Enac (the the Italian Civil Aviation Authority) published the data for air traffic in 2010. Italy’s airports recorded a total traffic of 138,893.023 passengers, an 7% increase from 2009.
Passengers Traffic for the first 10 Italian airports:
Roma Fiumicino 35,956.295
Milano Malpensa 18,714.187
Milano Linate con 8,295.436
Bergamo 7.661.061
Venice 6,801.941
Catania 6,301.832
Napoli con 5,535.984
Bologna con 5,432.248
Roma Ciampino con 4,563.852
Palermo 4,341.696
Magica Italia is the new video commercial that is going to air in Italy to boost tourism. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi speaks on the background. Will this video really help tourism and convince Italians to book their summer vacation at home?
I have recently worked on the Italy section of the new European Online Travel Report published by PhoCusWright and one thing that surprised me particularly was the extensive use of social networking back in my country. As a matter of fact, I briefly mention this in the conclusion of my study.
I have been in the US for years now and it has been a struggle to keep in touch with family and friends. The best way has always been the phone and my bills have been traditionally expensive. I have been begging friends and relatives to use email as communication means, but with little success. In the last few years, things have changed for the better thanks to social networking.
Something that I thought was mere perception from my own experience, it is actually confirmed in a recent study published by L’Espresso, an Italian weekly magazine. Italians love online social networking (not just the younger generations) and the sense of community that these web sites create.
Even though the study was conducted on 1,326 social networking users, some results should certainly get the attention of marketers and online travel gurus:
93,70% of people surveyed are on Facebook
97,20% use e-mail, 79,30% instant messenger, 49,40% forum
44,30% check their profile on their favorite social networking web site daily
58,70% use social networking web sites to keep in touch with friends,
46,30% use social networking to share information.
40,70% think that social networking web sites are an effective promotional tool for work related activities
45% find information through social networking web sites
The study does not cover the impact of Twitter in Italy. I have seen some professionals and journalists using it, but its adoption – I believe – is still in its infancy. This might change soon since Twitter recently announced an Italian version of the web site. In spite of the fact that social networking web sites have become so big in Italy, businesses (including – above all – travel) are not catching up and are missing on a big opportunity to have their marketing message on steroids with a minimal investment.
Execution: A one-minute youtube video that displays numerous Italian tourist highlights: from the Coliseum to Sicily, from Florence to Naples to name a few. ENIT (the Italian Tourist Board) commissioned a 10 million euro ($13 million) international advertising campaign called Italia Much More to reinvigorate its stagnating tourist industry and attract more international visitors.
Description: The video is divided in three parts (Rome, Venice and Naples) that can be shown separately. Each one of these segments is introduced briefly by a specific target market (even though it does not look that clear): Rome by a group of friends, Venice by a couple, Naples by a family. At the end, the video directs people to the www.italiamuchmore.com web site, which is just a landing page where you can watch the video and where you can find the links to the US, German and British Italian tourist boards.
What We Like: Italy is Italy and every screenshot you use… It is going to be beautiful.
What We Don’t: However, there is more of what we do not like here. The video is overloaded with sequences of sightseeing that are distracting. In spite of the fact that the three different parts of the video are introduced by 1) a group of friends, 2) a couple and 3) a family, the message to the audience is diluted. The whole thing does not speak to the senses. It does not connect to any specific lifestyle since it is more “look at me and I cool I am” sort of thing rather than see what we could experience together.
The landing page where the video directs looks on the cheap and does not invite to any call to action, but displays the URLs of the markets this campaign pursues. Plus, it is not search engine friendly: the title displays ENIT (I challenge any American, German or British visitor to guess what ENIT stands for) and does not use meta description, metanames and metatags in the HTML source.
Conclusions: A wasted opportunity for Italy. Much less of the sightseeing would have been better too.
