Travel Blog

Rome is such a famous city for its exquisite art, its magnificent architecture, its rich cultural history and its fashionable population. So when you look for Rome travel information, you expect to learn details of cathedrals, piazzas, train travel, horrendous Roman traffic and espressos taken at bars. There are, however, people who not only travel off the beaten track, but make it a point, and rarely stop in at the popular tourist attractions. For the most fascinating Rome travel information, seek the stories of those intrepid travellers who thrive on back street explorations and local-guided expeditions.

These students of life often arrive in a country without having made any plans for accommodation. They will land at the airport or train station with nothing more than a guidebook and some currency to help them around. The first bureau of information they will seek out is a local who may be standing around waiting to collect arriving relatives. Rather than asking for your standard Rome travel information, they will ask where the best place is to get a cheap meal, or where the scooter hire desk is. Locals in any place in the world are usually happy to part with such details, even if to rid themselves of the pesky tourists.

Spending each night in a different boarding house, hostel, inn or local’s home, the savvy traveller-on-the-cheap will revel in his discoveries. He will take his dinner in the most outwardly looking eatery that happens to serve the most delicious spaghetti marinara in the entire world. He will be invited to Sunday lunch at the home of people he’s never met before in his life and before the meal is over, he has become one of the family, and perhaps even offered free accommodation for a night or two. His photo album is made up of former strangers, out-of-the-way locations and sights that are anything but the clich

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You know that the mainstream tourist industry isn’t pushing a particular country when you can’t find the language in the multi-lingual European phrase book. “And what language do you speak in Croatia?”, I ask the friendly information helper in Zagreb. “Croatian” she replies.

That simple eh?

You can also tell, when all the trains in Italy going to Italian destinations are full, yet getting a ride on the Budapest Special is as easy as falling off a log, or in this case, a web log.

For a large part of my life, I has this impression that people in the old Eastern Bloc countries of which Croatia as part, were dour people who dressed in grey and went round with sour looking faces. I suppose that came with working 15 hours a day in a salt mine or building nuclear weapons guarded by secret service agents packing kaleshnakovs or the 1970’s equivalent whilst taking notes on the performance of each of the workers.

While that might well have been the case then, (it must have been, our government told us so), it is certainly not the case now. Fashion retailing seems to be the main industry, and by what is to be seen on the Zagreb city streets, it is a great success story. Fashion and shoe shops line the streets with neither nuclear contaminated overalls nor salt encrusted work boots in sight.

The young people are right into fashion with many dressed to the nines whilst sipping a drink in the many cafes and pubs that line the city streets. This is especially true in “Upper Town” where there are dozens of such establishments with patrons enjoying the alfresco atmosphere adjacent to historic buildings.

Whilst the accommodation was extremely expensive for what you get, the food is relatively cheap - and good, if what we experienced is indicative of all eating establishments. Ironically, one of the meals was Indian, of the sun continent variety. One of the best Indian meals I have ever had, with a few drinks thrown in, all for under 200 kone or under $AU50 for my wife, Brenda and I. Our lunch today was more Croatian food - grilled veal with Croatian salad, bread, chips (not Croatian, I know) and mineral water - all for 99 kone. We couldn’t eat another thing, well, not for another half hour at least.

Admittedly, this was after Brenda insisted on buying half a kilo of strawberries, when I thought half of that would suffice. She then forced me to eat the bloody things. And this was not to mention the apple that each of us had purchased from the very same produce market that the aforementioned strawberries were purchased and duly eaten.

Good food aside, the other things that struck me about Croatia was the friendliness of the people (even the immigration officials !!) and the fact that most of them spoke English.

And I thought I was going to have to make myself understood by people who had just been working 15 hours in a salt mine. I am very glad that was not the case. Our only regret was that our schedule only allowed for a single day visit. I’m sure I could have found a salt mine, given the time.

Raymond Strachan loves life and tries to give it 110% at least 91% of the time. A quick look at the calculator will comfirm a 100% total. He has an off centre view on just about anything as can be seen in his travel blog, http://www.booknblog.com You can create your own travel blog there as well.

View the Original Blog and the photos here…

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It has been more than three years since the bottom fell out of the destination and
tourism industry, but many are hopeful that prospects are looking up. However,
from a brand perspective, the fear is that the marketing of the Tourism industry will
fall victim to the same trap, constantly fighting to attract tourists without any long-
term solution as new and more enticing destinations enter into the category.

The way to overcome this seemingly never-ending struggle is for destinations to
build individual brands that are more about the tourist than about the destination.
Historically, that’s not been the case. Instead, the brands have been marketing
destinations themselves and have more often than not been about the type of
destination, exploring the benefits of visiting a tropical destination or one in the Far
East, etc.

In tropical destinations, for example, marketing dollars have been lavishly spent
enticing the potential visitor with brand visions of romance, white sandy beaches
and turquoise waters. So, if you bought into that as a tourist, you bought into the
idea of traveling to a tropical destination, but you haven’t really made a decision.
You’ve only picked your considered set of destinations.

How can you differentiate one destination from another? It’s not as if no other island
or resort has sky, water, white (or pink or black) sandy beaches and friendly natives.
Destinations are not creating brands to inspire true preference among the
considered set. They’re just motivating preference between considered sets and
creating preference for tropical destinations over, let’s say, adventure and wildlife
destinations, such as Alaska.

There’s proof of this lack of brand identity in the numbers. With a few exceptions,
market share mirrors share of voice. The one that spends the most money gets the
largest market share. But from a stealing share perspective, you don’t have to
outspend the competition to increase market share. You can develop a brand
positioned against your competition and aligned with customer values so that the
customers naturally covet your destination brand.

Now there’s a new problem: Cuba. The lifting of the U.S. travel embargo to Cuba is
currently being debated in Congress. Make no mistake about it, Cuba will quickly
jump to number one in tourism traffic when that happens at the expense of the rest
of the category. So few destinations have a brand and tourists will flock to Cuba
because, for a while at least, it will represent something like a brand. Cuba will
represent “forbidden fruit” and Cuban tourists will feel special, like they are setting
a trend by being among the first to visit the exotic locale.

A brand that is built to steal market share is not found in the beaches, coral reefs,
or local culture. Stealing share capabilities reside in the hearts of the customers of
the competition. Take Cuba, for example. The “forbidden fruit” and “one of the first
to visit” attractions have nothing to do with the amenities of the country itself.
Everyone who plans a visit to a place like Cuba will expect the same marketed
promises: exotic food, white sandy beaches, turquoise blue water and interesting
culture. They will go to Cuba because being a Cuban visitor says more about them
as a traveler than going to any other tropical destination. Brand is always about your
customer and not about you (the destination).

On too many occasions destinations claim all sorts of amenities they believe will be
important. Puerto Rico claims to be close and the Virgin Islands claim to be
“ours” (as in, part of the United States), but our research indicates that the consumer
does not care for those claims. Puerto Rico may be close, but it’s not that much
closer to us through the air than Jamaica. Does anyone actually think that tourists
are going to choose Puerto Rico because it saves them 15 minutes in the air?

Consider this: Hawaii is first in top-of-mind awareness among U.S. travelers, but it’s
not at the top in the number of U.S. visitors. If it had a brand that said something meaningful about who the tourist is when they visit Hawaii, they would not have to
increase their marketing budget to steal share.

Tropical destinations can rest easy knowing that their advertising does not have to
say, “Come here to swim. We have beaches, sun and alcohol.” Even though that’s
exactly what they are saying now, they should understand they are not telling their
target audiences anything new. Few other industries have category benefits that are
so well known. With tourists beginning to travel more and with the looming threat of
Cuba, it’s time for destinations to build brands around the tourists and start
stealing share.

Tom Dougherty
CEO, Senior Strategist at Stealing Share, Inc. Tom began his strategic marketing and
branding career in Saudi Arabia working for the internationally acclaimed Saatchi &
Saatchi. His brand manager at the time referred to Tom as a “marketing genius,”
and Tom demonstrated his talents to clients such as Ariel detergent, Pampers and
many other brands throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa. After his time
overseas, Tom returned to the US where he worked for brand
agencies in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. He continued to prove
himself as a unique and strategic brand builder for global companies. Tom has led
efforts for brands such as Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Fairmont Hotels,
Coldwell Banker, Homewood Suites (of Hilton), Tetley Tea, Lexus, Sovereign Bank,
and McCormick to name a few.

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