Jordi Tresserras, director of terres LAB- Congress on Landscape, Tourism and Cinema, highlights that this platform will contribute to the panorama of tourism and communication creating a meeting forum between professionals of both sectors, communication and tourism, the only one of these characteristics in the European context and the iberoamerican space.
The location of the Festival and de Congress in the city of Tortosa provides, according to Tresserras, a very good position for Catalonia in the international panorama of the tourism communication.
Regarding to Terres de l’Ebre brand, the fact of hosting this kind of event, strengthens the designation of Biosphere Reserve and Destination of Excellence of the European Union (EDEN) that the territory enjoys.
Tresserras gives importance to experiences in which communication becomes transversal for tourism promotion, providing the success examples of New Zealand and the Lord of the Rings, the Vicky, Cristina Barcelona of Woody Allen or Formentera and the Estrella Damm campaign.
What can terres Lab bring to the tourism and communication panorama?
From the one hand, the main element is to create a meeting forum between professionals of both sectors, communication and tourism. Above all in the frame of a festival like terres Catalunya, which is the key element.
Another element to be considered is that the event will gather during few days researchers from the academic world, experts in management of touristic destinations and professionals of the business world. Moreover, there is not another similar forum of these characteristics in the European panorama, the Mediterranean one, and specially in the iberoamerican. The benefit of terres LAB being celebrated in Tortosa is that Terres de l’Ebre provides a strategical value as an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The Delta is also since 2009 one of the Excellence Destinations of the European Union (EDEN). Also, the Festival and the Congress will be linked with the International Sustainable Tourism Year 2017 declared by the UN.
Which will be the study lines of terres LAB?
Regarding the study lines, it is important to think about the binomial communication-tourism and especially to look at it from a transversal perspective, this is, giving importance to the touristic promotion campaigns, the documentaries and those movies which have a touristic background. Because the communication may be transversal. We have clear positive experiences: there is many people who travel to New Zealand after watching the Lord of the Rings. There is an impact and even problems when these people want to see not only the real landscape but the one shown by the cinema. New Zealand is one of the countries that have seen the cinematographic tourism as something strategic. The tourism from US citizens is one of the most important in cities like Barcelona and certainly the movie Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona of Woody Allen has contributed to that fact.
Which importance has the communication in the tourism sector? Have the ways of promoting destination changed?
Nowadays we have reached the 3.0. The communication is not only bidirectional, sometimes the own tourist becomes promoter of the destination through the images. People want to live the experience and share it: they take a picture, upload it to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and share their experiences at the time. But we have also seen how the destinations and the enterprises aim the “individual tourist” and I believe that it is also important to analyze how enterprises or destinations are believing more and more in communication. Especially to awake their senses and make people enjoy the territory.
How are materialized these new forms of tourism communication and promotion?
It is interesting to think about the co-marketing experience of Estrella Damm. A spot made for promoting beer helped to promote a destination like Formentera, where the spot was shot in 2009. Even, that spot positioned the Nordic music band Bille Vision & The Dancers and its song “Summercat”, increasing also the Nordic tourism in Formentera.