According to a recent article in Markedsføring, tourists are turning their backs on Denmark. And Denmark’s marketeers are blaming the porcelain-obsessed marketing that pushes Denmark as a fairytale land. Instead, the marketeers would like to see greater focus on Christiania, the gay scene and Denmark’s free-mindedness. This seems like a good idea to me.

Look at one of Denmark’s neighbours and biggest tourist competitors, Norway. Even Norway has a porcelain factory that pumps out exquisite, and expensive, porcelain. And while fairytales may be good for kids, Norway has fjords, mountains and polar bears (not in the streets!).

So the key would be to find Denmark’s unique selling points (USPs) and push these to the hilt. So what are they? As the marketeers say, Christiania is a good one - and regularly comes high on lists of Denmark’s top tourist attractions. But it’s been watered down in recent years.

So what else is there? While Denmark’s gay scene and free-mindedness may not be unique, they certainly appeal to the country’s closest neighbours. And they could be harnessed until Denmark becomes known as Northern Europe’s most open-minded nation. That would have some appeal to certain tourist profiles.

Whatever happens, as the marketeers point out, it has to overcome Denmark’s recent bad international publicity. Take a look at CCN’s Danish section and you’ll see why. It’s all Salmonella and Islamic ire. But according to CNN, Denmark still ranks highest as the happiest place on Earth. Perhaps it’s about time people outside Denmark began to see why - and when they did, they might also discover Denmark’s USP.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 11:01 am by Dan Elloway and is filed under Communication, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.