Šlesers and Flick yesterday presented the first phase in Riga's new tourism campaign. Things got off to a bad start when journalists were sent this version of the ad complete with one big Freudian slip.
oops... was supposed to be "Leave". Click pic for larger size.
This ad has almost something wrong with it everywhere you look. First of all the whole slogan just sounds clumsy in English, certainly not up to the level of what it should be.
Riga City: Easy to go. Hard to leave. You understand what they were trying to get at but probably needs to be written a bit different. Firstly you dont need to call it Riga City, people will understand fine enough if you just say Riga. Easy to go - maybe 'Easy to visit' might be better. Hard to Leave is probably the only thing right in this slogan.
Have a look at the tagline at the bottom. Birthplace of Christmas tree - a 'the' in there wouldnt go astray. Then under that is something I still cant figure out what its supposed to mean: Now for 499 years What the...?? I cant even imagine what it was in Latvian before they got their literal translator to have a go at it.
Lastly the photos. OK this may be purely subjective, but to me those images say nothing. In an abstract way, which I would understand, it still says nothing. A heart with an eye in it (EDIT: Took me awhile but I just work out its supposed to represent I LOVE = eye heart) and a fat viking opera singer.... thats just got Riga written all over it!
Riga City: Easy to go. Hard to live.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 |
Posted by
jem
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13 comments:
Here is the winner.
http://www.me.com/gallery/#100036/riga%20latvia%20Photos.
I suppose the first part of the slogan should sound like "Easy to come" rather than "Easy to go".
I'm sure "Easy to come" would quickly degenerate into a dirty reference - a big joke.
But hey, any publicity is good publicity right?
If you wanted to use 'Easy to come' it would probably better to use 'Easy to come to'.... but stil sounds clumsy to me. Easy to visit, Easy to arrive, Easy to come to, Easy to stay.... anything but Easy to go!
Ironic, sooooo TRUE - getting worse day by day, too.
Getting Harder & Harder to Live in Riga !
Why even to try and sell Riga to tourists?
No value on arrival!
Airport bus STOPPED for inspection with 6 police on the way from the airport.
Bus drivers that can't even drive so a passenger can stand up
Bus drivers that can't seem to get the announcement to match the name of the stop.
Restaurants that provide inconsistent food and service.
Hotels with awful service.
Shop keepers that don't pay attention and "snap" at the clients.
People who simply walk into you and open doors on you as you walk down the street. I said NOT FOR YOU - bump into you.
Second rate items for sale at inflated prices.
Loud mouth and drunk "boys" vomiting & peeing on the streets.
Police that don't care and don't pay attention.
Nobody seems to care about making it better - seriously that is. Lots of lip service and ten second rate advertising mistakes.
No one wants to partner and help each other. Its like rats on a ship - all fighting to fill their own pockets first.
We have sent two emails to the Vice Mayors office and one to the new Riga Tourism office offering to assist and provide FREE photos (several weeks ago). They have been read we have confirmation.....
.. but, no one has botherd to reply... not even "go away"
Nothing.
No one cares!
.
Patricia, while I agree that the Ad is bad beyond comprehension, I can't agree with some of your complaints about Riga in general. If the restaurant is bad - visit another one. If somebody vomits on you - maybe you are in the wrong area. If the hotel has bad service - maybe you are in the wrong hotel. If you work in the tourism industry, you should be the one to refer people to the "RIGHT" spots, not complain about your own choices to the Mayor.
Riga has many wonderful places and areas, yet somehow all the tourists (presumably also from your agency) end up in one very limited area where the clubs are (and the vomiting guys).
Do all of us a favor - research, and send people to Agenskalns, Mežaparks and other interesting places. Not just the club zone in Old Town.
One of the traits of local folks that I continue to find interesting is the ability to spend time defending BAD QUALITY products and services rather than put forth energy to acknowledge that the Riga & Latvian economy is in a deep hole and work to FIX the fundamental underlying ROOT causes of the problems that Riga and Latvia's tourism industry face.
Lets take Berlin in comparison. It is dynamic, vibrant and customer service is in the air - am I wrong?.
Yes, there is bad service and quality in every city. But at the same time there are many top quality places and people to choose from.
When visitors leave Berlin, I will wager a bet are sad to leave and would enjoy returning soon.
In Riga and Latvia however, the percentages are in the opposite favor. The chances of finding bad quality and service greatly outweighs the chances of finding something to go home and tell your friends how wonderful it was and that you should book your tickets to Riga.
My point is that no one is trying to change that.
Riga and Latvia will NOT be successful in the tourism effort until there is a MAJORITY of places to visit in ALL areas of the city that provide a DELIGHTFUL experience to the visitor.
A delightful experience that implants deeply in the minds and now "hearts" of the visitor how GOOD they felt when they visited.
No agency has the ability to control exactly where the modern visitor visits. The visitor decides on there own.
Yes, an agency can provide guidance and suggestions and to some extent warnings about certain areas.
From some comments in these POSTINGS, it appears that folks are recommending that agencies provide a warning to their visitors NOT to visit the heart of the World heritage site - OLD RIGA CITY.
That just doesn't make sense.
When a visitor uses the hotel selection website, there is no way for the visitor to know which hotel will take good care of them or not.
Yes, there are hotel rating sites; but, I will bet you will find even some of the higher class hotels in Riga have some very negative reviews percentage wise more than found in other cities.
Agenskalns and the market is NOT a delightful experience - be honest. Just getting to & from is an adventure in itself and potentially very expensive if you take a taxi offered from some of the hotels that have connections with the overcharging taxi companies.
Figuring out and riding the Riga public transport takes extensive study and compared to other visitor oriented cities. God help a visitor if they don't understand the ticketing system and run up to one of the KONTROLE or groups of KONTROLE folks. Not a nice experience to take home with you and tell your friends about riding public transport in Riga.
And yes, restaurants. Granted there are a couple of FIVE STAR venues that may provide an eatable meal for a very high price. But, compared to other visitor oriented cities Riga has very, very few places to eat that will provide a tasty meal on a CONSISTENT basis at a reasonable price. Be honest - you know that to be true!
One time you go you get a good meal and the next time you go the food is awful. It happens and it happens all over Riga on a regular basis.
How is a visitor going to know where to find a good place to eat at a reasonable price when there is much of a chance of even a local achieving that result.
Come on, think about it seriously. Riga is NOT in the same league as other visitor friendly cities.
List in these POSTINGS the names of the people in Riga that are in a position or have the ability to improve the situation. Then list the names of those same people that are actually taking action to MAKE IT BETTER!
I will bet that both of those lists are VERY VERY short if not empty of names.
The news today is that Latvia's unemployment is higher again - all indicators & lists show Latvia at the WRONG end of the list. What is it going to take to get those with capability and power to take serious sustained action to start changing Latvia's positions on these lists?
Tell me please, am I wrong?
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