Arm-Chair Travelling, Power Of Advertising And The Tourism Industry!
Why is it that visuals of the Great Barrier Reef, fishes swimming away and surfers riding the waves on the Bondi beach is enough to create an intense urge to simply pack up your bags and visit Australia? Power of advertising – that’s why! Packaging an experience to faraway viewers to tempt them to come and spend money at a place – isn’t it that what tourism advertising is all about? At its core, tourism and its advertising is important because at the end of the day it increases new visitors to a particular location which is good news for the economy of that place. It boosts the tourism industry by generating tourists and visitors from both the local and international markets. Tourism advertising helps a potential tourist get familiar with a place even before visiting it personally and encourages ‘arm-chair’ travelling which is a sensory experience of travel without leaving one’s home.
Today our world is largely driven by media. Every business wants to use media to promote itself. In the case of tourism, customers want to plan vacations and then visit places that are more talked about or promoted on it. So advertising plays an important role in generating hype. And to craft ads for tourism which are talked about more, advertising relies heavily on the imagination of travellers. Essentially advertising creates a kind of halo effect which helps to build and alter impression about a place or a destination.
Usually certain kinds of branding statements are used which connect the place/destination with the potential visitors in an emotional and authentic way. If we look at Malaysia’s campaign, they used a simple tagline that included their larger message – Malaysia, Truly Asia. At its surface, the message gives away a geographic location which is Asia and then the implied message being ‘Truly Asia’ which celebrates the diverse populations that reside on the peninsular nation and how Malaysia is the place where all the flavours, colours, sounds and sights of Asia converge. The videos include visuals of the native people, food and the bio-diversity of Malaysia which connects potential visitors to the region in an emotional yet authentic way.
People begin to consider certain destinations not just for tourism but also for other purposes. Studies have shown that people respond positively to other purposes such as living at the location, set up a career or a business at the location and perhaps even pursue education in that particular location due to effective advertising. People even consider retiring at a particular destination or to purchase a second home. All of these positive consequences – whether unforeseen or direct are the result of tourism advertising. In several cases, effective tourism advertising has had long term benefits for a destination or a place. Effective advertising may not always ‘guarantee’ success but it certainly increases the chances for it.
Besides inspiring people to travel, what tourism advertising also serves to do is to to inform people about the places to visit, traveller information, how to go about bookings and planning. The job of tourism advertising is not just to show that travelling to destinations is exciting or fulfilling. It is also to depict that travelling and its planning is easy and affordable. Tourism advertising is gaining importance due to affordable transportation fares and also because of the expanding global tourism market. Campaigns are being run in western countries to promote travel destinations abroad because expenditures on tourism by its general public are higher. Domestic destinations have also seen an uptick in visitors thanks to alluring tourism advertising.
When it comes to the majority of tourism ads, many ads promoting foreign nations are often produced and disseminated by the tourism ministries of those countries themselves. Such advertisements end up serving as vessels for political statements and depictions of that country’s preferred perceptions to be held by the foreign public. We can look at India itself. The Ministry of Tourism went ahead with the ‘Incredible India’ campaign that portrayed the rich culture, the diverse people and the continuing traditions of India in a series of ads. This campaign celebrated the rich and unique diversity of India and at the same time became a tool for ‘soft power diplomacy’. Soft power diplomacy is when a country subtly shapes preferences through its culture, values and foreign policies. Many destinations use certain focal points to give the impression of leisure and recreational travel experience in their locations. They create television ads and websites that focus on a care-free, culturally rich and exciting experience for travellers and create taglines to reinforce the ideas of getaway places or escapes.
Other nations use advertisements to change negative impressions previously held by the foreign public towards that location. When these nations develop advertisements, they are trying to capitalise on the growing travel market to boost their own economy by showing their own country in a positive light. In addition to this, nations also try to strengthen diplomatic and international ties while aiming to deepen its trade relations especially with the first world countries. Some countries also attempt to boost tourism through religion and advertise how tourists can visit a destination for a spiritual experience or a religious pilgrimage in their country. Other countries depict their natural beauty of landscapes and geography in their larger-than-life campaigns.
An advertising agency usually steps in and helps decide what kind of opinion is to be made after all stakeholders come together to plan and boost tourism of a particular place. In communicating that perception, ad agencies plan out campaigns which run on multiple media platforms. A creative agency also handles deliverables for travel agencies which include developing gift vouchers and elements needed at point of sale, besides developing larger ideas for television commercials and newspaper ads. Besides these, ad agencies also help in marketing of the tourism industry by crafting ads and campaigns for travel agencies which then further promote travel packages and bookings etc. Advertising has had many positive consequences for the tourism industry – some direct and some over a period of time. Travel and tourism has increased and so have the experiences and stories of tourists. Long live the spirit of travel and may it continue to inspire people to go places!
Thank You
Content Source: Water Communications Image Source: · Twitter@incredibleindia · Shutterstock · tourism.gov.my