Skift Take
Pandemic ups and downs aside, a location needs to stay top of mind with travelers. For Milan, repositioning the city’s image indicates discovering imaginative methods to strike the ideal note of cheer up until a healing is here to remain.
Lebawit Lily Girma
Christmas is around the corner, though it might feel more reminiscent of the gloom of 2020 for the tourism market with Omicron’s ongoing lockdowns and a fresh installing maze of limitations.
But a new destination project from Milan works as a pointer that for global tourism’s rebound post-pandemic, it’s more about the long game than instant gains when it pertains to rearranging in a competitive manner.
The new “Milano: It Changes More Than Just Your Look” campaign by Yes Milano, the city’s convention bureau, created by Wunderman Thompson and produced by Movie Magic, takes a 90-second, funny and unforgettable cinematic method to Santa Claus’ see to the Italian style center.
Santa’s experiences unfold as he surpasses designer labels and hops from iconic museums to appreciating panettone in a Milanese trattoria with pals, striking the club, and later taking pleasure in the opera prior to finally heading back to the North Pole to disperse presents in time for Christmas Eve.
The campaign is set to run up until the end of January throughout the European Union and intends to invite the restart of tourism. The timing of the message, obviously, is likely to raise eyebrows. Cases of Omicron are on the rise in Italy, lockdowns are increasing in western Europe, and a week ago, the U.S. Centers for Illness Control cautioned U.S. people to avoid traveling to Italy due to an extremely high level of Covid.
However Milan’s tourism leaders are looking beyond tourists’ short-term plans.
“Italy is still open up to travel to vaccinated visitors and we will continue to follow the suggestions of our nationwide federal government,” stated Luca Martinazzoli, CEO of Milano & Partners, in reaction to Skift. “The project intends to not only inspire tourists to think about Milan next time they take a trip safely, whenever that may be, however also to encourage people to reimagine Milan beyond its longstanding reputation as the style capital of the world.”
Authorities expressed self-confidence during the project launch that the city is well positioned to stand up to the new wave, with 90 percent of grownups vaccinated and booster shots distributed to 20 percent in the Milan city location up until now, along with a “incredibly green pass” requirement because December 6 to go into most public spaces consisting of museums, theaters, dining establishments and nightclubs. Tourists are likewise needed to supply a negative PCR test performed in the previous 48 hours to entering Italy, or an unfavorable quick antigen test performed in the preceding 24 hours.
Ultimately, Milan’s amusing take is a suggestion that locations remain in an ultra-competitive swimming pool of options when tourism does return in full force, and staying top of mind remains crucial.
So if a campaign brings that much more cheer into customers’ houses amid the gloom and strikes the right sentiment, it’s most likely a smarter marketing strategy than it may appear initially glimpse.