Lebanese Ministry of Tourism Needs to Quit!

Another year and yet another disgraceful failure to attract tourists! For once i would love to see an ad that promotes Lebanon without the main highlight being a woman’s behind!

So the MOT is promoting a 50% off on travel/accommodation packages for the upcoming month to promote tourism.. good idea! Execution, however (and as always) is an EPIC failure! Let’s start with the promotion: SmiLebanon. Did the agency read the campaign? did they read the offers? did they read?

A 5 second mention of a 50% off discount at the very end of yet another come-to-Lebanon-for-the-ladies video is not exactly nailing the offer!
I won’t even comment on the first video for the campaign [linked here], since it looks more like a local PSA than any form of advertising.  

Moving on. Let’s say you watched the Ad and heard those few seconds of the offer and logged onto the MOT website, you can now start playing “Find the GRAND offer game”. BlogBaladi has the answer for you!
Ok, it’s on the left corner in small flap that reminds me of the usual “feedback form”. But wait. Say you click on it. tada! Nothing. and then you notice an Excel has been downloaded to your machine. *burns passport*

We have been through this year after year. For a country that is so dependent on the services and tourism industry, the members of this community are so out of the loop and out of influence on the service/tourism sector that it always feels like an empty loop!

Last year I wrote a post on Ministry of Tourism should be promoting and focusing on in its upcoming campaign, a more sustainable, long-lived and healthy tourism that meets the real value of this country and it’s people, something that’s not the cabaret culture and ma’amiltin!

It’s a new year, it’s been a hectic 2012, i can imagine the deficit it created was bad enough that the MOT couldn’t create the packages into any form of visually appealing design/ad/etc. (some branding in the Excel would’ve been at least nice, maybe an export to PDF., just saying). But for those that are looking for the packages here it is:

50% Packages for tourists from: Amman, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Cairo and Qatar
Duration: 4 days/ 3 nights
Validity: From 08JAN to 28FEB 2013
** All packages are tax inclusive.

MOT 50 Days – 50% off Packages – Lebanese Tourism (10 minutes – in something like paint)

You can get the full list through this notorious excel sheet [or this gDoc].
Sadly enough: there is no contact number, email, reference on how to get the deal.

MOT – please just shut down!

Roundup:
BlogBaladi: Ministry of Tourism Promotional Packages
BlogBaladi: Ministry of Toursim’s SmiLebanon Campaign
Brofessional Review: Ministry of Tourism 02: Lebanon the pointless cabaret
National News Agency: Abboud: “50% for 50 days” Campaign starts to bear fruits