living large in the Adirondacks
Friday, March 28, 2008 at 12:52PM 
Summer travel guide - front and back covers • click to embiggenMiguel Garcia-Guzman, on his blog, [EV +/-] Exposure Compensation, has an entry, Photography to promote tourism in which he states:
There is no better way to promote tourism than to use great photography to convey the beauty of the location, the experience of the place, and the charm of the people living in the region. Strangely, it is very uncommon that organizations in charge of promoting tourism will ever use photography effectively. It seems that photography is not an area of expertise in tourism boards.
Miguel is certainly correct about the "no better way" part. He is also 80-90% correct about the "uncommon that organizations .... use photography effectively" part. But, regarding the "photography is not an area of expertise in tourism boards" part, he 100% right and 100% wrong. Since this field - tourism marketing / tourism photography - is how I butter my bread, I thought that I might shed a little light of experience on the subject.
The truth of the matter is that most tourism organizations do not have anyone on staff who has an area of photography expertise. The best that can be hoped for is that someone in the organization, at the very least, knows the difference between a good picture from a bad one. Unfortunately, in most cases, even that minimal skill is well beyond hope (it's hiding somewhere behind "despair"). Fortunately, in some organizations, there exist people with the skill to hire ad agencies, photographers, and creative types who can tell the difference ....but .....
The truth of that matter is that most tourism organizations are greatly underfunded for the task at hand. The net result is that they can not hire the best and the brightest of ad agencies, photographers, and creative types. Consequently, the marketing materials that are produced (to include photography) do not, in fact, look like they were created by the best and the brightest. That's the sad reality.
That said, in my case, there are people in the Essex County Convention & Vistors Bureau (Lake Placid) who know an assh*** from a hole in the ground. And, fortunately for them, I (one of the best and brightest) am willing to do what I do for them - photography, creative direction, ad / marketing materials design and production, and assorted other related things - for very modest $$$$ (relative to a full-service ad agency). It's a win-win situation. They get great stuff and I get to do my thing in the place I love best on this planet.
FYI, the picture on the top of this entry is part of this year's print media advertising. You can find it on page 94 of this month's National Geographic Adventure magazine. And, btw, that's the wife and one of our dogs, Ron (short for AdirRONdog), perched on the rock.
Reader Comments (3)
Re: someone in the organization knowing a good photo from a bad one -
If it was possible to arrive at a unanimous conclusion on this topic, you would have nothing to blog about.
But fortunately, this is not an era of photo fascism, and i am free to wish your client had abig budget so you could shoot with Velvia film.
Pretty much every time I plan on going to a national park I use the nps.gov web sites to find out information about the place I'll be going.
I'm almost always amazed by how bland the photography is.
Now, I'm not meaning some bright, shiny, unrealistic eye candy, over saturated, sunset shot or not. Or some realistic, speak to the viewer about the real truth of the place or not.
I just mean boring and unrepresentative of the amazing place the park really is. I'm sure they are underfunded and can't afford expensive, fantastic landscape photographers. But you'd think someone could help them out :)
Our last economic development officer kept suggesting that I should "donate" images to her very well funded (using my tax dollars) office. Apparently she blew her entire budget on EDO training.
I told her I would be thrilled to just as soon as my much anticipated "donation" of a 1Ds MkIII arrived from Canon. I'm still waiting for it.