I spend quite some time on planes all year long and therefore, I have seen quite a few airline magazines with travelers info etc. and I must say that I have discovered very useful tips and guides for any possible destination. During my recent flight to Athens, I was going through the latest issue of Scanorama (by SAS) and I came across the chief editor’s (Per Olsson) true experience in Greece:
Scanorama, July/August 09, page 12.
Highlights from the article include:
- “a completely hopeless journey through the Greek islands”, great way to start,
- “ridiculously expensive” referring to boats from Piraeus, and I wonder whether Swedes are actually better paid than Greeks (maybe another myth?),
- “the hotel refused to open for us”, despite the fact they were notified of their late arrival in Amorgos,
- “we had to camp on the beach”,
- “a proprietor refused us on the ground that August belonged to vacationers from southern Europe, especially Greeks. We should have come in July, he said.” (Amorgos again),
- “Our accommodation turned to be a”garage with toilet that to this day tops my list of “most disgusting toilets”", that’s in Naxos,
- Luckily when in Paros, someone apologized for all the adventure the true Greek experience had offered them, but still the argument sounds kind of ridiculous to me; “… tourism is everything to the islands, but that it takes its toll on the locals who have worked around the clock for a few months and in August they have neither the energy nor the need to be as attentive anymore”, thus, if I follow the rational of the aforementioned argument I can conclude into:
- Poor southern Europeans (especially Greeks) that go on vacation on August, nobody cares about you and your satisfaction…
- Does working all year long make me and you heroes if compared to those involved in the Greek tourism industry (a few months are enough…) ?
As a government or public authority, etc. you may be spending enormous amounts into a “true experience” campaign, even a “live your myth” one (i loved the promo videos indeed) to promote your most precious product and service, is it enough? I’m no tourism expert, however, it is my feeling that it takes a personal experience like the one above to throw all this off the window. Just think how many people can read it every day, during the one month it is available, on all SAS flights…
July 8, 2009 at 15:10 |
MAKE RESERVATIONS BEFORE STARTING A TRIP TO GREECE OR ANY OTHER PLACE IN THE WORLD.
If you don’t which means you love adventure then adventure is what you found.
I suppose in Sweden (during vacation peak period) you can find accomodation and tickets very easily without prior reservations.
It is really a shame for SAS that published an article like this. I mean that from all your passengers travelling to Greece this was the most typical story that most Swedish people had to face.
In my poor mind it seems like SAS is trying to terminate its flights to Greece.
July 8, 2009 at 19:12 |
I totally agree with your comment regarding reservations & adventure, but as i understood from the article in the first case they had even notified the hotel for the boat’s late arrival and yet denied, so…
what Sweden does is completely irrelevant, cause tourism is not their primary national product/service. And furthermore, it’s not a competition oh who is doing better, we should rather care of doing things right!
Nobody claims it to be the typical story of any Swedish tourist in Greece. Swedes adore Greece for many different reasons and they will keep on coming as long as they can afford it (or shift to Turkey). It’s only a personal experience credible enough to be available by SAS. I don’t understand why would the chief editor of the magazine have a personal interest to harm one of their company’s main summer destinations.
SAS is trying to terminate its full flights to Greece (one of the top destinations for Swedes) for what reason?
The whole point of my post was that simply things may happen to the wrong people and this may have impact on a whole campaign. When everything goes well and as promised, rarely will you have appraisal other than steady sales and loyal customers (they get what they have been promised to and what they expected to) unless something exceptional happens. One thing goes wrong and you are stigmatized for good, thus must put more effort to cover for the lost ground.
I don’t think that the unfortunate incidents described seem not to be familiar to Greeks, maybe i’m wrong.
One should not take literally the SAS example but consider how all small unpleasant details could be corrected and improve our national product/service.