15/06/2002 00:00
TW
0

Dear Tiffany,
With it becoming increasingly apparent that British holiday sales to the Balearics are on the up and another increase in bookings will be seen this summer, is IBATUR (the Balearic Promotion Body) going to do something to maintain the momentum in the UK market once the summer is over and have a concerted drive to promote winter tourism.

It appears that Majorca is obsessed with the Germans, but have left the British market to get on with it – fortunately it is a loyal market.
But surely, with similar promotions to those launched in Germany, mounted in the UK, the British market would respond even better.

James Turner. Oxford. (By email)

Dear Mr. Turner,
Thank you for your positive and well informed question.
You are right to point out that the British market is holding up well this season despite last minute bookings and severe competition from other destinations.

We would like to think that this positive trend can be attibuted to the intensive groundwork which has been sustained throughout the winter by all involved.

As you might know we did launch an advertising campaign in the month of February in conjunction with Turespaña (the national Spanish tourist board), and since then there has been much activity promoting the Balearic islands with the help of our Public Relations company in Britain.

Currently we are engaged in major promotional campaigns, though not in the form of high profile advertising.
We have invited several major UK holiday programmes, which include ITV's WISH YOU WERE HERE, the BBC holiday programme and GMTV. We are preparing a shopping campaign in collaboration with Thomson holidays for winter/short break/ Christmas shopping which will be launched in the autumn, we have also developed various advertorials in specific glossy magazines such as Tatler and Financial Times, and have increased the number of individual travel journalists to a considerable degree to all of our islands.

We are concentrating on promoting specific holiday activities such as hiking, horse back riding, cycling, golf, cultural events, gastronomic experiences, and bird watching among others.

We are also promoting working holidays such as incentives, conferences, and sales exhibitions which can be held off season.
I would be very careful in comparing the British and German markets in their buying behaviour this year since one is in the Euro zone and the other is not, and one is going through an economic recession and the other is not.

Inevitably there is a limit to what can be achieved with a marketing campaign.

*Tiffany Blackman, is the Director of the Tourist Promotion Body, IBATUR. If you have any questions for her send them to us at the Bulletin. See Page 2 for addresses.