In the world of advertising, everything has a season. It’s an industry to which most people never give a second thought. It is always there, as we turn the pages of our newspapers (or websites) or take the opportunity to put the kettle on while watching TV, but we generally don’t appreciate its importance.
And, yet, it is news. Without advertising we wouldn’t know that Persil Washes Whiter, or that Guinness Is Good For You, nor that Things Go Better with Coke. The slogans are old, but they linger in the subconscious, for decades.
It is also good for the economy, spending billions every year on behalf of its clients, putting their names and products in front of the public who, in the most part, aren’t even aware that they are digesting the information.
But, back to my point: it is seasonal, whether it is Christmas shopping or January sales, Black Friday or Mother’s Day. And the season for summer holiday advertising in northern Europe starts officially on New Year’s Day then runs powerfully through to sometime in spring, when the punters start to come.
And, this year, Malta missed it. I may not know (or care) much about Malta but I know this: incoming tourism is its biggest industry and the biggest customers in terms of number and expenditure are the Brits.
I spent a bit of time this year in freezing, gale-swept England without seeing a single TV advertisement, anywhere, for the sunshine of Malta. I was, on the other hand, bored by the history and the seaside of Turkey, the joys of foreign cruises, the delights of Croatia, the countryside of Ireland – one or more of them in almost every commercial break.
Now, I learn that the Malta Tourism Authority had a budget of €108 million and has overspent it this year by €21 million. Where has it all gone? Not, obviously, on attracting tourists.
I spent a bit of time this year in freezing, gale-swept England without seeing a single TV advertisement for the sunshine of Malta- Revel Barker
This is not a political point. It is not the politicians who are expected to know how the advertising industry works and when its seasons apply, nor even to make decisions about promoting tourism. They have experts for that.
This summer’s figures will show whether it was well-spent. If tourism is up on previous (non-pandemic) years, as it will be, because the MTA does the statistics, it will prove that the country is so popular it doesn’t need TV advertising at all, which will mean a welcome saving on future budgets. If the figures are down… it will prove that the MTA has totally wasted €129 million.
Not so long ago, advertisements for holidays in Malta were difficult to miss: ‘Come to sunny Malta’ – with scenic photos of Gozo (but no mention of that island anywhere).
But where, this year, was the come-on? The end, or, at least, a relaxing, of travel restrictions in time for this summer must have been fairly predictable last Christmas and, even if it wasn’t, there should have been a plan for its happening.
There is a massive organisation in place; there are tourist industry associations and hotel and restaurant owners kowtowing to it and they all seem to have slept through the advertising season.
Shouldn’t it have been telling the pale-faced northern Europeans that if it’s sunshine (with a dash of history) that they are yearning for – after a two-year break from holidays abroad – that Malta was preferable to, say, Spain, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Ibiza or Croatia?
It is not that tourists are difficult to please; I have seen day trips organised to look at “the place where the Azure Window used to be”.
Bending over backwards to be fair (as is my wont) I suppose it is possible that the MTA did not forget about the up-coming season and went through the usual motions, sending up a helicopter on a brilliantly sunny day to capture the red sands of Ramla and the fjord of Xlendi before it was destroyed (plus a quick flip over Ġgantija)…
But, then, they couldn’t find a shot in the film that didn’t have five tower cranes on it.
Revel Barker is a former Fleet Street reporter and a long-term resident of Gozo.