Travel media alert to the unpaid promotion campaign ordered by Oman’s Tourism Ministry. A collective lawsuit is likely to follow.
Over the last few years the Tourism Ministry of Sultanate of Oman has made an effort to organize and co-organize as many high profile travel trade events as possible. There is no doubt that attracting attention of the global travel industry and growing awareness about the relatively new Middle East tourism destination are among top priorities of the Oman’s tourism authorities.
In line with this strategy, in November this year the Ministry of Tourism was heavily involved in organizing the 3rd Global Geo-tourism Conference, that was planned to take place in Muscat between 30 Oct and 1 Nov 2011.
It is quite clear that a promotion campaign should not be underestimated to reach positive outcomes of such an event. Taking into account the global approach need as well as limited budget, Peter Keage, consultant to the Ministry of Tourism and the conference co-organizer, focused on online travel trade media of good reputation and global distribution. Among others Tourism-Review.com, Tourism Review Digital Network, and TravelDailyMedia.com were involved.
Three weeks after the event was supposed to take place it is still not quite clear if the conference actually was or wasn’t organized. The official website of the event does not include any after-event report or press release. One outcome however is quite clear – the Ministry of Tourism failed to pay part of the ordered promotion campaign.
Martin Heger, the Finance Manager of the Tourism Review Digital Network emphasized: “We usually charge our customers for our ad inventory and other online marketing services in advance. However this time an exemption was made against Mr. Keage promise that the campaign would be paid immediately after its end, thus at the beginning of October.”
“It is rather disappointing, that even after quite a few notices sent during the last month to Peter Keage, who ordered the campaign, and to other managers at the Ministry there is no adequate reaction,” noted Mr. Heger.
Because of a relatively insignificant overdue amount in the global scale, Tourism Review operation team has a limited debt collection opportunity. Nevertheless, we appeal to all potential service providers working for the Tourism Ministry of Oman who has unpaid invoices for their work, either in the field of promotion or other services, please contact Martin Heger at office@tourism-review.com in order to join the effort for a collective lawsuit.