Belarus Brand Basics: Seeking a Country’s Competitive Identity
A Challenging Task
Capturing the spirit of a country is never easy. Less so when it shares so many characteristics with its neighbours – from history to culture, nature to customs, and architecture to cuisine. Explaining our approach and initial ideas at an International Branding Conference in Minsk:..........
International Branding Conference overview
Belarus speech by Tom Buncle
Anatomy of an Asian Icon: How ‘Cuteness’ Drives Tourism
Understanding your customers is the perennial first principle of marketing - a mantra so well-worn that it is almost easy to forget. Even more so, as businesess increasingly rely on algorithms to predict what we're going to do and buy before we even think about it. So it's refreshing to come across completely different ways of thinking, which challenge our own views of the world. But it's also reassuring, no matter how different the culture, to be reminded of the need to get inside our potential customers' heads and hearts, even when we might find it hard to empathise.
Read more: Anatomy of an Asian Icon: How ‘Cuteness’ Drives Tourism
Tourism and Terrorism
The impact of terrorism on tourism: a changing attitude to risk in holiday-taking.
Article in UK Tourism Society Journal, Summer edition 2016, by Tom Buncle. Click here
(Full article on pg 7)
How is Business Shaping Up for 2016?......Snapshot 3
Snapshot 3: Finding a Way Out of Trouble - What Can you Do?
“The best way to predict your future is to create it ”.
- Abraham Lincoln
In ‘How is Business Shaping Up for 2016?’ Snapshots 1 and 2, I reported on what I had picked up at recent trade fairs from a variety of sources about prospects for travel in 2016. This was dominated by issues depressing travel to certain destinations, primarily as a result of fears about personal safety, mostly related to terrorism.
In this final Snapshot, I want to shine a more positive light on the future, by demonstrating there is light at the end of the tunnel and suggest a way forward, particularly for destinations experiencing fear-induced decline.
There may be no silver bullet, but there are steps destinations can take to minimise the damage and accelerate recovery.
Read more: How is Business Shaping Up for 2016?......Snapshot 3
How is Business Shaping Up for 2016? ......Snapshot 2
Snapshot 2: A Changing Psychological Landscape
Talking to NTOs, tour operators, and tourism ministers from different destinations at ITB Berlin, it struck me that we are seeing a significant change in the way people choose destinations.
Three things stood out quite significantly:
- How safety concerns are increasingly affecting people’s destination choice;
- The impact this is having on the travel industry supply chain;
- Why destinations need to make a plan to minimise the impact of crises.
Read more: How is Business Shaping Up for 2016?......Snapshot 2