Regions seeks

Tourism

Regions seeks a new image

By Sophie Foster Hilderrand

As all good business peo ple know, having a clear brand name is the first key to successful mar keting, and in the multi-national fight to gain tourist dollars, the South

Pacific has taken on this chal lenge with gusto. Numerous mar keting firms are at work trying to piece together a tag line and logo that will give the region “a new and distinct market image”. Four sub missions have already been received since the idea was mooted at the Tourism Council of the South Pacific conference in October last year.

“We are, at the moment, evaluat ing the submissions we’ve received, and we’ll be choosing shortly a company to develop the South Pacific,” said Chief executive of the Tourism Council of the South Pacific, Levani Tuinabua. The drive for a new image came about because of confusion over the pro jection of the South Pacific in the different markets. “At the moment the South Pacific’s image is not

clear. It is known in various markets under different tag lines,” Mr Tuinabua said. In worldwide marketing campaigns, the region is known as Oceania, Southern Pacific, South Seas, South Pacific, Australasia, or South Pacific Ocean. The idea for a “brand name” was promoted by Jonathan Ray, the group director of mar keting, SPHC in October last year at the TCSP conference.

“In marketing terms, we must recognise that our brand, the South Pacific, is ill defined. “We also have to recognise that even amongst the geographically well edu cated, many of our islands would be unknown, certainly the relationship one to

another, and have little brand awareness,”

Mr Ray said. He suggested that a label like “Islands of the South Pacific” be used to identify the region. “This brand and its logo could then be carried as a supplemen tary device/imprimatur on the individual island logos, advertising and on the tonnes of promotional print of the separate tourist

offices and of the various elements of the tourism industry,” he said. The problems of limited marketing budgets of the TCSP member countries could also be helped through such a campaign, he said, assum ing a method of funding was drawn up.

“So we could think of brand ‘lslands of the South Pacific” as the palette and the colours on it as our individual islands,” Mr Ray said. In the quest to be regionally and

internationally competitive, establishing a

new and distinct image that emphasises the unique features of the South Pacific would seem like a logical step in the international fight for tourist dollars. We want to distin guish the South Pacific from our competi

tive destinations like Indian Ocean, the Caribbean and so on. No, Pacific based marketing firms not asked. One of the con straints I suppose we face is that as an EU funded programme we have to work with countries based in Europe, or within ACP states. I know that there are a lot of Australia and New Zealand countries that do this sort of work but unfortunately at the moment they don’t qualify.

Member countries can use in their own promotions and what we will do. In our case we are still talking to the European Union as to what we will do in the future.

Our proposal includes some marketing activities. We have been developing our internet site, launched in May 1996. We have developed that further, now for exam ple, we have a search facility, so if some one is looking for dive facilities or dive operators, if you type in the word dive,

then the site will bring up all the dive operators in the South Pacific.

We have incorporated for the first time a section called South Pacific

Specialists, promoting tour opera

tors and those specialists who sell the South Pacific in source markets.

I was told that the day after we syart ed introducing this, a South Pacific specialist got a booking from our site, so that’s very encouraging.

We’ve also introduced a new system whereby our members will also have their own e-mail addresses on our site, so when a consumer wishes to seek additional information or even book, they send a message, and that message instead of coming to us as was the case, goes directly to them.

We also received feedback that some of our accommodation providers, some of the hoteliers have received

bookings through this. Some coun tries will need better air services, others will need an improved product level, oth ers will require improved standard of ser vice, but I think in the main if we maintain our uniqueness we will in the long term get business here.

Once the pool of destinations like Hawaii no longer exist, they will come to the South Pacific. Indeed I hear that Hawaii is experiencing a stagnation, and where will those who normally go to Hawaii go, they will go further out, into the front frontier, and if the SOuth Pacific ensures that it is the last frontier or ensures that it is the last frontier, pristine environ ment, clear waters, white sandy beaches,

Levani Tuinabua... South Pacific image is not clear