Fighting recession Spain has launched a marketing campaign to aid the floundering Mediterranean tourist giant. A top chef, Ferran Adria, became the face of the campaign promoting Spanish cuisine.
Spain, in terms of its tourism industry, needs a swift change in luck and it needs to be put back onto the marketing map. Last year saw a drop of 8.7% and considering that Spain employs over 2.25 million people in tourism, this makes for serious losses. The global recession is, of course, mostly to blame and Spain has been further hindered by the fact that traditional visitors to Spain now visit other places around the globe, especially the cheaper and previously undiscovered north African countries.
The “I Need Spain” campaign has been launched, aimed at 400 million people in 40 countries. The typically weak markets of China, India and the Middle East have been targeted to get the tourists back within Spanish borders. In an effort to make the promotion as effective as possible Spain asked the top avant-garde chef Ferran Adria to become the face of the campaign.
The Spanish hope to recapture the days of having masses of British and German tourists along its coast, whilst having thousands of Japanese hoarding the main squares of Madrid and Barcelona. If the new markets bring success, their mere size could turn this dream into reality.
This Spanish celebrity has been relied upon to add spice to the marketing, by not only promoting Spanish omelettes and paella, yet adding his personality to the public eye. All over the world, chefs have changed from being experts with knives to being personalities, who promote the regions to which their cuisine belongs. Ferran Adria is now Spain’s biggest hope in this area.
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