The Llogara Pass
Credit: unterwegs-reiseblog.de
While a hearty dose of hyperbole courses through this statement (the mountains, for example, do have roads – and in the particular case of the Llogara Pass through the Ceraunian Mountains, provide entirely glorious views as they do so), it also dispenses a basic truth: That Albania is one of Europe’s final “hidden” corners – and that travellers would be well advised to get to know it.
I write from experience. I spent more than a week in the country two years ago, amid the sunlight of June, and found a country which does not make you work hard to decipher its appeal, but equally, does not revel in the obvious. The capital Tirana is still shrugging off the five decades of Communist rule that it endured in the 20th century – but is doing so with some style in the bars and restaurants of its Blloku district. And while there are certainly areas of concrete hotels (not least in second city Durres), there are sumptuous stretches of shoreline, not least around the city of Vlore, where the Adriatic and Ionian Seas meet along the Karaburun Peninsula – and further south towards Saranda. The hillsides and pastures inland are dotted with remnants of ancient Illyria – especially the archaeological sites of Apollonia and Byllis. And Berat is a town retrieved from a postcard, its Ottoman-epoch architecture shining for the camera above the River Osum.
Is all this landscape and heritage poorly served by the new promotional campaign? Probably. Is there, as the old adage runs, no such thing as bad publicity? Recent events and several dramatic falls from grace have shown us that bad publicity very much exists. Will a crassly judged publicity drive which draws on the gleam of a Hollywood star – whatever the shadows across him at present – attract more people than a photos of the lovely Bouleuterion at Apollonia? Sadly, yes – but that doesn’t mean it sits well.
The Bouleuterion at Apollonia
Credit: CCat82/CCat82
Still, Albania is not the first destination to raise eyebrows with a curious approach to raising its profile. Australia caused some would-be visitors to cough out their coffee with the mildly sweary tagline of “So where the bloody hell are you?” in 2006. Slovenia sparked confusion as much as tourist interest with its 2016 slogan “I Feel Slovenia” – which only really worked (and even then, not much) if you were looking at the logo, which had the second, third, fourth and fifth letters of the key word highlighted in white to create a side-message of “I Feel Love”. Paraguay’s big pitch of “Paraguay: You have to feel it”, launched in 2010, begged the reply “Yes, but what, exactly?”.
Then there is Nebraska, the little-visited state at the heart of the USA which took the unusual step of mocking its reputation for dullness in a cry for attention unleashed last October. “Famous for our flat, boring landscape” read one line, placed against the backdrop of a rocky vista that most certainly couldn’t be described as either. “Honestly, it’s not for everyone,” ran another – to the chagrin of a few of the locals, who mistook the self-deprecation – and the underlying hint that Nebraska is for open-minded visitors who can grasp its charms – for a gun aimed at its own foot.
Albania’s campaign is not as clever as Nebraska’s – playing for easy guffaws on the back row of the theatre rather than trusting its audience to appreciate a wry comment and a knowing wink. Whether it will be successful in drawing people to the country remains to be seen. Albania deserves a wealth of visitors – even if its marketing team needs to retreat to the drawing board.
What do you think are the world’s best and worst tourism slogans? Tell us in the comments section below.
Source link : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/albania/articles/albania-new-advertising-campaign-liam-neeson/
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Publish date : 2019-03-15 07:00:00
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