It’s midday on the first day of the World Travel Market. At the Ibiza stand the head of Tourism for Sant Josep, Eduardo Sánchez picks up the microphone, looks at the empty space in front of him and begins to present, in Spanish, one of the promotions by the municipality for the coming season, in this case a video about ‘Explora’, hiking in the Ses Salines Natural Park. Not one British journalist (who would hardly understand him anyway) is listening, only the businessmen and politicians from Pitiusos who have travelled to London. The ambient noise is dreadful. Half an hour later it is the Consistory of Ibiza’s turn. The mayor, Rafa Ruiz, is the one who takes the microphone and, again in Spanish, presents the campaign ‘Ibiza, breathes culture’, the promotion of the five main cultural events held in the city and the cultural surroundings: the pop-rock festival Sueños de Libertad; the proactive art festival Bloop Festival; the Territori Festival of performance and art; Ibiza Jazz Festival and Ibiza Light Festival. Just as with Sánchez, Ruiz, in a very relaxed manner, addresses the Ibizan crowd, his only spectators at that moment.
World Travel Market: “this kind of promotion is useless”
Some of the politicians who are present, “out of politeness and respect”, stop their activity or stay “to fill in the crowd”, they confess. Slightly embarassed at the scene, they are aware that this effort is not enough. “We have talked about it many times. This kind of promotion is useless,” says a source from the island institution of these presentations at the World Travel Market. But, year after year, they continue with the same despite the fact that they only have results of internal consumption thanks to the press releases that are published in the Ibizan media. Nobody else is going to cover the story, especially because right now there is no specialized journalist present who publishes in the UK about hiking or culture.
Some time ago, however, both the Consell and Santa Eulària left that kind of promotion behind at the World Travel Market, as it was useless and time-consuming. The mayor of the Villa del Río, Carmen Ferrer, the one who first arrives at the stand every morning, goes to each tourism fair with an agenda in which there are hardly any gaps left for more appointments with press, specialized journalists, influencers, travel agencies, tour operators… The first day of the World Travel Market has a presentation, but outside the pavilions of the ExCeL. Twelve “selected” journalists will be present. They are specialists in walking routes, life style, gastronomy and sustainability. A British agency “supervises” that whoever comes is really interested and is a good professional, someone whose reports really influence. Not just anyone will sneak in, nor, as in the presentations made at the Ibiza stand, will they wait with a rod for someone to pass by and catch them by chance. Ferrer is going for broke, but because she has been working on the World Travel Market presentations since the summer: “This is achieved through hard work,” she says. Year after year effort. The mayor even analyzes each artilce after they are published not to censure them, because “they go out on their own”, but to know if this promotion has really generated something tangible and if the result contributes something to the promotion of the municipality. But does she read each of the reports herself? “Of course,” she responds naturally to the question. She also reads every report by the journalists she invites to visit her territory at the World Travel Market, a promotion that she has found to be “cheaper” and more effective (“it has more impact”) than advertising in the media.
For the full article, please visit the Diario de Ibiza website here.