As I write this article (Second half of April 2020), the entire tourism industry is still in shock, denial, and disbelief of what is actually happening in the World and in the United States. We still don’t have words to describe this unprecedented situation. I see economic data, projections made by banks, and very serious business analysts, but I have serious doubts about how these projections are made. We don’t know when the pandemic will be over. It’s too soon to have accurate data reporting on the state of the industry, and most importantly, we have no way of knowing when business and leisure tourism will restart and get back to normal with so many fluctuant parameters. It’s in our human nature to make predictions but at this point, I suggest we should acknowledge we know nothing.
Such an event never happened before and therefore we have no point of comparison. We just see the staggering human cost in the tourism industry, the lives lost, the courage of security guards, cashiers, hotel front desk attendants, kitchen staff, and all workers working in dangerous conditions with sometimes a lack of personal protective equipment. We see the millions of people have lost their jobs and the ripple effect on their families. So this is a bad situation. How bad? Let’s have the honesty to say we have no idea.
From a U.S. destination standpoint, at city, county, or state level, how to handle the communications and public relations in a context as novel as this virus?
With my students at New York University (SPS Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality), we have analyzed in the past weeks how states, counties, and cities Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO’s) have reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this very limited and incomplete qualitative analysis, conducted in a very short period of time, we observed what has changed in their communications on their websites and social media and how the tone of their public relations has evolved.
We could feel that the majority of DMO’s had a lack of clear direction on how to respond to this crisis, which is totally understandable due to the disruptive circumstances. The most frequent changes were the presence of an austere banner “COVID-19” somewhere on their website and on their social media pages, with a link on the CDC and state health authorities’ websites.
Some destinations had clearly not grasped the gravity of the situation, with no COVID-19 information at all and, in some isolated cases DMO’s actively inviting people to go out for a photography contest or talking about beer festivals. In the first week of April.
We have been very impressed by the DMO’s who created admirable communications campaigns, such as Visit Ventura (CA), with a short video featuring a voice-over talking about the resilience of the people of Ventura in a very moving way.
This leads to the question of how should DMO’s communicate as of now. We have seen, over the last decades, too many bland communication campaigns, boring advertisements, and uninspired public relations strategies. The COVID-19 reminds us It’s time for a big bang in leisure travel marketing and communications. There is no more time for complacency.
It’s true that a mountain is beautiful, but there are many beautiful mountains. It’s true that a beach is beautiful, but it’s equally beautiful in Florida or in Alabama. Using generic terms as “Come and discover our destination because of our white sand beaches”, might just not be enough in 2021 and 2022, during the post-COVID-19 recovery period.
Prospective leisure travelers, International and domestic will have to overcome the fear of traveling. Furthermore, a general reduction in leisure travel budgets will occur when millions of people worldwide have lost their jobs or experience a sharp decrease in their income. That means they will pick extremely carefully their next destination and will need to be convinced that they will experience something unique, and not just vague promises of enjoyable sightseeing.
What is so unique in a destination that it literally cannot be seen and experienced anywhere else in the World? Art.
A sculpture is unique. A painting is unique. A mural is unique. A historic building is unique.
Historically, DMO’s had limited relations with the art world. Marketing and Public Relations teams had connections with museums and cultural centers, but it was too often limited in scope and was rarely the object of a sustained interest with a substantial allocation of time and resources.
There were of course exceptions and some cities like Reno (NV) have taken very seriously the art world and decided to proactively make it a major asset in the city’s promotion, following the lead of Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve.
But without a strong political vision, too many DMO’s have considered de facto art as a secondary promotional tool, somewhere in the background between unspecified generic elements such as “Entertainment for all the family” and “Vast choice of restaurants”.
I’d like to propose five ways for DMO’s marketing and communication teams to proactively use art and artists as a powerful public relations tool and organically integrate them in their campaigns during the recovery period and beyond.
1- Inviting visual artists to re-design advertising campaigns and all press releases materials
Ask visual artists to entirely design advertising banners for your destination: a photography, a painting, a drawing, or a poem can say much more than a regular banner using the same old stock images in use for the past ten years. Tip: Let the artist(s) you’ll have selected completely free to express their creativity. Working with the art department of your local university can certainly be a good starting point.
2- Inviting artists “Take over” the DMO’s official social media accounts for a period of time
More than ever, prospective visitors will have no mercy for boring and bland social media feeds. During the recovery period, don’t be afraid to go wild. Why not letting several artists take over your destination’s Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok (Yes, your destination should be on TikTok) and express themselves about what your city, county, or state has to offer? Music, dance, poetry, street art can seriously refresh your destination’s image and create a buzz.
3- Commissioning emerging video artists to create the destination’s new promotional videos
Sometimes it feels that the promotional videos for destinations have been made using the same template for decades: a close up on guests in a restaurant, a general view of the main street, people with fake smiles walking with shopping bags, bikers on a mountain trail… We have seen so many times these images, that look like they all come from the same stock footage, even if they have been actually shot on location. Why not inviting emerging artists using video to create a series of original short videos (2 to 3 minutes) about what they like in the destination? I bet an experimental, artistic video about a destination will have a much bigger impact than an already-seen-everywhere style of video.
4- Creating a series of interviews of local artists about what they like in their communities
This is an easy and quick communication idea to implement: Why not contacting a group of emerging and established artists in your local community, working in different fields, and making short on-camera interviews asking them to talk about what they like to do in their city, county or state? They will probably tell stories about hidden art cafes, new places to watch street art performers, and share their inspiration about their neighborhoods better than anyone. These interviews will create great original social media content with a high impact on the general public and members of the media and they could generate requests for follow-up interviews.
5- Commissioning murals to commemorate and remember the resilience of local communities in front of the COVID-19
In a hundred years from now, this pandemic will be in the history books. Our great-grandchildren will talk about their ancestors who have lived and died during this period. How, collectively, do we want to be remembered? As a tribute to the resilience of each community, why not commissioning murals depicting the courage of each city, county, and states in the face of the pandemic. Is it the job of DMO’s to commission such public artworks? Yes. Absolutely. 100%. They probably have never done this before, but today is the right moment to think about destination marketing in a holistic and engaging way. I would suggest taking aside a portion of the funding traditionally allocated for advertising or promotional events to commission public artworks such as murals to represent what the destination has to offer, the diversity of their communities, and their resilience in the face of adversity. Think for a minute about the short term and long term impact of such public artworks compared to a random advertising campaign that will be forgotten in a matter of weeks. That might be the most powerful communication campaign ever made for your destination.
Adjunct Professor, Tourism Advertising and Public Relations
New York University
School of Professional Studies