Tourist Sabotage Or Energize

Among the deluge of year-end reviews a broadsheet one for 'travel's biggest winners and losers' struck me as a decent SKO or Wrap template.

What's useful about such format in our Sales space, is the angle of deliberately moving away from people, towards things.

After all, elsewhere you no doubt dole out your garlands. And would you really want to dish up wooden spoons internally, no matter how 'tongue-in-cheek'?

Such things can embrace products, features, promos, places, events, clients, sectors, investments, soundbites and numbers.

When it comes to winners, heralding those often smaller, overlooked even, sources of our and customer-through-us success. Taking care to swerve slander whilst still alluding to competitor shortcomings with the losers.

For instance, in my current specialism, I might suggest one hand-sign that became a type of video call clarion and deal branding as one winner. Or Teams, whose Microsoft CEO enticed one crack trailblazing tech team to join with the promise they would not, in fact, have to use it themselves, as clear loser.

By way of further illustration - beating the pull of bed bugs, a system-crashing flight pan & misleading greenwashing - here's a quartet from the piece expanded for our ends. First, a pair of losers. Putting up big 'don't use us' placards.

Places that ran campaigns to deter tourists. Yes, Amsterdam and Lanzarote both wanted to banish the Brits. Whilst I can certainly sympathise with not wanting to be invaded by a certain type of hellraiser, the knock-on effect was reduced income. Such as decline of visitors being 26pc overall for the Dutch city, and 'tourismphobia' making earning a living harder on the Canary Island.

Any ad campaign, social media utterance or digital marketing push of those seeking to avail themselves of customer spend we should be attracting which promotes either a false claim, something we actually provide at much better value or elevates our capabilities by an omission is a contender here.

The mystery Gate Fee. Venice finally introduced their long-trailed five-euro tourist entrance ticket. But wait, this city tax revenue doesn't go on improving infrastructure or protecting the historic surrounds. No, it merely pays for raising the tax itself.

Any bureaucratic blunder outside our walls is ripe for highlight here. Opportunity likely flows form it. Not just from where we can take aim, but by asking too, as do the Italians, cui bono?

And, a duo of winners. Both with welcome degrees of inconvenience removal.

Compliance, frustration and lag eradication. It's taken twenty-two years. How any sector can get away with such torpidity is baffling. Yet we finally have the future. London City Airport installed the first of next generation security carry-on baggage check machines. For which you no longer need to restrict yourself to 100ml of liquids, nor separate them from your bags to present. Come June 24 all UK airports must replicate their streamlining scanners. Now, can we stop the panic and ensure no-one nicks your stuff when you get singled out for the hand-held wands?

Any process uncovered, smoothed, quickened is always a bonus. Likewise somewhere conscious effort is placed towards greater attractiveness. And any event that allowed for greater reward.

Getting from A-to-B suddenly simpler. Florida could've been more popular for those who'd fly in. Specifically those wanting more than one-stop once there. Which turns out to be the innumerable used to public transport, for whom the need for car hire was a severe put-off. Until America's first new privately funded railway in over a century linked Orlando and Miami. With more to come. Rave reviews set to encourage a boom in arrivals.

Any arena you either make going from one place to another simpler, or getting rid of any undesirable, uncomfortable stage(s) will earn plaudits. And yours needn't take ten years nor cost $6.4bn. (HS2 supporters look away).