Metropolitan Tourism Organisations During the COVID-19 Crisis
The idea of #miastopozdawia is for us primarily an action of solidarity with other cities, because today no one is in a better or worse situation. In the face of the pandemic and the restrictions that have affected us, we all found ourselves in the same situation. But this action is also a promise that we do not forget about the people who have been or will be in Warsaw. We also do not forget about those who prepare attractive stay offers for tourists - our members. We hope that after the pandemic ends, we will be able to turn this action into a product promotion of our cities.
The current situation shows that we need to close ranks even more strongly by conducting promotional activities, both on the domestic and international market. Local Tourist Organizations are primarily organizations associating business representatives and local governments. This makes it much easier to develop, prepare and introduce a ready promotional and product offer to the market. When it concerns four cities, it is a great strength, because together we associate over 500 entities from the tourism industry.
We work together because we know that we can win the fight for the customer after this crisis as a team or we can fail individually.
Since the beginning of March, the largest city tourist organizations in Poland in Gdańsk, Łódź, Poznań and Warsaw have been cooperating intensively to counteract the negative effects of the crisis caused by the spread of coronavirus. What does this joint strategy consist of?
Communication
First of all, communication within the half a thousand companies associated in the city tourist organizations was taken care of. Based on surveys and interviews, it was quickly established that the crisis had affected 90% members of the associations, whose revenues had dropped to basically zero. The communication channels developed during the first days of the crisis (video conferences, mailing, Facebook groups) were maintained, but the industry's demands towards the government and local governments were developed together. The effect was a common position of the four cities presented during a meeting with Deputy Minister Andrzej Gut-Mostowy on March 31, later submitted in writing. Care was also taken to provide immediate information on the support of the government and local government for entrepreneurs associated in the organizations, and instructions were prepared on the possibility of using the anti-crisis shield and legal consultations were provided. The organizations also became the first contact for the industry in contacts with local governments. Thanks to this, it was possible to develop a number of specific solutions at a rapid pace, e.g. in Poznań it was possible to change the waste declaration overnight.
Online promotion
Municipal organizations have developed mechanisms for mutual promotion, i.e. the use of social media for online visits, and in the post-pandemic period for visits. The campaigns primarily promote attractions associated with the Municipal LOTs, such as museums and galleries, but also virtual walks, curatorial tours, access to digital archives, video recordings, as well as examples of lessons and workshops for children and youth and educational materials for teachers and parents. The campaign is conducted under the common hashtag #MiastoWillWait. At the moment, more cities are joining the initiative. Individual projects are also supported in individual cities, such as #WarszawaPozdrawia or #VisitPoznanFromHome.
Restaurant Support
The closure of the restaurant was met with an immediate campaign to collect information about restaurants serving takeaway meals, as well as those that decided to support hospitals and medical workers. Studies promoting Easter catering and local food producers were also created. The resulting texts quickly became the most popular on the organization's websites, also thanks to broad promotion by local media and local government social media.
Activities in the MICE area
All city tourist organizations have professional units specializing in acquiring conferences and congresses. They continue to work on acquiring current events, e.g. in Poznań, the final work is underway on submitting additional information in the competition for the World Chefs' Congress 2024. In Warsaw, the status of 15 congresses scheduled for this year remains valid, including the World of Coffee Congress for 10,000 participants, which was postponed until autumn.
New promotional tools have also been introduced, such as a panoramic map with a virtual tour of the facilities, or a virtual site inspection map, jointly with the Poland Convention Bureau. Thanks to these activities, city tourist organizations want to maintain the interest in the cities among international and Polish meeting planners in the coming months and enable work on events that they are planning for the following months and years. The database of facilities with virtual tours will be gradually expanded in cooperation with members of the associations.
We are preparing offers for the MICE industry, but more importantly, we are preparing to conduct research related to the meetings market, because at the moment it is difficult to predict how the current situation will change the habits of corporations and associations related to the need for direct contact.
The time of crisis shows that unification and cooperation is the key to effective action. The cooperation of 4 metropolitan tourist organizations, although it existed for over a year, has now gained significant dynamics. Thanks to it, we are preparing common positions towards the Ministry, exchanging concepts of assistance to our members, legal opinions and implementing joint promotional activities. This is a direction of action that we will definitely develop in the future.
Cooperation between our cities is, on the one hand, a rapid transfer of knowledge, but also barter promotion, which we appreciate even more when we emerge from the crisis and together strive for tourists for our cities. We are also proud that our voice has been noticed in the Ministry of Development. We count on fruitful cooperation in the future, offering full readiness of the four largest city tourist organizations in Poland for it now.