Med Pearls Project, prom com study
The study and the manual for the promotion and marketing of slow tourism destinations created within the ENI CBC MED "Med Pearls" project have been completed.
The study was commissioned by Mediterranean Pearls to a group of experts.
In present times, the change of global trends in marketing and the development of digital technologies represent an ideally unlimited source of opportunities for the promotion and marketing of tourist destinations. Destination management organisations (DMOs) and destination management companies (DMCs) have a new way to promote products and destinations which is much more effective and less expensive than traditional off-line campaigns.
Digital technology also provides them the opportunity to analyse the users’ profiles, the modalities of interaction and the preferences to monitor and regularly boost the campaigns’ effectiveness. Among other advantages, it is worth mentioning that online promotion and commercialisation can reach highly segmented targets.
The Manual provides guidelines and recommendations for small and emerging destinations to support them in the decision-making process related to their promotion and commercialisation. These guidelines also consider the sectoral crisis due to COVID-19. The rules of social distancing imposed by the COVID-19 emergency have indeed strongly penalised many sectors that are based on human relations and on the reception of people. This crisis in some ways accelerates the adoption of new strategies in communication, which are necessarily based on online strategies.
The recommendations included in the Manual aim to support the decision-making process of potential new tourist destinations about the implementation of effective digital marketing. Recommendations are based on a qualitative analysis involving seven case studies which have been chosen for their uniqueness and creativity in the use of digital technologies and considering the characteristics and needs of the ENICBCMED Med Pearls project. The common denominator throughout the case studies is the replicability of their practices to other potential tourist destinations.