The winter Olympics is massive international event that is broadcasted globally and is a primary source of experiences. The Olympics promote tourism, business development
opportunities, place of origin, nation building, and a chance to make history by hosting a great event. Even if the Games lose money, the intangible aspect of being associated with a legacy like the Olympics is immeasurable.
As the global credit crunch takes its toll on international tourist arrivals, with some destinations such as India reporting that inbound traffic has declined by almost 20%, it has become critical to shift gears in attracting visitors to our shores and intensify the marketing efforts for 2010 Vancouver Olympics. At the forefront of global contenders for best-leveraged-event, are the 2000 Olympics hosted by Sydney, which then IOC President, Juan Antonio Samaranch, declared “the best ever”, and Australia’s Olympic tourism strategy has been hailed by industry experts as a role model for future host cities. It was the IOC’s director of marketing, Michael Payne, who suggested that “Australia is the first Olympic host nation to take full advantage of the Games to vigorously pursue tourism for the benefit of the whole country. It’s something we’ve never seen taken to this level before, and it’s a model that we would like to see carried forward to future Olympic Games in Athens and beyond.”On the heels of the Sydney closing ceremony, the Managing Director of the Australia Tourist Commission (ATC), John Morse, stated that the Games changed forever the way the world sees Australia and that the country’s international tourism brand had been advanced by 10 years.
The success of Australia’s tourism branding campaign was reflected in the steady rise of Brand Australia in the Nation Brand Index over a period of five years. Says Simon Anholt, the author of the NBI: “What this tells us is that much of the world has an appetite for things Australian. Now is the time for Australia to be producing great Australian-branded products, culture, events, services, ideas, and media as fast as it possibly can. Anything that reflects, promotes and sustains those essential and admired Australian values will sell.”
On the contrary, hosting the 2008 Olympics appears to have done little for brand China. According to a recent poll carried out by GlobeScan for BBC World Service, global attitudes towards China are worsening. China’s positive ratings have fallen six points over the year - to 39%. “Our poll results suggest that China has much to learn about winning hearts and minds in the world,” said GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller. “It seems that a successful Olympic Games has not been enough to offset other concerns that people have.” This is despite spending more than US$400m on the lavish opening ceremony and scooping up the biggest medal tally of all nations participating in the 2008 Olympics.
Other than Australia, China did not use the Olympics to proactively promote inbound tourism, but rather focused on sanitizing the event and using it as a platform to demonstrate her logistical and organizational prowess. As a result, the nation brand index notes that “tourism appeal in China is lagging. People are showing no increase in their desire to visit China, despite the undoubted fascination of its historical heritage.
If there is one lesson from previous hosts, that sets a memorable event apart from an average one, it is Anholt’s conclusion of branding sporting events: “The event gives the country permission to make one single, clear, striking point about itself; and if the only point it manages is its ability to run an event competently, or that it has money to burn on new facilities and lavish opening ceremonies, then by the time the next host takes over - or even sooner - the world will have forgotten that the event ever took place.”
This is a pivotal opportunity for
Canada to shine and show the world what we're all about and unleash her true potential. Cities across the globe compete for the chance to host international events like this, and now that we finally got one, we as a whole nation need to utilize it as a means to help bolster our boring,warm and fuzzy image to a more exciting, innovative and dynamic one that will drive the nation to be a global force to reckon with. It would be unfortunate if the same old dull and outdated images of Canada are re-inforced, like the mounties, igloos, moose's, bacon, etc. Rather showoff our cool diversity, creativity, arts, innovation, inventions, leaders etc. It's crucial that Canada collectively recognizes more useful and modern images to ingrain into the minds of foreign audiences inorder to gain real respect and a better competitive identity on the global stage. Such symbols may be Canadian inventions which no one know that we even invented: the game basketball, the fictional character Superman, Blackberry, Canada Arm, Insulin, the Telephone, the Light bulb, world class comedians, and etc. The symbols are excellent to showcase that Canada is a land of ideas and that it is the ideal place to do business.
From the tourism standpoint, the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) is up to very good. It has realized that the winter games provide unprecedented opportunities to showcase Canada to the world. They will be leveraging the media exposure afforded by the winter games, the CTC will work with its partners to differentiate Canada’s tourism brand and compel the world to explore Canada. Over 3.5 billion viewers will have their eyes trained on Vancouver,British Columbia and Canada, giving Canada an opportunity to position itself as a must-see destination.
The Government of Canada has allocated $26 million dollars for the CTC to execute their strategy to accelerate the awareness of Canada’s tourism brand and add depth and dimension to Canada’s image as a tourism destination. By promoting unique tourism images and stories, the CTC will build a bold new tourism personality for Canada and update perceptions of Canada as an exciting, modern and vibrant tourism destination. If all goes well just like Australia's experience, Canada's brand will be advanced by a decade after the games. Perhaps this is Canada’s ticket for overtaking the UK, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, and the USA, as the top national brand globally.
Looking back through history, international events are coveted by their host countries to promote their nations’ brands. The Olympics had successfully repositioned Greece and Spain as attractive nations. And the 1933 Chicago Expo is regarded as a marker for the US recovery from the recession. Also read my blog about how Germany radically transformed their image in just 30 days during the 2006 FIFA. Now its Canada's turn.
