The Client
A major institutional actor in the tourism sector.
The Environment
Several sectoral lobbies engaged in a fiercely tag-of-war in order to secure a significant part of the funds of the Greek National Recovery Action Plan.
The Objective

• To make policy makers directly link the Hospitality sector with the Recovery Fund.

• To educate the public and building a strong positive image for the Hospitality Sector.

The Tactics

ADVISE

  • Prepared a full stakeholder map as well as detailed profiles of engagement targets, tracking relationship dynamics, perceptions and motives, thus equipping the Client for stakeholder meetings.
  • Designed a comprehensive advocacy campaign action plan, including tactics, key messages, a detailed timetable of actions etc.
  • Drafted all advocacy material, several letters, position papers etc.
  • Launched a dedicated website serving as the focal point of the digital part of the advocacy campaign.
  • Revamped all social media accounts of the Client and created new to strengthen the outreach of the digital part of the campaign.

ADVOCATE

Direct lobbying

  • Supported the Client, before, during and after a series of top-level, face-to-face and online meetings with key policymakers.

Strategic Alliances

  • Assisted the Client to open new and strengthen existing channels of communication with selected stakeholders related to the value chain of the hospitality sector. The aim was the signing of an Agreement on Hospitality calling on the government to recognize the sector’s importance for the economy and society and act accordingly supporting the sector.

Thought Leadership

Designed a full-scale Thought Leadership plan to ignite and/or spearhead public dialogue on the issue at stake, paving the way for successful engagement, including:

  • A major study commissioned to a leading consulting firm, measuring the economic and social impact of the hospitality sector in the Greek economy to provide evidence-based arguments.

  • A high-level policy debate with the participation of the esteemed scientists, university professors and accomplished professionals highlighting the growth and employment dynamic of the hospitality sector

Media

  • Designed and implemented a targeted publicity plan ensuring that the Client was regularly present on all major traditional and digital media and drafted all relevant interviews, op-eds etc.

  • Assisted the preparation of media briefings and drafted all relevant briefing material.

  • Contributed to the organization of a press conference for the presentation of the results of a study measuring the added value of the sector in the economy and drafted all relevant media material.

Public Awareness Initiatives

  • Digital Awareness Campaign: Strategy, production and implementation of an integrated Awareness Campaign on social media aiming at shaping the public opinion by presenting the socioeconomic footprint of the hospitality sector especially reiterating its impact on the most vulnerable social groups.

  • Supporters Program: Creation of a Supporters Toolkit to enable tourism and other stakeholders to use the content of the Digital Awareness Campaign on their websites and social media accounts.

  • Animation Video: Production of a mind captivating video visualizing the core messaging.

The Results

(1) Tourism investments in infrastructure, tourism education and promotion of alternative forms of tourism were included in Greece’s National Recovery Plan.

(2) The Council of Competitiveness of Greece organized a dedicated event to present the advocacy campaign as a best practice.

(3) HOTREC asked for a comprehensive presentation of the initiative to its Board of Directors as well as all available material to be used as reference for its member’s future actions.

(4) The Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen & Merchants, the major cross sectoral employers’ organisation as well as six major collective bodies representing tourism related productive sectors agreed to sign the campaign’s manifesto – the Agreement on Hospitality.

(5) The Client’s digital presence was upgraded, and the digital campaign’s posts, banners and videos collected more than 24 million impressions in less than a month and had more than 1.4 million engagements.