fake News: A Battle of Perception

In the space of a week or two I read Ryan Holiday’s book “Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator” and then subsequently stumbled upon this BBC article about fake news.

Image Source: BBC News

Image Source: BBC News

Fake news has been a media buzzword since Donald Trump’s election in America in 2016 but it’s still the tried and true method of altering perception; for good or bad.

From a business perspective it can be difficult to focus on this long-term goal of changing/improving/evolving perceptions of our brand, business or product however, the last few years have shown just how powerful a tool it can be…

What do you Miss about the Early Internet?

This question was asked on a subreddit (a specific forum on Reddit.com) over the weekend and it has proved interesting reading.

When you think about it, the Internet as we know it is really less than twenty years old at best.

Back in 1998 many of us probably received those free AOL (or some other variation) Internet access CDs in the post and slowly discovered what was out there beyond simple word processing and Microsoft Paint.

For the world in general twenty years is nothing. A blip.

Online, however, is a different story. Things move so quickly that twenty years feels like a lifetime.

Internet Memories

Do you remember those awful, tiny geocities websites people used to make?

What about the Internet before social media? Or the rise and fall of Myspace and Bebo?

It’s funny to think back on all of the strange Internet phenomenon that became massively popular and then quickly disappeared in a matter of months or years.

Napster. Flash animations. Pop ups. Limewire. MSN. Tiny niche forums.

What will it all look like in another twenty years?

You can check out the Reddit discussion here if you’d like a trip down memory lane.