I like watching broadcasting of the cyclist races not only because of great sport performances that can be seen but also because of the beautiful regions and cultural and historical monuments. Tour de France, Vuelta Espaňa, races across the Britain or Turkey give us the opportunity to dip into the beauty of the countries. And in the breaks we see advertisements for other countries that allure us to visit them.
And now there is even Slovakia in the ads! On foreign television channels you can see the advertising shot in English:
In the end of the impressive teaser is link for the webpage http://www.slovakia.travel/. If you are interested in visiting our country you can read more information in several languages about the destinations, acomodation, cultural monuments or about the options of sport or relaxing stays.
The webpage itself says about this 31 seconds shot:
The aim of the campaign is to introduce Slovakia to a general public in 54 countries including 60 milions of viewers via 30 second advertisement shot. It will be presented 180 times during the prestigious sport events. The shot is conjuction of the offer of Slovakia as the year-round vacation destination, it is complemented by English commentary and impressive music. On French events it will be complemented by French subtitles.
This promotion has been used by many other European countries, cities or regions sucha s Croatia, Czech republic, Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Switzerland, Spain, Cyprus, Montenegro, Madrid, Andalousie. Throught Eurosports has also been presenten even more exotic countries – United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Japan, Morocco, Brazil, Thailand, India, Mexico, Chile and many other interesting tourist destinations.
One has a need to scream „Finally!“ Finally people will be talking about Slovakia in the world and they will know what this country offers. But in my opinion the advertisement is the last we need. If the tourist get off the train in one of the train stations in national park Slovenský raj (Slovak Paradise) and they see this picture:
In the train station Dedinky in Slovak Paradise will welcome you this tourist directory. Or this unmaintained strand with the view of the barrier.
The view of the barrier.
If we send this advertisement to the world and the tourist will come and see this, how many other adverts and money will be needed to convice them again that i tis worth to come and see Slovakia again?
This is why I think that the commercial for high amount of money should be send to the world only when we, the people, will be ready for the tourists. When the Slovakia will be ready for tourists. When everything will be clean here and when we will no longer be scared to visit toilets in the restaurant. Or to accommodate in the pension.
For long years I claim, and I still stand by it, that for overseas vacations should be travelling mostly owners and workers of the accommodation facilities. For them to finally find out how it should be done and how it should look like. Maybe also for owners from Dedinky to find out how the accommodation of 10 eur per night and per person should look like. And for me not to happen again that for my „Have you wifi connection here?“ question to get an „We don’t use it.“ answer. Because I wasn’t interested in whether they use it but whether it’s available for me.
As long as the country and people are not ready to adopt (increased amount of) tourists then this commercial is just wasted money. And maybe, as there is often in Slovakia, wasted the right way towards of the pockets of friendly agency which made the shot. Because as long as the roads are full of holes, parking lots are broken, roadhouses are low-quality and the accommodation is miserable, then it is wasteful to show beautiful nature which you can observe only from the distance.
The view of Dedinky from the barrier bay.
Because when you come closer you can see this:
Barrier bay Dedinky
or this:
