When Tourism Promotion Becomes An Obligation

So, bookings are already well up for holidays in the Balearics next summer, an increase achieved with the help of little promotional effort by the Balearic Government's tourism ministry. There has to be a moral to this story, and the simplistic one is that the individual islands are strong and resilient enough brands not to require a great deal of promotional effort.

I say simplistic, but this doesn't mean that the conclusion is entirely wrong. While competition to the Balearics has grown, one should place oneself in the shoes of the ordinary holidaymaker (British) who has to decide on next year's holiday destination. Of European destinations, there are several to choose from. The holidaymaker knows about these other destinations, he will probably have seen promotions for them all, but he still decides on Mallorca or another Balearic island despite an absence of promotion. Why?

One reason is the strength of the brand and what it represents. There is much to be said for a brand that has attributes of reliability and security as well as sun and beach. Mallorca is like a Volvo. You know what you're going to get, you know it won't go wrong and you know it'll be safe. The choice may not be original, but originality long disappeared from the decision-making choice of the ordinary holidaymaker. Everywhere does sun, beach, bars, culture, sports. There is little that can be claimed as unique. Throw in, for the British holidaymaker, a stronger pound and relatively short travel times to Mallorca, and the decision isn't so difficult. 

This rosy picture doesn't mean that promotion can be neglected, but one of the benefits of economic crisis has been a far greater appreciation as to how promotional euros should be spent. Tourism minister Delgado gets it in the neck for the paltry amounts that are on offer for promotion, but he has defended the ministry's budget by saying that there is greater imagination and less waste. It has taken time for the penny to drop, but three years ago when there was a general wailing and gnashing of teeth because of cuts to promotional funding, I said: "slash the budget even more and then make them think how they can make their money work harder".

There is more imagination that could be shown, especially when it comes to the use of social media, but I am willing to defend Delgado. He is not in thrall to a need to unearth celebrities and to pump funds into expensive advertising as former ministers (and presidents; well one certainly) were. If government coffers were stuffed with cash, he may well fall into the same trap, but he should be given credit for recognising that promotion does not have to mean a rubbish advert with Nadal on a boat.

Because of the high volume of tourism in 2011 and 2012 and the anticipation of a similar volume in 2013, the temptation exists to simply sit on laurels and expect tourists to turn up regardless. They may well do, but, and despite financial constraints, this is no reason to scale back promotion to the point where one day they may not; brand reliability or not. And one aspect of promotion that shouldn't be neglected is that of tour operator collaboration.

Joint promotional efforts with tour operators have been a staple of the tourism marketing mix for Mallorca and the Balearics. Their importance may be overstated as tour operators are not about to not invest in promotion when they have huge numbers of holidays to sell. The government can take the attitude that the promotion will be done anyway, but joint promotion is more than simply a marketing exercise; it is a recognition of the mutual benefits that tour operator-government relationships bring. In a sense, government financial support is like a subsidy to the tour operators, and though this sounds dodgy in a competition sense, it isn't. Indeed, there is more reason than ever for such joint promotions to be reinforced.

Mallorca and the tour operators face a similar issue in that the nature of tourism markets has changed to the extent that it has. Once upon a time, the market that Mallorca sold to was fairly homogeneous; it was primarily a northern European one that had one wish - sun. The message, though customised by language, was the same. This is no longer the case. There are now that many more markets, all of them more fragmented in terms of media and consumer sophistication or expectation, which provide competition to Mallorca and that many more markets which Mallorca has to promote to. For the tour operators, there are that many more markets to be promoted.

It may seem as if Mallorca is being held to ransom in having to chip in, but it isn't anything of the sort. The tour operators provide Mallorca's lifeblood, and the government shouldn't forget this. Peculiar though it will sound, there is a moral as much as an economic obligation to joint promotions.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.