Advertising and Promotion
First, see if you already have some form of “creative tourism”. A winery in Bulgaria is offering the tourists to be part of the grape harvesting – a long standing tradition in Bulgaria to gather during this process. It is accompanied by dances, rituals for consecration of the grape, and a lot of other traditions coming back from the ancient Thracian times, when Dionysus was one of the main Gods in these lands. But the place is a “no-destination” – no hotels nearby, difficult access on deteriorated roads. Maybe the right advertising and promotion should be as part of Wine Destination Bulgaria, and not this concrete town. Or consider promoting 2-3 places and re-brand it as a new destination for creative and adventure tourism (it is really an adventure to get to the winery and to communicate with the gypsies, who help the grape harvesting). Cultural corridors promotion and advertising can help for geographically linked similar programs.
Once you determine if you have or you are planning to create a program, promote it to the target niche market and to the special interests groups through social networks, specialized travel agencies, etc. Does your program have a page or group on Facebook, MySpace, etc.? Are you connected on Linkedin.com with the owners and decision makers of the travel agencies specializing in this type of creative tourism? If not, it is time to do it.
Photo: Ancient Roman street in the Regional Museum of history, Stara Zagora.This street will serve as stage of wedding ceremony of a multucultural couple - another form of cultural tourism. Photo from the museum's page in Facebook. Photography: Rossitza Ohridska-Olson
Authenticity
The targeted advertising and promotion not only will bring you the right tourists, but also will help you to preserve the authenticity of the destination and safeguard the creative process. Large crowds, all of them painting ceramics or making amulets in Santa Fe, or huge amounts of people studying music in Bologna would destroy the charm of the places, and will take away the unique experience. The creative economy should be more intimate and interactive with the local population process, not a new trend to attract more crowds. Therefore the program managers should ask themselves if they have the strategy to balance sustainability, profit and authenticity.
Photo: Body painting classes and demo in the streets of Kazanluk, Bulgaria, during the days of the Thracian Civilization Days, 2008. The location: the main street of the city. No intrusion of the life of the locals - they were jus passing by, making pictures or sitting down, if they had time, to be painted too. Photography: Rossitza Ohridska-Olson
