Besos!

Thanks for your comment. I do say that the criticism is not directed towards the idea behind the campaign or the ambassadors, who just took advantage of an attractive oportunity. Good for them.

I really think one has to pay attention to the numerous mistakes and shortcomings surrounding the whole campaign: people imitating the Canarian accent, islands shown upside down, commercials based on stereotypes… is that worth 300.000 euros?
As to the impact of Icelanders weblogs and comments, I still can´t see why a potencial middle-aged German tourist is going to look for information in English on the Canary Islands. There´s loads of info in German, and not all Europeans are happy to set their mother tongue aside and look for info in English first. But as you say, we´ll have to wait and see.

As to the bilingual ambassador, I don´t quite think I´m being harsh to him. No criticism was aimed at him. Sadly we have a “tradition” in the Canaries of having businesses where no one speaks a single word of Spanish. The result is you´re forced to speak a foreign language in your own country. That is absolutely outrageous, no self respecting country allows that. It´s our own fault, of course. However many foreigners who have settled down in the islands seem to think that they don´t even need to master the country´s language to start up a business. I really don´t think that´s what we should be promoting.

I remember reading in an ambassador´s blog that sadly the party wasn´t as well attended as expected. Apparently they weren´t all that satisfied either.

As to the video, you did the correct thing removing it if they asked you to. But I can see why the video was causing trouble. If I would have appeared in a video frolicking when I was supposed to be working, I´d have run into trouble too.

Regards!

This is not rocket science, if you send 100 + reporters to promote Canary Islands to Iceland, a place stroke by a deep recesion …. something is wrong, fishy and stupid. I guess we are the only ones in the world doing that. This small trip costed us around 300.000 Euros, something like 270.000 pounds.

Besides, only my city (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) has more inhabitants than all Iceland and do you think that Iceland market is going to help us to get out of the crisis?

Regarding the infamous video of the reporters semi-naked.. we paid those guys with our taxes, and the least that they can do is to behave as professionals. I do not imagine what would have been the reaction of British tabloids

I do not know if you understood what these guys were saying, just in case:

“There is nothing like a summer in Iceland” “I thought we were promoting Canary Island and not Iceland”

This is unacceptable …No with my money !!!

Another thing that we (people from Canary Islands) hate is to be represented by people from another latitudes (meaning Spain mainland or another countries). How would you react if somebody from US is selected to promote the UK? My guess is that you would not feel represented by that person at all. And inmediately you will request for some explanation to your representatives.

By the way, talking about representatives… at least you in UK have the chance to adress your representatives directly, here in Canary Islands we don’t.

I also believe that we do not have to invest such a big amount of money for this matter. We could have done this in another way. I guess as British you are aware of last year Australian campain… “Best Job of the World”. A campaing that brought the attention of the World without spending a single penny… only a web page and the promise to work in Australia (Barrier Reef) for 6 months.

Cheers !

I would ask you to give the No Winter Blues campaign some time to take effect before you judge it. I understand that in these harsh economic times with public spending cuts taking place some readers wonder why money is being spent on a big marketing campaign. The fact is the Canarian economy depends heavily on tourism and the Cnanaries have to fight for their share of the tourist market when potential visitors have so many possible destinations from which to choose. The No Winter Blues Campaign is using person to person marketing in addition to more traditional advertising. The idea is that the 100 Icelanders who visit the Canaries will write about their trip on blogs, Facebook and Twitter which will then be passed onto all their contacts. As the Icelanders will be describing a real experience and can upload their own photos and videos, their experience will be more authentic to readers and potential visitors to the Canaries. This can start a snowball effect where the Icelanders’ experiences spread online way beyond their own personal contacts.

I think that you are being harsh on the Ambassador whom I interviewed because his Dad is Irish and doesn’t speak Spanish. If that Ambassador lives in the Canaries, is bilingual and loves the islands, there is no reason that he can’t be a great ambassador and promote the Canaries very well.

I thought that the Castings Party was well attended. I took my video when I first arrived at the party and more Icelanders were arriving all the time I was there. In fact there was a queue of Icelanders outside the main door waiting to enter.

I took the video of the three journalists dancing in their underwear on the glacier in Iceland. It was three young guys having an exuberant, spontaneous, fun few minutes. I was asked to remove the video by one of the journalists as he told me it was causing problems at work. It was one short, polite request, there was no pressure put on me to remove the video. However I only take videos of people with their knowledge and explain that to them that I will put the video on my blog and on youtube. If their consent is later withdrawn I will delete the video.

De acuerdo también con tu último párrafo, estoy cansado de ver cómo se promociona turismo cutre, desactualizado y que encima daña nuestras islas.

Siento tu historia que, por cierto, me recuerda a una parecida que tuve.

Un saludo!

PD: sí, echo de menos La Palma:)

Voy a darle la vuelta a la tortilla porque me gusta más que criticar aportar algún punto diferente.

Hablo de una historia particular, pero creo que sería fácilmente extrapolable a un ámbito general:
El pasado verano nos “acercamos” a Dinamarca con mi coro a un concurso coral de mucho nivel, solicitamos ayudas (no ir de gratis) a instituciones canarias de todo tipo y ¡error! respuesta típica: no hay dinero, lo sentimos mucho, nos parece estupendo que promocionen la cultura canaria (de base) con su dinero (qué afición más chollo ¿no?)
El auditorio de este Festival estaba compuesto por un mínimo de 700 personas de los otros coros de toda europa más los asistentes a cada concierto ¿y no hubiera sido interesante “vender” nuestro destino turístico a mucha gente (generalmente gente que no vendrá a emborracharse ni a tumbarse al sol sin más) que reclama una oferta cultural diferente?
¿Y si esto lo extendemos a los grupos musicales, folkloricos, danza, pintura, etc. de calidad y canarios? yo pienso que tenemos beneficio doble: apoyo a la cultura de la islas y se generan verdadero embajadores y lo mejor de todo: ¡a un precio muy, pero que muy reducido!

Por otro lado, pienso que mejor que gastar el dinero en promociones “de folletín de película de Paco Martinez Soria! ¿Por qué no mejorar nuestro paisaje, medio ambiente, por qué no mimar lo nuestro e invertir el presupuesto de turismo de forma interna y luego que funcione el boca a boca?

Bueno ahí queda eso…(siento la extensión) :-)