The Region of Murcia is suffering an identity crisis

A competition for the general public to re-brand Murcia’s regional tourism promotion has failed

Do the maths: currently the Region of Murcia is attracting just 1.3% of the 59 billion euros being spent by foreign tourists in Spain, highlighting just how important it is to get the branding right and understand the needs of foreign tourists.

 In spite of the positive tourism figures for this summer, whether the Region of Murcia chooses to admit it or not, Murcia is still very much a traditional destination for Spanish families and barely features on the radar of the international tourist.

Murcia welcomed 449.000 foreign tourists during the first seven months of the year, a figure being lauded by the regional press as representing a major success for the region, although in real terms this represents just 1.2% of the total 36,314,459 foreign tourists who have visited Spain during this same period.

And yes, without doubt, the region has increased the revenue generated from these foreign tourists by 37% during this period, to reach 459 million euros, but this is still only 1.3% of the revenue harnessed by Spain’s 17 Autonomous Communities, a total of 36.3 billion euros spent during just the first seven months of 2014.
Which to put it simply, means that the other 16 Autonomous Communities hoovered up the remaining 98.7% of the total revenue generated.

Yes, “tourists” who visit the Region of Murcia stay for longer than the average, but this is due to the fact that many of those classed as “tourists” are actually owners of, or families visiting, one of the tourist properties on the residential tourist urbanisations built during the pre-construction crash boom years, the Polaris World Resorts the principal destination.

And they’re predominantly British, 52.6% of the “tourists” coming to the Region of Murcia are from the UK, accounting for 49.2% of the total expenditure, miles ahead of the next largest group which broadly encompasses the Scandinavian nationalities( most of whom also speak English as their second language) accounting for just over 11% of the respective totals.

So although the figures are improving, as the regional press rightly pointed out, they still represent only a tiny percentage of the Spanish totals, showing just how much there is to play for when competing to attract a larger chunk of this  international tourism revenue.

Just a few months ago the regional government underwent a major overhaul, as former President Valcárcel headed for Brussels, the new President Alberto Garre swiftly implementing a personnel change, the first casualty Pedro Alberto Cruz, former head of culture and tourism. Sr Garre split up the post previously held, dividing the responsibilities into two separate bodies, culture and tourism, determined to boost the levels of tourism in the region.

Under modern art professor Pedro Cruz, the former image of “Sol y Playa” tourism, effectively sun and beach tourism, had been sidelined, as the region attempted to promote itself as a modern and innovative cultural destination, adopting a contemporary blocked design and the now infamous ”No Typical” slogan, attempting to portray the region as a “not normal” tourist destination.

This was followed by a foray into “Destination Murcia”, just as the economic downturn struck the traditional market for the region, Spanish nationals from areas such as Madrid, and the realisation dawned that the dependence on domestic tourism left the businesses of the region vulnerable as Spanish families reduced their expenditure and started looking for cheaper ways to stretch out their holidays. And meanwhile, the property market stagnated meaning that foreign buyers stopped flocking to the region to pick up tourist apartments, the region itself was forced to rein in on expenditure and try to cope with its own financial deficit, which meant that there was no money to spend on more promotion, and the big projects designed to drive forward tourism stalled:  Marina de Cope for environmental reasons, Corvera airport failed to open for a combination of factors, and the Paramount Park remained on the drawing board as investors fought shy of making a financial commitment.

So now the challenge the region faces is to attract more foreign tourists and compete for a bigger slice of that tourism revenue pie, for which reason it is seeking a new brand and new image.
The idea of the tourism department is to re-brand the region as “Costa Cálida – Región de Murcia”, returning to the older branding which focused on the sun and sea aspect of the “warm coast”.
The Costa Cálida is virtually unknown in the UK, unlike the Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol, both of which are household names after years of doggedly and aggressively marketing exactly what British tourists come to Spain for: sun, sea, sangria and sand.

The major problem facing this branding choice if foreign tourists are indeed the target market ( obviously most of the target market don´t speak Spanish so their needs must be taken into account) is the use of the “tilde”, the accent over both the a in Cálida and o in Región. It is possible to add an accent to a letter on English language computer keyboards, but this is a frustratingly difficult procedure for those with UK computers, and of course, Google recognises Calida and Cálida as two totally different words, so Brits sitting in the UK on UK IP addresses, ( which favour English text) typing in Calida and Cálida will be presented with two completely different search results, the bias being towards words which Google doesn´t recognise as being in Spanish. Here at Murcia Today we have been mocked by Spanish nationals for frequently referring to Mazarrón as Mazarron in a news headline, but the reason for this is because we know full well that most Brits wouldn´t know whether there was a tilde over the o or not, and most of the target market for Murcia wouldn´t be able to type in a tilde even if they knew they should as theyre sitting at home abroad, using English language, not Spanish language, keyboards. So they type in Mazarron and find the information they are seeking presented to them in their native English.

However, the regional tourism board are pressing ahead rebranding the region as Costa Cálida, and launched a competition amongst the general public to seek a new logo, but this week it has been announced that none of the 143 entries reached the required standard, so now 11 “experts in communication ” have been called in to pitch for the job of re-branding the region with a new Costa Cálida – Región de Murcia logo.

The tourism board want the new logo to include a reference to products produced and exported by the region, and it must also include a reference to ALL of the region, so including the interior of the region and its attractions, not just the coast, as well as work with the Marca España” the global Spanish brand, making it a very tall order for any designer, as after all, the words warm coast are associated with sun, sea and sand, which are the principal attractions drawing most holidaymakers to Murcia.

Yes, Murcia produces flavoursome peppers, a little wine and catches fish, but so does most of the Spanish coastline, and yes, it has some attractive churches, a good smattering of semi-ruined castles and lots of interesting museums, which repose empty and baking in the hot sun inland while local residents head for their holiday apartments on the coast, but is that what tourists would look for when choosing a holiday destination?
 Surely it has to be questioned why people would choose Murcia for a holiday: is it because the region grows melons and farms fish or is it because it has attractive beaches, a warm climate and residential tourism urbanisations which Polaris World spent millions of pounds marketing on UK television during the boom years and are now predominantly owned by foreigners who like to come and use them during the holiday periods?

Of course all opportunities should be taken to market Murcia, and putting a sticker promoting the region on every melon which leaves its borders, every box of fish, every bottle of wine, can all help to raise brand awareness, but behind every sweet melon and every bottle of Murcian wine is one common factor, the sun which helped to grow it, and as every marketer knows all too well, a logo has to be instantly recognisable, simple, direct and memorable: too many elements detract from the core message.

 All that can be hoped is that the “experts in communication” have the good sense to do a little market research before they start drawing pretty logos, and maybe, just maybe, one of them might have the bright idea of asking some of the foreigners who are their target market what makes them choose Spain as a holiday destination.

Last year over 60 million foreign tourists chose to come to Spain, 14,327,277 of them British nationals, the biggest group accounting for over 23% of the total, spending a staggering 59 BILLION euros in Spain. Again, the Brits spent the most, over 12 BILLION euros pouring into the Spanish economy from British purses, highlighting just how much possibility there is for the Region of Murcia if only it can get its act together, harness the potential of this vast and important market and start internationalising its promotion.

So let’s just hope the experts in communication do a bit of market research amongst their target market before they start and finally come up with a decent logo to promote this fabulous region!