Cultural Realms - Rossitza Ohridska-Olson's blog about the business of cultural tourism

Future of the travel industry

The most famous country brand firm, Future Brand invited me to be part of the expert panel discussing different aspects of country branding for their Country Brand Index 2009. Without reveling the content and the findings of their index (Download Cbi-2008), I decided to post my vision on the travel industry development for the upcoming years. In spite of economic crisis, pandemic threats and terrorism fears, I believe the travel industry will continue to strive, although some business models will shift. The profile of the traveler will continue to shape towards a real global citizen and this will drive greater tourism demand. See what are the five trends I believe will constitute the essence of this future.

On the photo: Stara Zagora Regional Museum of History new building. Photo credit: Rossitza Ohridska-Olson 2008

Cultural Tourism - the Facebook great experiment

A friend from Facebook.com. His wife. And a trip to discover cave churches, fortresses and Thracian tombs. People I didn't know in person. They had different plans - to visit the Ustra Fortress. The hot sun of South Bulgaria and the amazing discoveries we stumbled upon made us change plans. Of course, such spontaneous trips always have some disasters included -  waiting 2 hours to see a monastery which was nothing spectacular, walking hours to see a Thracian sanctuary without the time to reach it high in the mountains. Overall: an exhausting trip of cultural discoveries made out of enthusiasm of people who are only facebook friends. The economic results: more than 500 euros spent in places with low income and high unemployment rate. I hope this cultural tourism helped them. It helped us to transfer our friendship from the virtual space into the real cultural realms. For me, this experiment was great for 2 additional reasons, besides the new-forged friendship: re-confirm my conviction that not wild hidden places are as attractive as the UNESCO over-visited sites, and that cultural tourism is possible everywhere. And the biggest discovery: the Web 2.0. works for cultural tourism, it’s not an illusion. We transferred friendship, knowledge and pleasures from the screen to the real life, and back to the screen for other people to admire and visit these unknown treasures of little known cultures. See the great images on  Klearchos Guide to the Galaxy. This is what I call the great experiment of Facebook. I hope that from the 200 million of users of this social network many will follow our example and enrich their real life with real cultural trips.

Cultural Tourism Promotion – the right way

The year 2009 is the Year of Bulgaria in Russia. The purpose behind this initiative is to promote Bulgarian business, and above all – the Bulgarian tourism in Russia. After the fall of the communism in Bulgaria and the government-contracted Soviet groups of blue collar workers crawling the Bulgarian beaches, the organized visits to the “sister” cities and all kind of other propaganda-in-mind designed tours, the Russian tourists forgot about Bulgaria. Now they are more interested in visiting the prohibited for them before 1990 resorts and cities in Turkey, France, Switzerland and Egypt. This lost for Bulgaria is calculated in millions of dollars, which are very hard to compensate with the budget travelers from UK, Germany and Sweden, counting their dimes to the next welfare check.

It is clear that the wealthy Russians cannot be attracted back to the already ruined Bulgarian beach resorts, to the concrete of Golden Sands, the crowded discos in Sunny Beach and the run-down hotels from communist times Albena. They will continue to relax on the French Riviera, to ski in the Swiss Alps, or to go shopping in the US malls.

Bulgaria hopes although, that both wealthy and curious intellectuals, might return to the country to see the remains of 7 civilizations, which left precious artifacts and impressive buildings across the country. At least, this is the idea of promoting the cultural tourism with the events and exhibitions during the Year of Bulgaria in Russia.

One of these events is the opening today exhibition in the State Museum of the East “Rescued treasures of Ancient Thrace from the Vassil Bojkov collection”. In the most expensive city in the world, few things can impress the local petroleum oligarchs and the visitors from around the world to the ancient capital of Russia. A feast for the eye, the exhibition is featuring treasures of gold, silver, marble and bronze, which visualize mystic rites and secret Orphic rituals. I believe this is the right way to promote cultural tourism among the affluent and well-educated Russians.

For those who don’t read Russian, I have prepared a brief article in English about the exhibition in the context of the history of Thracian Civilization.

Note: All pictures are from the website of the State Museum of the East, Moscow and from the Bojkov Collection catalog. Copyright belongs to “Thrace Foundation” and photographs are published with the kind permission of Mr. Bojkov.

Cultural Tourism and Emerging Destinations in the 2009 European Commission Report

A Gallup survey , commissioned by Directorate General Enterprise and Industry, was conducted among 27 000 European citizens with the purpose to collect their “views, details of holidays and travel in 2007 and 2008 and their plans regarding holidays in 2009”.

In spite of the financial crisis, 62% of the Europeans who traveled the last year, will travel in 2009, with 28% undecided and 19% who don’t plan to travel.  When it comes to the financing of their main holiday, 41% of the Europeans who plan to travel in 2009, say that they will not have any problems in finding the money, 38% say that they will have to save more money, but they still will take a vacation.

Culture, heritage and entertainment are the most important factors while choosing a destination: local environment (the overall attractiveness), the cultural heritage (24%) and entertainment (15%). Read more…

Creative Tourism: Next Stage in the Cultural Tourism Development?

Creative tourism is a great idea, and, it is an alternative to the tired or overwhelming cultural tourism. Personally, I believe that creative tourism is a stage of development of the cultural tourism in the “experience economy”. Therefore it shouldn’t be defined separately.

But I have my second thoughts too. Is it possible that not all cultural tourism destinations can become “creative cities” or creative places?  Is the authenticity of some cultural tourism destinations threatened by converting them into a center for creative tourism? Is sustainability part of the creative tourism?

On the main page “Creative or Cultural Tourism?” you can read what I think about this future development of the cultural tourism.

There are also useful guidelines for cities and places to become creative tourism destinations. I decided to separate the guidelines in individual pages – that makes it shorter and easier to read. Enjoy!

Part one: Overview
Part two: Location | Access
Part three: Human Capital and Attitude
Part four: Target Markets, Strategies, Sustainability and Financing
Part five: Advertising, Promotion and Authenticity

Photo:Haya Sophia, Istanbul. The crowds are so dense, that it is impossible to make pictures.Phtography: Stevan Olson

Country Branding Strategies

Can they be based on cultural heritage?

In a dynamic word concerned with the future of energy, healthcare and technology, the past glory of ancient civilizations might fade away as main focus for country branding.  From the recently released “Country Brand Index 2008” it is clear that people count on authenticity, responsibility towards the environment and the preservation of local live cultures (creativity, arts, lifestyle) as a salvation from the facelessness of the globalization.

So, if the majority of the world needs authentic experiences today and tomorrow, how can be country brand successful if it is focused on cultural heritage, i.e. on the past? Some notes provoked by the linkedin.com discussion boards, my analysis of “country Brand Index 08” and my Ph.D. research survey.

New survey about the image of Bulgaria abroad

I created a new survey about the image of Bulgaria as travel destination. The survey is open to everyone worldwide. It is completely anonymous and doesn’t include name, e-mail address or any other personal information. It takes only 5-10 minutes to complete. The data from the survey will be used in my research papers and my Ph.D. thesis. I greatly appreciate the help of all my blog readers.

The results of the survey will be published immediately on my blog and everyone will be able to use it in their research too. Thanks to everyone who helps me with this endeavor. 

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A re-branding of cultural tourism or a new model for it?

An article in New Mexico Business Weekly says that the “Creative Cities” program of UNESCO is a new model of tourism. Is it really that or a new branding of the same old cultural tourism that attracts 40% of all travelers to hundreds of destinations worldwide with the only dream – to satisfy their cultural needs? See why I have my doubts…

Country branding for cultural tourism

It seems easy to brand countries as destinations for cultural tourism, because the culture of each country is different. Also, the traveler who prefers this type of tourism, is most likely to look closer into these differences, versus the beach vacation tourist, who looks the weather report and the price tag. Is really easier to brand a country as an attractive destination for cultural tourism, especially in the emerging markets in Europe? See why I think that for some regions that is kind of a challenge, in spite that there is a light in the tunnel.

Plovdiv Museum Night – a wonderful experience and a lesson on domestic cultural tourism

All my pessimism about the end of Bulgarian domestic cultural tourism, about the indifference of the young people to classical culture and arts totally evaporated in the night of 26th of September. In Plovdiv, more than 35 galleries and museums opened their doors till 3 AM. Free events – music concerts, dances, art presentations attracted thousands of people. To the point there were more people on the streets during the night than the next morning. The Old Town of Plovdiv became an endless art crawl and most of the visitors were young – less than 30 years old. They were making pictures in museums, where normally this is prohibited, laying on the floor of the Ethnographic museum, arguing about art in pubs and restaurants. Some of them came from other cities and stayed for the night at friends’ houses or inexpensive hotels. Some of them didn’t even sleep and took the back bus to their cities the next morning.

I kept asking myself why was such a big attendance to the event. And the answer is very clear – smart event date choice (on the weekend before the Plovdiv International Fair opening) and great advertising – mainly on the Internet. Hence the young public from all over Bulgaria. How the municipality of Plovdiv made advertising to the tour operators so there were a lot of foreign tourists in the streets speaking English, German, Russian and Spanish, I don’t know, but they did it right.

Once again, congratulations for the great event and keep the good work.