I am at JFK Airport in New York City waiting for boarding. This is the first time I try to fully post and add an image from my Blackberry. Please, forgive me if something goes wrong and/or my spelling is not perfect.
Walking to my gate I did notice this billboard by NYC & Co. (the official tourism board for New York City) that reads “I dine after nine, therefore I am. This is New York City”. I could not help from taking a picture.
They definitely got my attention from a destination marketing point, but not sure how to feel about the message. I am confused about which target segment they are trying to reach:
1) I live in New York and assume that lots of people living in New York depart from this gate. We know you can eat in the city at any time day or night and you take it for granted.
2) This is a domestic terminal meaning that many people have already made the decision to visit New York City if they arrive here. As a marketer, how effective is it to put your marketing dollars here?
3) The fact that you can eat at a restaurant after nine is probably not the reason why the tourists “THEREFORE ARE” and – above all – why they are here now.
4) If the target segment is domestic – which I think it must be (the Spaniards eat regularly much later than that and would laugh at such an ad), the message might sound too arrogant, but very New York.
Any other thought? Given the budget at your DMO, would you spend it this way? I would not.
The speculations about the new Apple device came to an end when Steve Jobs finally showcased the iPad on January 27. Some pundits were overenthusiastic about it, others disappointed. The fact in itself that people are talking so much about something that they barely have seen and probably not yet touched is significant.
Personally I love my iPod Touch, but I use my Blackberry for email and reading RSS feeds on-the-go: I can rely on a better battery life and have not got used at typing on the iPod’s touchscreen. However, recently I finished to read Open by Andre Agassi through the Kindle application on my iPod and it was a very pleasant experience. I also worked on a few applications to distribute travel guides on the internet (i.e. Monaco) and I would not think about doing it for a Blackberry. I believe that the iPad will consolidate the ongoing trend that tablets, netbooks and smarphones will be the favorite access points to digital content. Still not sure how much of an impact it will have on consumers and travelers in general. Troy Thomson at Travel 2.0 has an interesting take on it. I am sure that once the device is in our hands will find favorite ways to use it and developers will implement new ideas to make it more powerful than what it looks now.
At the conference, I was somewhat surprised with the optimism shown by most hoteliers. While economists and finance people see a full recovery in 2011, they affirm that we are already seeing some good signs of recovery and banks are starting lending again.
Another point that struck me – perhaps because I deal with the luxury travel market – was that most upscale CEOs have decried rate reductions. Nowadays, most properties are discounting like crazy, cutting personnel and increasing staff productivity by cross-training their employees. Corporate clients are in a position to negotiate rates and ask for more perks. However, lowering rates does not always work to boost demand and drives revenues down.
An interesting article about this can be fount at BTNonline.com.
The Swiss Tourism Board posted a video announcing that it was seeking volunteers to join the Association of Mountain Cleaners. The video claimed, “The Association of Mountain Cleaners… makes sure that our holiday guests can always enjoy perfect mountains. Using brooms, brushes, water and muscle power, they clean the rocks of any bird droppings.”
At the end of the video, visitors to myswitzerland.com were invited to take a mountain cleaner aptitude test and submit their name for a chance to win a week’s holiday in Switzerland.
They got tons of media coverage around the world. No kidding. Simply smart!
