Avoiding the needle in a haystack

The Arabian Travel Market (ATM) comes but once a year in a whirlwind of excitement and chaos across the city, and in the blink of an eye it passes after four full days filled with networking, hard selling, seminars, swollen feet and of course announcements.

This year the ATM attracted more than 26,000 visitors, so it is no wonder that many international hotel chains, industry giants and tourism organisations use the exhibition as a platform to announce their plans, developments and innovations for the coming year.

The motive behind making announcements at an event like ATM is simple: an organisation has many of its main stakeholders in one place at one time therefore making the dissemination of information easier - or so one would think.

Hyatt managing director Southwest Asia, Peter Fulton, was recently quoted in a press release saying "Arabian Travel Market 2008 is an ideal platform for Hyatt to tell its story of growth to all our key stakeholders in the industry" - a thought echoed by most of those declaring their next steps.

Hotel chains are not alone, with companies like Nakheel and Kanoo Travel also using the opportunity that ATM presents. The incentive to stage press conferences is that apart from industry peers, trade partners and local interest, organisations can communicate with international press, media and government bodies, which in other circumstances may be difficult to reach.

However with so many companies making grand gestures and announcements, is it too easy for the message to get lost? As public relations practitioners we are taught to tailor our message to our audience in order to be relevant and stay on point.

When communicating to such a large audience the ability to tailor-make the message becomes limited, and a ‘scatter-gun' approach is employed, sending information in every direction. Throwing a wide net with your message may mean confronting more people, but most often will resonate with fewer.

The traditional public relations models can be broken down into sections: propaganda; public information; scientific persuasion; and mutual understanding.
Propaganda is seen as the simplest form of PR, while reaching a level of mutual understanding between an organisation and its public is viewed as the ideal communication flow.

In order to achieve this mutual understanding, or two-way symmetrical flow of information, there needs to be feedback within an open forum with balanced effects for both parties.

Making announcements in an environment like the ATM does not always facilitate this two-way communication, especially as companies need to shout louder to be heard and relevance tends to take a back seat to sensationalism.

These theories do not make the tool of press conferences at exhibitions redundant - quite the contrary for the few who manage to get the formula right.

However it does highlight that unless the information is specific and of relevance to the stakeholders you are targeting, the message will get lost in the ‘noise'.

Announcements are a clean-cut method to put information out in the market, but other strategies may be more favourable when formulating an action plan.

Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts, for example, chose not to make announcements at ATM this year. Instead, it divided newsworthy statements throughout the year when they were not number 15 of 26 that day. This is a tactic that many hotel chains and companies are recognizing can have more of an impact in the long-run, allowing for heightened exposure.

With the volume of visitors expected to rise again for Arabian Travel Market 2009, the number of announcements is sure to follow the upward trend. However more companies should take heed and think twice before jumping on the press conference bandwagon and simply question, ‘is it necessary?'

Until then, it is worth remembering that the ATM is the perfect opportunity to reinforce an organisation's core values, nurture relationships, reinstate its presence in the market and, for a few, to make the latest announcement.

Katie Harvie is Mövenpick Hotel Bur Dubai's communications and brand manager.

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