Jan
12
What does France have that Spain doesn’t?
Spain is a great place to visit and yet the country seems to be stuck in a marketing rut. Yeah, the global economy is in crisis right now but even before the current economic meltdown it was clear that Spain’s Tourism Board wasn’t particularly creative. The tourism agency for France, meanwhile, doesn’t seem like it even has to break a sweat to be successful since its country is a perennial favorite destination of tourists worldwide.
To me, Spain is like a beautiful girl who doesn’t think she’s all that. She’s constantly playing down her good looks and trying to divert attention away from her real assets. France, meanwhile, is the average-looking female that guys swoon over because she’s confident, kind of sexy, stuck up, and, let’s face it, just a little unattainable. OK, maybe my analogy is weak, but to me Spain is a heck of a lot more interesting than France in every single way: architecturally, geographically, historically, culturally, linguistically. Only aspect where things might be close, neck and neck, would be in the food and wine category.
And yet France wins the tourism sweepstakes year after year after year.
More than 75 million people visit annually, making France the number 1 tourist destination IN THE WORLD. Yes, you read that right. France gets more tourists than Spain, Italy, China, even more than the United States.
With all that Spain has got going for it, (it’s actually the second-most popular tourist destination in the world with roughly 50 million visitors annually), why hasn’t it pushed France off its tourism pedestal? It should be a marketer’s dream. But then you see the kind of lackadaisical advertising done by the Spanish tourism board overseas and the problem becomes more evident.
Check out the following ad that appeared last month in the Smithsonian Magazine in the United States.
“Smile! You’re in Spain,” the ad copy commands. “It’s not the meeting that is important. It’s everything you can do once it is finished.” The photo is an evening shot of Barcelona with the spires of Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia in the background.
With all that Barcelona, in particular, and Spain, in general, have got going for it, somebody at the Spanish Tourism Board decided that a badly Photoshopped image paired with some generic copy was the best way to showcase the country to a foreign audience. It’s as though the Spain’s tourism agency doesn’t really get what it is that foreigners crave about Spain. It’s not just about generic “nightlife,” it goes beyond that to the energy, the history and ambiance of the whole place. It’s something that you’ve got to experience firsthand to understand it. But it seems as though the people working for the Spanish tourism board don’t “get” their own country and so that makes it harder for them to market it effectively.
Many Spaniards get irritated when they hear foreigners say that they love Spain because of the sun, the beaches, the afternoon siestas, bull fighting or flamenco. “There’s more to Spain than that!” they pout. Yes, there is definitely way more to Spain than sol y playa but when will Spain’s tourism board figure that out?
So true.
But oh, just to answer the question you posed, France has enoooormous supermarkets which offer much broader choice. The proximity to France allows my friends travel there every so often just to stock on tea, cheeses, and myself, personally, on tights and underwear which are just so much cheaper and of an infinite choice!
One thing that I think will help Spain’s tourism: In the states, they have been showing a neat TV program called “Spain on the road again” http://www.spainontheroadagain.com/
After watching just one episode, I wanted to go to Spain. Looking at the scenery, architecture, art, history and of course the great food and wine, how can anyone resist. It’s a cool show. Hopefully it will convince more than just me to go for a visit.
Thanks for the Blog and Podcasts.
@CostaRossa…Are you referring to Carrefour?
@Austin….yes, that is an excellent show and from what I’ve seen it has generated a lot of positive buzz both in the U.S. and Spain. But the program was produced by an American company, which is kind of the point I was driving at in this blog entry…..Why is it that non-Spaniards do a better job of promoting Spain than Spain’s own tourism industry? (That’s kind of a rhetorical question.)
Anyway, guys, thank you both for your comments.
eleena, YES!!!
Carrefour forever. 
No sé en qué idioma prefieres el comentario, pero como me siento más cómoda con el español, allá vamos:
No tengo ni idea de por qué se promociona tan mal España en el extranjero. En general nos gusta nuestro país, pero siempre nos entran los complejos en las comparaciones. Yo, si quieres que haga patria, adoro mi tierra, Alicante, a pesar de que se conoce sólo Benidorm y porque se sale mucho de parranda. Me gusta porque se vive genial, hay un buen clima, pero “poco verde”.
España tiene lugares muy bonitos para visitar, como otros sitios (de Francia sólo he estado en París y una parte del sur), pero parece que la administración no sabe invertir bien el dinero -.-
Por no hablar que resulta más convincente cuando te hablan bien de un país alguien que lo ve desde una perspectiva objetiva que el que ha vivido allí toda la vida. O eso creo.
¡Saludos!
Hola Elena,
No sé, a lo mejor es algo cultural, pero a mí me gusta más la idea de recibir mensajes de marketing directamente de “los nativos.” Me parece más auténtico pero desde luego sólo cuando lo hagan bien.
Por cierto, eres bienvenida a comentar aquí en español, en inglés, una mezcla de los dos, como quieras.
Gracias por tu comentario.