By Foday Moriba Conteh
The Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and the National Tourist Board with support from the World Bank Sierra Leone Economic Diversification Project having concluded the regional marketing and branding consultative workshop in the provinces, held a consultative Marketing and Branding Workshop with Journey and ACORN consultants at the Family Kingdom Resort on the 21st June 2021 in Freetown.
Fatmata Kroma, General Manager of the National Tourist Board, in her statement, noted that they have been doing a lot of marketing and Branding with special credence to Minister Pratt for putting so much emphasis and aggression in international marketing and promotion, and that as a result, Sierra Leone is now recognized globally in terms of tourism.
“Despite having a marketing initiative and tool, there is no marketing strategy for Sierra Leone, but with support from the World Bank we will be having a holistic and international marketing strategy with an implementation plan. For the document to have a national character, the consultants have consulted the regions to have their input into same,” she intimated.
Hon. Saidu Conteh, Deputy Chairman for the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Tourism, disclosed how he is excited to be part of the meeting noting that they will always give their support to the Ministry and the Board. He on behalf of the Committee in Parliament welcomed the Journey and ACORN Consultants for supporting the tourism sector.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Andrew Sorie, maintained that the workshop demonstrates what they want for the sector as the consultants will help lure more visitors to Sierra Leone. He added that the Ministry was excited about the activity and that they are hoping for positive results for Sierra Leone to compete in the highest level in world tourism.
In their presentation on the situation analysis, marketing opportunities and challenges during the regional workshops, the Lead Consultant, Mike Fabricius, said they had a wonderful experience and they felt energized.
He explained that the objective is to develop a national tourism marketing strategy and branding that is implementable which can resonates with tourism markets and embraces the importance of sustainability in order to kick-start implementation of rebranding the destinations, social media marketing strategy and production of key collateral and marketing training.
He furthered that the strategy would guide the marketing of tourism for the next ten years and that it includes a three – year action plan with corresponding activities, tactics, targets and budgets adding that it will be realistic and in line with the GoSL budgets and capacities and will focus more on digital marketing.
The workshop was climaxed by interactive group sessions where participants discussed the basis on which Sierra Leone can be differentiated from other competitors in terms of the type of travellers to be targeted, the packaging and presentation of product to travellers and the vision for Sierra Leone’s tourism in 2035.
The presentation further showcased the slogan that summarises Sierra Leone’s brand promise, how to visualise the brand promise in a brand identity and what expression should be given to Sierra Leone in terms of sound, aroma, taste, texture and visually were all discussed by participants.
