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Boutique destination

By Terence Mirabelli

In 1980, the company I worked for at the time organised the first Arab travel conference in Dubai. It was also the first time I was invited to speak at a conference; and the subject I was to address was ‘marketing the Gulf as a tourism destination’.

It was not easy. Thirty years ago Dubai and the rest of the Gulf states were little more than building sites.

The boom was in full swing and it was just businessmen who flocked to the area in droves, but no tourists. No one in his right mind would endure a long-haul flight to essentially nowhere. It was about as exciting as spending a weekend on Filfla.

Indeed, Dubai and the neighbouring emirates have the weather, glorious sandy beaches that stretch for miles, and even more sand in the interior. Certainly not enough to attract the leisure traveller of the time. Those were the days before Palm Island, Burj al Arab and luscious golf courses. What Dubai had to offer was a gold souq - which wasn’t even intended for westerners, but rather at the domestic and Indian markets.

In time westerners discovered the gold market and the whole shopping experience took off - helped by Emirates. Dubai became a shopper’s paradise. And today it is still thought of primarily as a shopping destination, so much so that the annual Dubai Shopping Festival is a month-long dose of retail therapy. Of course, nowadays, Dubai has a lot more to offer the traveller, but it is still generally perceived as an emporium.

Closer to home is the city-state of Monaco. Here is a country that covers an area of less than two square kilometres and with the exception of an 11th century chapel, no other building dates before 1883 - for the record, the casino was built in 1893. Monte Carlo is basically a town glued to the side of a hill.

What made it famous is, of course, its casino. Monte Carlo became the destination of choice for the aristocracy and the rich in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was the fashionable place to be, and anyone who was anyone had to be seen there. Monte Carlo was the epitome of glamour and it still is.

It survives on that reputation. You don’t go to Monaco for the sights, you go there to tell your friends you’ve been there, to tell them you bought an overpriced souvenir or item of clothing and to tell them you gambled at the casino.

The Monegasque tourist office, naturally realized that their principality’s magnetism would eventually wane, and to ensure that people would keep coming back, began organising glitzy annual events - the most famous is, of course, the formula one grand prix, others include the UEFA Super Cup, the Masters tennis tournament - which was in April and attracted 124,000 people. Besides sports, there’s the bal de la rose, an international jazz festival, a circus festival and a number of other cultural events.

All of these attract thousands of visitors a year, and the reason most people attend these events is not solely because of the event per se, but rather because it is also being held in Monaco.

With Monaco, it’s all about perception, the glam factor. People consider it the premier destination for luxury tourism and the place to, hopefully, rub shoulders with a celebrity or two.

There are other similar destinations that have few or no natural or historical attractions, but are travel magnets nonetheless thanks to the imagery they conjure in our minds. Singapore, Hong Kong and the Cayman islands for instance.

It’s all a matter of perception - an impression in the mind; a mental picture if you will.

Linked to perception or mental images are symbols and icons. You think of a destination and in many cases you associate it with something that has become the iconic representation of that destination. The Sydney Opera House, the Coliseum, the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Conversely, think of Rome, Paris or Cairo and their icons spring to mind.

But these do not necessarily have to be colossal structures. Think of Copenhagen and the Little Mermaid, Brussels and the petit Julien - better known as the Manneken Pis. Nor do they have to be static - think of London’s double-decker buses and Australia’s kangaroos.

We, too, have our icon. The Maltese cross. It is the single most recognisable symbol of this country; used as the corporate logo by the national carrier, it forms part of the logos of the Malta Tourism Authority, Malta Enterprise and several other bodies that operate internationally.

It may verge on the profane to question whether this symbol would have been adopted had it not been called a ‘Maltese Cross’. What if it had been known by another name?

It is widely and effectively used in advertising the islands by Air Malta and the MTA, and here I want to throw a spanner in the works. The cross - Maltese or otherwise - may not be publicly displayed in several Muslim countries.

Some years ago Malta was to participate at a fair in Saudi Arabia, and a petty bureaucrat there disallowed the use of the national flag of Malta because it bears a cross. Not a Maltese cross, but the George Cross. As far as this character was concerned a cross, any cross, is a Christian symbol and not permitted to be displayed publicly. He insisted on the George Cross being removed from the flag.

The point of this story is that the Maltese cross may not be a viable marketing tool in some places. Admittedly, very few places.

I’d like to introduce an ignored and neglected symbol. Again, something we are all familiar with but tend to brush aside. Why marketing and advertising departments have never made use of it, is beyond me. I’m referring to the Maltese falcon.

I am aware the link is very tenuous, nonetheless it is based on history and fact and, yes, the word Malta - just like the cross - is an intrinsic part of its name.

For those of you perhaps not familiar with the historical Maltese falcon; it was the tribute the Order of St John paid to the Holy Roman Emperor. Effectively, the rent for the Maltese islands was one peregrine falcon paid annually on All Saints Day, 1 November.

We have an inherent belief that everyone, everywhere has heard of Malta and wants to visit our islands. Not so.

Mention Malta to most Americans, and they’ll instantly respond with: ‘The Maltese Falcon’. Ask them where the islands are, and they haven’t got a clue. In many instances, Europeans aren’t that much better informed.

We had a neighbour in England who believed Malta was close to Hong Kong and wondered why we weren’t black! Extreme ignorance, I admit, but not an isolated occurrence. There was a reason why Maltese passports once included a map of the Mediterranean.

The popularity of the Maltese falcon stems from Dashiell Hammett’s book of that name and the 1941 movie classic. But I see no reason why we should not adopt and adapt the falcon as a secondary icon for promotional purposes. After all, it is part of Malta’s history, it’s no fake.

There is widespread familiarity with the falcon – Maltese or otherwise - not only in North America but also in the Middle East, where the MTA recently opened an information office in Dubai. Falconry is an integral part of the culture and heritage in that part of the world. I suggest we capitalise on it.

Back to the subject of perception.

When I think of Malta no single image comes to mind, such as a building or an event. The Maltese cross is the exception, but I also see a bottle of Maltezerkreuz - a German aquavit. Then again, because I live here, my perception of the place is naturally quite different than a visitor’s.

If asked what best describes Malta in a single word, I am mostly at a loss.

History? All European countries have history. I am comparing Malta with Europe, because we are European and because it is the primary source of our tourist arrivals.

Architecture? All European countries have fine examples of architecture.

The weather? All Mediterranean countries share a similar climate.

Beaches? In comparison with other Mediterranean littoral countries, we have none to speak of.

Safety? No doubt about it. Malta ranks second as one of the safest locations in the world, according to an American survey. "In Malta there is no such thing as a dark and uninviting alley” is one of the comments about the islands in the survey. Top was Monaco, with one police officer for every 100 residents and 24-hour CCTV coverage of the entire principality. Unfortunately it’s not PC to say ‘come visit Malta, you won’t get mugged’.

Size? That’s our USP - a horrible acronym popular some 10 years ago that stands for unique selling proposition. Our size is what makes us especially attractive. We pack a lot in a little package.

On these tiny islands we have a concentration of varied things to see and do with ease. And I emphasize with ease. One can be a culture vulture in the morning and a beach bum in the afternoon. Everything and everywhere is easily accessible, there are no long trips involved. We have plenty to offer and more is becoming available every year.

And because we have so much to offer, we try to be all things to all men. I don’t believe we can. Sometimes we get carried away. I once received a press release about a visit by a group of tourists to a farm in Gozo. And based on that one visit, hey presto, we are an agritourism destination. Let’s get real.

What are our goals? The bottom line is income. We need the numbers to fill and spend money in our hotels. We need the numbers to pay the entrance fees at our sites and museums. We need the numbers to spend in our restaurants, bars, discos, shops, et cetera. We need the numbers to help pay our salaries. We need the numbers to generate the income, pure and simple. This may sound cynical, but that’s what it’s all about - money.

Every so often we come up with strategies that we believe will attract more people and different interests to come visit our islands.

When I first came to Malta in 1988, the catchphrase was ‘going upmarket’ - we wanted a better breed of visitor who spent a lot more than his predecessor, the mass tourist. Going upmarket became chasing the ‘higher yield visitor’.

We then adopted niche marketing; focusing on special interest groups. This makes loads of sense, attracting people to visit because of a specific aspect of our product or to attend an event.

After a while someone hit the thesaurus and came up with ‘clustering’ and ‘segmentation’. Put simply, it was niche marketing by other names. Thankfully, ‘clustering’ has gone and we are left with ‘segmentation’ - coupled with ‘improving the yield’.

Adopting airy-fairy buzzwords, and trying to satisfy all interests just does not work. It only causes confusion, both at home and in the marketplace. Mercifully, for the past four or five years no one has leafed through a thesaurus and our marketing is more focused and constantly tweaked in response to ever-changing market demands.

The Malta Tourism Authority’s promotions and advertising campaigns are geared to national markets and special interest groups and are generally segment driven. But it would not go amiss if it took more advantage of events and carried out ad hoc advertising campaigns.

For instance, in March a major story in the UK was about the potholes that developed on British roads because of the weather. Motorists were furious at the state of the roads. We could have capitalised on the situation and launched a mini campaign along the lines of: “you think you’ve got potholes? Come and see ours”.

Most nationalities, but particularly the British, respond to quirky, oddball adverts. And we all respond to creativity.

Statistics show that the novelty factor is a major reason for people to visit Malta. Going somewhere new is always a good motivator. And we can always be the new destination, by keeping it fresh, by being innovative, by providing a variety of crowd-pulling events – let’s take a closer at how Monaco pulls this one off every year.

Boutique hotels are small, elegant, classy properties. With our size and what we can and could offer, we can become the boutique destination.

Excerpts of a speech delivered by Terence Mirabelli at the annual conference of the Tourism Studies Association held on 28 April 2010.