105 tourism slogans from around the world #WTM12

Country slogans and tourism taglines – how can they say so very little and yet sometimes so much? I’ve posted my bemusement with these fascinating little one-liners that marketers use to ‘sell’ or position a destination before (after snapping 44 slogans at the 2009 World Travel Market).

This year, I decided it was time for an update. So here, after wandering the vast length and breadth of WTM 2012, are 105 slogans, 26 country logos (or fonts) and 7 regional taglines collected at the World Travel Market 2012. Slideshow above, text below. I’ve bolded up the ones I like. Enjoy!

Music and dance from around the World Travel Market 2012

I only got a short clip of the musicians from India (technical fault caused by human error) but I did manage to get a few more throughout the day. Here’s the list of random acts from WTM 2012:

Folk music and dance from Kazakhstan
Mexico, mariachi and massive hats
Israeli hang drum music at WTM 2012
South Korea inspires with its Gangnam Style robots #wtm2012

And here’s one from WTM 2009 with 8000+ views on YouTube:

Folk music from Uzbekistan

Bhutan: Land of Gross National Happiness

After documenting 100+ tourism marketing slogans yesterday at World Travel Market (WTM) 2012, Bhutan’s is my pick of the bunch.

The catchphrase Gross National Happiness, or GNH, was apparently introduced by the King of Bhutan in the 1980s and it stands out as unique among the ‘wonders’ and ‘pearls’ of other positioning taglines. Perhaps it feels more authentic for its lack of marketing schmooze but it also still manages to tell us something: that this Himalayan kingdom takes its happiness seriously.

In fact, further research reveals Bhutan to be the only country to use GNH as both an economic measure, similar to GDP, and a guiding principle for its move towards modernisation.

It suggests a unique and fascinating place. But, yes, it also made me laugh – successfully upping GNH as it worked its sly slogan side-effects.

I’ll be posting the rest of the WTM 2012 country slogans… at some point soon.

South Korea inspires with its Gangnam Style robots #wtm2012

Collecting tourism slogans at the World Travel Market 2012 (WTM) this year to update my 2009 post meant walking the length and breadth of London’s Excel – four hours’ solid legwork. South Korea’s marketing slogan was ‘Be inspired’. For once, this was backed up by action – a small army of robots takings centre stage on the stand.

These guys actually dance Gangnam Style…

Pretty cute. All part of Korea’s love affair with robots –  cf robot teachers and prison guards – and possibly the only country at WTM to position itself through its technology. Is this an interesting differentiator for travellers?

How to make ANY editor like your work

Just came across a post called How to make travel editors like your blog – which talks about their ‘OCD nature’ in looking for good voice, tight production skills, social media presence and community engagement, tech know-how and broad range of material.

As a web editor (non-travel), I couldn’t agree more. Their list of wants are true across any subject where people want to write professionally (and when I say write, that is just shorthand for all content: video, photos, audio, etc).

I’ve had a number of professional writers approach me for online work but when I go to look them up they’re not just not active online and don’t have a blog or anywhere else I can see their writing. Whereas that one person who has a regularly tended blog with interesting content and links to other online presences tells me that they ‘get it’ and this fact alone is far more likely to get them hired.

We’re living in a ‘show don’t tell’ world.

Read the full story: How to make travel editors like your blog…

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 9,100 times in 2010. That’s about 22 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 38 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 42 posts. There were 59 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 12mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was June 17th with 217 views. The most popular post that day was Birmingham’s UK City of Culture Bid 2013 is #intheroom but is it #inthebag?.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were twitter.com, facebook.com, fionacullinan.com, search.conduit.com, and Google Reader.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for tourism slogans, tourism slogan, custard factory, tourist vs traveler, and benedict allen.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Birmingham’s UK City of Culture Bid 2013 is #intheroom but is it #inthebag? June 2010
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2

Around the world in 44 tourism slogans December 2009
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3

Spending New Year at Birmingham’s shiny new Coach Station in Digbeth January 2010

4

Tourism slogans are the emperor’s new clothes – that’s why we laugh at them! December 2009
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5

The list that keeps explorer Benedict Allen alive February 2010
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