Don’t bite the hand that feeds you

A case in point is the promotional campaign for the island at this year's London Boat Show, an event that attracts approximately 100,000 visitors. This uses a poster showing someone jumping into the sea from a yacht anchored in a small, secluded cove (with the island's name in small print tucked away in the top right corner). Fine, but due to an error, either typographical or in translation, the caption reads "The first drip of the day" instead of "The first dip of the day"! Insulting the very people it is trying to attract!

Still, there is reason to be optimistic - if the British press cotton on to "The first drip of the day" the island could get all the attention it needs (well, they do say that there is no such thing as bad publicity).

On a previous occasion, at the end of 2009, it was the presentation of the "English" version of the Camí de Cavalls guide at the World Travel Market, also in London. The translation was so poor in places that it was completely unintelligible and the book had to be re-translated and reprinted - another waste of money.

Londoners, and visitors from elsewhere in the U.K., must be under the impression that nobody English lives on the island and that none of the residents speak English - debateable whether this is a good selling point for holidays in Menorca, considering the British aversion to learning foreign languages and assumption that everyone else will speak their language!

Not only are there thousands of English residents on the island who could, if asked, have spotted the poster error within two seconds flat, but the Association ABC Menorca has offered its services to the tourist board specifically for cases such as this, where a native English speaker is needed.

Remember the Fundació Turisme's slogan to market the island in 2006? "Menorca - all for your senses"! Did anyone understand that? It did not improve much after being altered to "Menorca - delight your senses"!

But the problem goes beyond poor translations. To reach a foreign market you need to understand that nationality's mentality, culture and background, i.e. you need to take advice from a native or someone who has lived within the culture for a good number of years. A slogan may sound fine in Spanish but translate it into another language (even correctly) and it becomes meaningless. There is no point in trying to find one single slogan to cover all markets - each target group needs a slogan developed especially with it in mind.

Advertising Es Castell as the first place in Spain to see the rising sun may attract Spanish (or Japanese) tourists but is unlikely to make much impression on the British whose view is more likely to be "So what? It rises in other parts of Menorca/Spain too, albeit a few minutes later". Potential visitors from the U.K. are far more likely to be drawn to the town by making reference to the picturesque fishing harbour of Cales Fonts.

One (hopefully) positive aspect is that the Fundació Turisme has given a grant to a young student, Natalia Rodríguez Byrne, to study tourism at the University of Breda in the Netherlands and later travel to Malaysia to write her thesis. The daughter of a Spanish father and Irish mother, Natalia is completely fluent in Spanish, English and Menorcan and understands the different cultures. If, at the end of her studies, she is employed by the foundation she may be well-positioned to put a halt to the needless and avoidable waste of taxpayers' money.