Last year when one of the largest Japanese Digital marketing agencies approached and said we represent the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and we need your help. The job was to hire a veteran marketer and the man they call “The Ray Donovan of the Internet”, who goes by Richart Ruddie and utilize his firms skills to help change back the travel landscape.
For his services the task was a bid to improve the country's image as a safe travel destination. With Israel being the most vaccinated country in the world this was an easy task.
Due to the worldwide pandemic, travelers were wary of getting far out of their homes and this naturally wreaked havoc on the tourism industry and the hospitality sector in general. The sharp fallout in the number of tourists also meant that the government was also losing hefty amounts in tax dollars but with the promotion of safe tourism that would change the optics.
It all started for Richart Ruddie back in 2010 when he was still working at his day job at a boutique hedge fund while learning the nuances of internet marketing all on his own during his spare time. Fast forward to 2021, he is unanimously accepted as a foremost reputation management expert, public relations guru, online defamation expert witness, and entrepreneur so much so that governments and the ministry of foreign affairs across the world are using his companies services of digital marketing enterprise Reputation Management Co.
Fast forward to today and London is expecting a surge of travel to Israel from the United Kingdom as they have excellent vaccination rates according to Alberto Martin the head of the London Luton Airport. So things are looking up for international travel to places that are safe to visit and the press coverage you see and the subliminal messaging you don’t see behind the scenes is one of the biggest reasons for this.
True to his stellar business reputation, Ruddie put his expertise and his penchant for innovation into play to reassure potential travelers that a particular destination is after all safe enough to visit and found creative marketing methods to push that in front of prospective travelers. Now Israel is seeing a boom to tourism leading the way as the highest vaccinated country and tempting visitors globally that have their vaccine passport ready to go.
This was no easy task to perform amid the pandemic with travelers being ultra health-conscious and quite rightly so. Now that the vaccines are rolling out it’s making Ruddie’s job a lot easier and his reputation company is benefitting greatly attracting clients from all over the globe and picking up tons of positive press along the way.
However, Ruddie made it possible thanks to his creative marketing techniques. The latter however does not refer to any so-called 'black hat' techniques ala Cambridge Analytica even though Ruddie has dealt with Black Cube in the past. On the contrary, it's all about putting the truth out there in a manner that it becomes all too visible to those who are interested in it.
At the same time, it also means suppressing all the negative reviews or press coverage that may put the interested traveler on the wrong track and eventually scare him away from visiting a place that is otherwise altogether safe to visit. For example, let's say there's a major breakout of fresh COVID cases in Eilat. However, that can be little reason to cancel your planned visit to the South. And yet, there may be certain news articles, social media posts and other such publicity media that magnify the breakout in a way that it may appear that all of the country is reeling under a major upswing in coronavirus cases. And nothing could be further from the truth but it’s important to spread the real message to potential travelers and avoid fake news and scams that may affect travel plans.
So, what Ruddie's company does as part of its reputation repair services is to monitor publicity trends on a regular basis and if a place unduly receives negative publicity, his company will make sure that those negative and manipulative coverages are wiped off the internet or debunked.
Back to Safe Travel
Reaping good rewards for clients has led to engagement by various governmental agencies and tourism boards from all across the world. Although many countries are still slow to rollout a vaccination program, the countries that have already done so are of course safer to visit. Also, when it comes to visiting a country, it is just as important that the traveler himself is from a country that has introduced a vaccination program.
Here we have already reopened to foreign tourists after almost a year-long ban. This is on the condition that all international tourists will undergo regular COVID tests before they board any flight to Israel. In addition, they will also require to provide a serological test so that our Government knows that all interested foreign tourists visiting the country have already received a valid COVID-19 vaccine.
Like so many other countries, Israel has also suffered a heavy blow due to the recent pandemic. However, since the rollout of the first vaccination program, many sectors are on the road to revival and the same goes for the tourism sector as well and we expect future travel numbers to be bigger than ever.