Zuzanna Gutkowska
Director | Polish National Tourist Office in Beijing
Q: Is there any adjustment made to the marketing/promotional plan of the year due to the COVID-19 situation? Is there any new plan/initiative created specifically for the situation?
A: The virus outbreak had an influence on every business and life aspect all over the world, but we did try our best not to limit activities of our office. We still operated daily, though working from home, conducting online meetings, offering support and information to all our partners. I personally never left China, as it is my home now, and I wanted to be able to react quickly to any new developments. We try to see current situation as a chance to further show support to our partners in China, get all our operations in order. Especially that normally our calendars are full with different kind of events, fairs and meetings, which leaves little time for simple office work. There are number of COVID specific campaigns that we are conducting on foreign markets all over the world, with more activities to come. We started with introducing ways to travel through Poland without leaving your house thanks to live streaming, special workshops and online exhibitions. We encouraged people to 此时见，彼此现 (dream now, travel later) through beautiful pictures from different regions of Poland. We also started campaign #PolandWillWait in cooperation with main cities in Poland, to show that our country survived turbulent history and still we are here, we are not going anywhere, and we will be ready for tourists to once again fill our streets, once the situation is under control.
Q: Has your office/destination carried out any campaign/initiative during the COVID-19 situation? How do you see the effect?
A: We did postpone number of promotional campaigns to the second half of the year, but our everyday activities remain the same. We manage our online presence, we turned physical workshops into online webinars, we work on preparing content for upcoming campaigns.One of our campaign – “Ambassadors of Poland” conducted in cooperation with Ctrip – began just before the Chinese New Year and beginning of travel restrictions, which wasn’t the best timing on our part. At the same time, we are very happy with the results of the campaign so far. The first phase of the campaign, which involved recruitment of so called “Ambassadors of Poland” among ordinary people, attracted more than 800 applications and achieved goals set for the campaign. The pandemic influenced mostly the time schedule of the activity, as we did have to react quickly and adjust timing accordingly.
Q: Is there any other campaign/initiative that is under planning for the next step?
A: First to introduce will be campaigns that were temporarily paused at the beginning of year. The 2020 is an important year for all lovers of Chopin music – we just celebrated 210 anniversary of his birthday and XVIII Chopin Piano Competition, one of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world, will take place in October in Poland. To commemorate those events and introduce to Chinese people more tourist attractions associated with Chopin we will be carrying “Footsteps of Chopin” campaign. It will include number of activities both online and offline, targeted at individual tourists as well as tour operators and educational institutions. Apart from standard campaigns we are also thinking about preparing dedicated activities for our partners in Poland, who due to the situation will not be probably able to travel to China this year. They are interested in learning more about the market, how COVID situation will influence tourism from China, and especially in establishing new contacts with potential business partners. Our role is to make it possible for them and support them fully in present challenging times.
Q: Why is it important to continue doing a good job in destination marketing and promotion during the COVID-19 situation when tourism has virtually stopped?
A: The virus situation doesn’t mean that we should stop all our activities all together. Although meetings with business partners are impeded and it is not a good time for launching big promotional campaigns as they might be viewed unsensitive, we can use this time in other ways to prepare for revival of tourism.It is a good time to take care of the activities, which are not that time sensitive and usually are pushed aside by more urgent matters. Like preparing new promotional content that will be used for future campaigns: editing video, translating articles, designing brochures etc., or taking your online presence to the next level: updating website, developing mini programs, opening accounts on different social media channels.People all over the world are locked in their homes with hours to kill on online activities. As tourism organization we can work on making this time a bit more interesting for them, allow them to roam the world while sitting on their couch and teach them how to travel more responsibly once the boarders will open again. It is a perfect time to learn more about different destinations and gather travel inspirations for future trips. The lockdown can be also used for cultivating business relations with partners. In a digital world holding an online meeting, conference call, webinar, is very convenient and user friendly. You can set aside couple of hours per day to reach out to your partners, inquiry about how they are dealing with the situation. There is nothing more important than to talk on a regular basis with your partners, learn more about their needs and challenges they faced, in order to achieve mutual understanding. This way we can support each other better, getting ready for the return of normal business activities.
Q: In ONE sentence, what is the most important message you’d like to share with the WTA members and the readers of our column?
A: We cannot choose what’s happening around us but we can always choose how we deal with the situation – let’s make use of this time and work hand in hand to make tourism more sustainable, stronger than before.