Conexion April 2021 web

TURISMO / TOURISM
no quieren ver la vista de la ciudad
icónica impactada por lo que son
efectivamente ciudades flotantes.
Incluso aquí, en la costa norte del
Golfo, las cosas están cambiando.
Algunas de nuestras autoridades
locales de turismo han comenzado
a implementar planes de marketing
muy diferentes a los que existían en el
pasado. Quieren difundir la afluencia
de visitantes durante todo el año, no
solo en los meses de verano. Están
tratando de alentar a los huéspedes a
participar en más actividades en lugar
de simplemente quedarse en la playa.
Un CVB local está promoviendo
“pequeñas aventuras” para que las
familias practiquen paddle surf,
pesque, buceen y exploren.
Por supuesto, esto también tiene
el efecto dominó de alentar a los
visitantes a gastar más. Como alguien
me comentó el otro día, “¿preferirías
que 1000 visitantes gasten $1 cada uno,
o dos visitantes que gasten $500 cada
uno?”.
Por lo tanto, el nuevo mantra para
el turismo puede ser que, en lugar
de comercializar sus destinos a los
turistas, busquen participar en la
administración del turismo. El objetivo
es satisfacer tanto a los locales como a
los visitantes en beneficio mutuo.
Es de esperar que haya un rayo de
luz en la nube pandémica en lo que
respecta al turismo. Solo podemos
mantener los dedos cruzados.
Let’s Talk About Tourism
By Martin Owen
the Australian national airline is not
expecting to be flying intercontinental
routes until the end of this year and
maybe not until next year.
Plans are being made by many
destinations to review their tourism
policies either to reverse over-tourism,
or to change the way they handle
visitation.
Referring to the Florida Keys again,
the locals have voted to restrict the
size of cruise liners that visit. They
would prefer smaller ships, with
fewer passengers, but who stay for a
number of days. These visitors would
potentially spend more in the local
economy. The previous mega-ships
would stay in port for one day with
the passengers eating and spending
on board. Although the locals want to
restrict the size of ships, the Florida
Government are not so sure and
want to revert to previous policies. It
remains to be seen who will prevail. If
they do have smaller ships the actual
cost of the cruise ticket will rise too.
Less passengers but higher spending
visitors.
Venice, again, has decreed that the
huge cruise liners are not welcome in
the waters of the lagoon that overlooks
St Mark’s Square. The locals and
tourist authorities do not want to see
the vista of the iconic city impacted by
what are effectively floating cities.
Even here on the Northern Gulf
Coast things are changing. Some of our
local tourism authorities have started
implementing very different marketing
plans than existed in the past. They
want to spread the influx of visitors
across the year, not just in the summer
months. They are trying to encourage
guests to engage in more activities
rather than just staying on the beach.
One local CVB is promoting ‘little
adventures’ to get families paddle
boarding, fishing, scuba diving and
exploring.
Of course, this also has the ripple
effect of encouraging visitors to spend
more. As someone commented to me
the other day “would you prefer 1000
visitors each spending $1, or two
visitors each spending $500?”.
So, the new mantra for tourism may
well be rather than marketing their
destinations to tourists, they will look
to engage in tourism stewardship. The
aim being to satisfy locals as well as
visitors to their mutual benefit.
Hopefully there will be a silver
lining to the pandemic cloud as far
as tourism is concerned. We can only
keep our fingers crossed.
Remember tourism before this
pandemic? One of the big topics
across the world prior to 2020 was
the concept of over tourism. Many
destinations were suffering, if that’s
the word, from more visitors than they
wanted. Our natural desire as humans
is to travel, explore and visit new
places. The industry that’s been my
career has found ever more efficient
ways of moving people around and
allowing more and more of us to roam.
The downside was that many areas,
cities and classic destinations were
experiencing sometimes destructive
levels of visitation. Well, COVID put
an end to that. Cities shut; resorts
closed. Cruise vessels were put at
anchor and airlines, when they were
able to fly, reverted to cargo flights.
An upside has been that nature has
had the opportunity to claim back
places she had been driven from. The
canals of Venice have become clear
and reports of dolphins swimming
in the lagoon have been made.
Residents of places like Amsterdam
www.conexionflorida.com
in the Netherlands had been seeing a
huge increase in short term rentals,
effectively removing available housing
from locals. With the reduction in
visitors, they have begun to claim their
city back. The Florida Keys have been
spared huge cruise ships. It’s the same
the world over.
Of course, the drop in the economic
benefits of tourism has been in many
cases, catastrophic. Places that rely
on visitors have seen their incomes
devastated. Jobs have been lost, and it
may take years to recover - if ever.
However, with the increasing
availability of vaccines the world is
beginning to look at what happens
after the virus. That may be some
way off though, as the distribution
of vaccines is patchy throughout the
world. Some countries are (even
the USA) are seeing still increasing
levels of infection. Australia and
New Zealand, although they have
suffered less than some countries, are
saying their borders will be closed to
foreign tourists until 2022. Qantas,
| 5