The Tourism promotion process is subdivided into periods of high pressure selling and others when we wait to reap the rewards. Year in year out we wait for fairs such as WTM, BIT and ITB to set off on a new venture to look for willing punters which will boost our tourist statistics and fill our surplus bed stock! My worry, now that the time has come for another onslaught on the German Capital this week at ITB, is are we using the right strategy to fulfil our needs sustainably and profitably? Perhaps we are playing it safe and visiting our usual haunts, meeting old chums at these fairs? Now that i am on the plane going over to Berlin and surrounded by familiar faces from the tourism industry, perhaps i could try and analyze just how we can turn these visits to fairs such as ITB into useful and innovative opportunities to create that long awaited brand and concept for the Maltese islands.
How many of us really take a look at the ITB website, for example, to see where and who is at the fair? I know most of us have a list of “Must do” participants which we have to visit on the trade days. But take time to see who else is there, what new markets are presenting their services, what concepts are being discussed at the conventions. ITB is not just about discussing prices and packages, it is about learning best practice from others. The University and the Institute for tourism Studies certainly have an important part to play here by assisting the lecturers in attending the conventions and the fair and bringing back new experiences to the classroom and the students.
When one arrives at any convention centre, not least the ITB Messe Cebtre, it is a daunting impression that confronts the newcomer as well as the well seasoned trade or academic delegate. We are so used to seeing these events through the eyes of an islander that anything that seems larger than the usual two or three medium sized hall is large – and ITB is, in this respect, more akin to a small town in Malta and Gozo that unless one has prepared for the visit well, there is no chance of covering much of the vast expanse of stands and halls in the few days of the event.
Attending fairs such as ITB is not just a role for the salesperson for any hotel or travel agent, it is an opportunity for us all to see new trends and study different concepts and strategies, it is an opportunity to discuss these concepts with other persons in the industry, see new perspectives. I am certain that we are all aware of these opportunities but what is important to remember is the fact that we need to adapt and not adopt the new ideas or innovations in tourism here. Adopting an idea is like taking something out of its indigenous environment and putting it in an alien circumstance. What happens when we take a creature from its home in any subtropical landscape and put it in a more urban or westernized environment? It feels confused and is uncomfortable. In a certain way adopting a trend from its original surroundings and trying to replicate it somewhere else may create an initial interest but in the long term that interest will wain – a good example was the original idea of creating Euro Disney as a replica of Disneyworld in Florida – there was an initial interest until the novelty wore off, then it was time for rejuvenation and innovation!
The moral of the story – Take home new ideas and practice from fairs like ITB but make sure you do not copy the ideas for resale as a Malta package at other similar events, then we really will fall into the monotonous situation of feeling that : If this March then we must be in Berlin! Bon Voyage!
