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Most of my work in communications involves policy advocacy for global health and  development issues. Last week, I served on a panel at the Corporate Council on Africa’s bi-annual conference in Washington. The subject of the session was how to reposition Africa as a tourist destination.

At first glance, tourism and development  might seem to have little in common. But nothing could be further from the truth. For many African countries, tourism provides a major source of foreign exchange and foreign direct investment, and it is a major money earner in the “formal sector” (i.e., the sector of the economy that provides wage employment, is “on the books,” and generates tax revenues that can fund development).

The challenge is that Africa currently earns very little from tourism relative to other world regions.  (Go to the web sites of the UN’s World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council for more information.) While some African countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa enjoy significant proceeds from tourism, the scale of their revenues just doesn’t compare to destinations in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Latin America.

How can African countries turn this around? I think the solution requires a mixture of tried-and-true approaches to destination marketing, as well as a  disciplined approach to: (1) recruiting a broader array of brand ambassadors, and (2) getting the bulk of African news off the front page. (More on that second, seemingly counterintuitive, point below.)

The tried-and-true approach includes a combination of proactive marketing and reactive crisis communications.  This means that African national tourism boards still need to invest in marketing their countries via multiple media channels, trade shows, and events, but they also need to develop effective crisis communications plans that empower brand managers to respond to crises when they arise and take steps to reassure the public and the tourism industry.

In regard to recruiting a broader array of brand ambassadors, I believe that there are four key markets to engage.  First, there are high-net-worth Americans, Europeans, and Asians who are looking for the vacation of a lifetime.  The African tourism sector can target this group with vacation packages that highlight the five-star quality of many African vacations and the unique qualities of a holiday in the Serengeti, or Kruger, or by the boiling waters of Victoria Falls.

Second, African tourism boards can target what I will call - for lack of a better expression - the “backpacker set.”  These are the twenty-something experiential tourists, the returned Peace Corps Volunteers, the American and European university students who pick Ghana or South Africa for their semester abroad, and medical and nursing students who want to practice their professions in communities that need access to primary health care.

If we can target this set when they are young - using the social media channels that are their most credible source of information - we can convert them to the cause and create lifetime brand ambassadors.  This younger set can also sing the praises of destinations that are stilll off the beaten track for high-net-worth tourists - like the beautiful hillsides overlooking the Zambezi inland delta in Mongu, Zambia or the rugged shores of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya.

A third critical target audience are African Americans who are seeking to reconnect to their heritage.  The west African tourist industry in particular can benefit by working with African American destination marketers to create tourism packages that highlight 500 years of cultural connection between west Africa and the Americas.

A fourth target audience is the sizable population of first- and second-generation African immigrants to America who maintain strong connections to their countries of origin and can broaden the conversation about Africa beyond landmarks, flora, and fauna to contemporary conversations about music, food, fabrics, and art.

This brings me to my counterintutive observation.  People who think about Africa’s image in the world often say that Africa never makes front page news unless the story relates to war, disease, hunger, or hardship.  While this statement oversimplifies matters (and is a definite reflection of the specific tone and focus of media coverage in the U.S., UK, and Germany), it also bears real elements of truth.

I believe that we need to change the image of Africa by investing in a rebranding process that features more stories - stories that appear in the Food Section, the Business Section, the Style Section, and, yes, the Travel Page.  We need to start telling new stories - based on credible facts - about Africa’s economic growth over the past decade, about Africa’s unrivalled biodiversity, about Africa’s potential leadership in the production of organic foods and materials, about Africa’s diverse cuisine and innovative music scenes (in Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya).

Telling new and surprising stories is key to repositioning Africa as something other than front-page tragedy.  Front pages are normally reserved for crises, wherever they happen, and it’s time to get the bulk of African news off the front page.

This entry was originally posted on Flagged for Follow Up.

Disclaimer: Don’t worry … I have no intention of fashioning myself as the next Gary the “social media sommelier” Vaynerchuk [for those of you who are not familiar with Gary, check out http://tv.winelibrary.com/ for a truly unique experience].

I recently returned from my first-ever trip to California wine country [specifically Sonoma].  In addition to pristine weather, post-card vistas, incredible wine and some of the best food I’ve ever had, I also picked up a few lessons that might be useful for any marketer.

Lesson 1 - In sea of uneducated consumers, free is a good starting point: If you’re like me you haven’t the faintest idea why one winery is better than the next.  The ones we ended up visiting our first day were largely based on free tasting passes [a $10-$20 value] passed on by our concierge.  Not the most sophisticated method of choosing, but a starting point.  I’m not advising marketers give away their product [who do you think I am, Chris Anderson?] but I do think trial is crucial, and free is as powerful driver of that behavior.

Lesson 2 - Get your story straight, then tell it with passion: My wife and I were fortunate enough to visit with a guy called Stewart Dorman who runs a winery called Adrian Fog.  Stewart has a great story [former wine writer ... left to pursue his passion ... spends his days toiling in the vineyards or perfecting his blends ... only makes 1,000 barrels a year ... etc.].  It’s not so much Stewart’s story [which is awesome] but the passion with which he tells it.  We walked away from our conversation with two bottles of relatively expensive wine - I wanted to take part of Stewart’s story home with us.

Lesson 3 - Create a captivating and differentiating experience: Of all the places we visited, we only joined one wine club - and it wasn’t necessarily the best wine we had [but it was damn good].  Rather, it was the winery that did an elegant snack pairing with their tasting flight, spent an hour talking us through the flight, answered our questions, told us their history … they were the anti-wine snobs.  And it made their tasting room different than the others, and a really fun experience.  The winery is Williamson Wines.

Lesson 4 - “Limited edition” can be a powerful sales tool: I quickly realized that most wine for sale was not available for distribution [meaning only sold direct or via a wine club]. So the pitch is: You can’t get this anywhere else other than buying it right now.  Wouldn’t it be a shame to get home and think to yourself, ‘too bad I didn’t get that wine when I had the chance’?

Lesson 5 - Search is king: Found on every street corner in the town of Healdsburg.  Charming, no?

One of the biggest challenges facing a country vying for foreign tourism dollars is giving prospective tourists a good sense of what the country is all about, enticing them choose your destination over another.

There are four relatively inexpensive ways to give people a taste of your culture, in the comfort of their own home.  Here are a few ideas for thought …

1. Pictures tell a thousand words. If you’re a destination known for its beautiful sunsets, pristine beaches or unique architecture, why not start a group on Flickr?  I’m a huge fan of Barcelona, and particularly Gaudi’s work.  This Flickr group has 575 members, with more than 3,200 photos of Gaudi’s work.  There’s no reason why a country’s tourism board can’t start a group and invite people to post their vacation photos (as Albania appears to have done)
2. A way to a tourist’s heart is through their stomach. I read today on the New York Times blog about a pop-up dinner club making its way around the US, featuring native food from Buenos Aires chefs Diego Felix and Sanra Ritten.   My colleague, Eileen, posted about the power of food in destination marketing.
3. Music is a universal language. Why not work with a licensing company to create a branded CD - featuring music from your country - that can be sold or given away at restaurants, bars and clothing stores?  Not only will the music get people in the mood, but the CD case is a great billboard for you to communicate specific information about your country.
4. One influential voice can tell your story to many followers. Ogilvy PR has executed a number of successful familiarization (”fam” for short) trips with highly influential bloggers.  For the cost of their trip, we can reach many of their readers who turn to these bloggers for vacation advice.

Any other ideas for cost-effective ways to bring the spirit of a destination to your potential visitors?

Architecture, beaches, adventure, relaxation — any of these can serve as the basis for booking a trip, but one thing each trip has in common is something we need and continue to learn about as we discover new corners of the world: food.

As an avid traveler and occasional amateur cook, I seek out adventures in travel and the meals that fill up each trip’s dance card and am often influenced by Food & Travel Blog . In doing so, I’ve found a lot about a population’s culture and way of life can be discovered by diving fork first into new experiences. Living in England, I realized breakfast was a big meal and lunch was often a lite snack and fresh fruit was never more prominent than in my trips to Brazil.

From Dublin to Des Moines, every destination has culinary strengths that highlight local flavors. Foods like moqueca, a fish stew full of fresh catches and local spices, is best experienced in its native Salvador, Brazil, while delicious pasta and wines go unmatched in top-rated restaurants in Rome.

Thanks to low airfare prices (Bargain Babe) travelers are lucky to find authentic food experiences globally, truly tasting the destinations’ local flavors. What’s more important is that anyone, whether they’ve traveled to every culinary corner of the world, can do their part to bring various cultures into their home by expanding their cooking repertoire. As marketers, it’s key to showcase the gastronomy of a destination as food is something we all have in common, we can experience as we trek around the world and each of us can bring those varied cultures to our own kitchen tables, if we’re brave enough to expand the grocery list.