City Flaneurs travel to Lisbon
Ηι! We are Maria Kalogeropoulou, Alexandra Koroxenidi, Chris Ntabakakis and Evi Stoubou or in other words “City flaneurs” and we are part of Athens Co-Creation City Branding Project. We travel all over the worlds’ cities to learn about their smart-living strategy. Last stop Liverpool, next stop Lisbon!
Liverpool’s successful campaign urged us to study one more city. The city that we chose is Lisbon, because it’s a mediterranean capital, which makes it a different and interesting case study. So, our next stop is Lisbon! We were rather impressed by the strategic marketing plan for Turismo de Lisboa given that its ambition, vision and objectives are crystal clear and therefore fruitful. Specifically, the affirmation of Lisbon’s position among the most popular European capitals as far as tourism is concerned, the increase of its marketshare in the domestic market and the creation of a very competitive portuguese influx of tourism are the main aspects of this plan’s ambition.
Furthermore, this ambition is attached to the main vision of that plan, which is the reflection of the incentives and attractiveness of the region and the creation of a new Lisbon’s identity as a touristic destination. In terms of the objectives this campaign tends to increase quantity and value, increase the number of visitors from traditional and emerging markets, upgrade the experience of visitors and their impressions of a destination with a very diverse offering, generate more awareness of the destination and place Lisbon ‘’top of mind’’ in the list of the must-see European capitals.
Key words of this campaign are authenticity, capital status, attractiveness, sensations, sophistication and modernity, the human element, unique historical importance and diversity of experiences. The strategic position adopted by Turismo de Lisboa is organised into four sequential phases (markets, segments, products and brand). The study of this campaign was very illuminating, because it refers to a mediterranean capital city like Athens and finally worked in benefit of that city. Therefore, we found more resemblance between Athens and Lisbon rather than between Athens and Liverpool.
The emphasis put on Lisbon’s seaside could really work for a capital like Athens. In Athens we haven’t really taken advantage of our city’s morphology and despite the short distance between the capital’s centre and seaside it is not easily accesible to the Athenians. Lisbon made a lot of effort in order to create a closer relationship with the sea. The goal was to increase the offering of nautical tourism (water sports and maritime tourism) and bring the river and the ocean closer.
It is a fact that greek economy is based mainly on tourism. Hence, an increase in tourism, through nautical tourism, is going to contribute a lot to our economy. Furthermore, making access to the seaside easier will provide citizens a great way to relax. These two main points indicate the direction which we should follow in order to improve the quality of our lives.
Click here to check our classroom presentation for Lisbon’s campaign:
Click here in order to watch the rest of our journey.
