A number of factors, mainly the ongoing financial crisis and intense competition from newcomers to the global tourism industry, make the coming years a critical period, as it is important for both Greece and Cyprus to remain resourceful and in the spotlight.

Destination Marketing has always been a challenging discipline, one where strategy and creativity are of critical importance. There have been a number of excellent campaigns over the last few years, while advertisers and communication consultants have in some cases even proposed extreme actions by countries and regions! New Zealand was the recipient of such a proposal: change the country’s name and flag, in order to make it more exotic as a destination! Last time I checked, they still haven’t adopted this!

The Web and specifically Social Media are transforming the way countries and regions are marketed. Gone are the times when TV would attract the largest part of a National Tourist Bureau’s budget. Also, the high cost of running Tourist offices in other countries and participating in exhibitions has stimulated the demand for a cost-effective platform.

Social Media are increasingly gaining the attention of Marketeers: they are effective and produce results that can be tracked and acted upon. Travel and vacations are inherently social functions. Prior to the advent of Social Media, friends would discuss and exchange views offline.

Apparently, research data shows that 60% of Europeans are influenced in the selection of holiday destinations, by comments, posts, suggestions that they read on Social Media, such as Facebook and Twitter.

In the case of Facebook, approximately two out of three users globally (in actual numbers, this translates to 700 million people), post pictures and discuss their holidays, while 50% admit that they are influenced by friend’s suggestions and comments, when it comes to picking a holiday destination.

It is also worth mentioning that research indicates that by 2016, social media will be a primary way to generate travel bookings and revenue for half of the travel industry.

Where do the above data leave Mediterranean countries as well as other aspiring tourist destinations?

Social Media should be placed at the center of the Promotional Strategy, as the return on investment will be much higher than any other Medium. Print Media and TV should be used as supportive Media and no more than 30% of the annual budget should be allocated to them.

There are a number of successful case studies of National Tourism organizations and their Social Media campaigns. Two of them are worth mentioning.

First, Tourism Australia’s Facebook fan page has 3.4 million fans already, with 200,000 of then engaging and talking about Australia as a tourist destination every week!

Visit Britain’s Facebook campaign brought a staggering 42,000 new fans to their Facebook page in one day!

Keeping in mind the tremendous growth in people engaging with Facebook and Twitter around the world, which is 1.1 billion and more than 600 million, respectively, makes them the most important Social Media platforms for Greece and Cyprus, for the years to come.

So, time is precious. Engage and Tweet to get more tourists talking and eventually visiting these beautiful countries!

Till now, the Arab states were heavily involved in the economic prosperity of many Arab news organizations. They were able to apply pressure in several ways, most notably through ownership or advertising. An example is Al-Jazeera, which was funded by the Qatar’s royal family, and which avoids any broadcasts critical of Qatar’s royals. A similar example can be found in Egypt, where the Al-Ahram newspaper is the country’s strongest paper in circulation, and was owned by President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

In the Middle East, pressure on the media is exercised also via the purchase of advertisement, but to a more significant degree than in the West. If not following the directives of the government, publications can suddenly find themselves without their largest client, and be effectively put out of business. An example comes from the United Arab Emirates, where major newspapers might not be owned outright by the regime, but receive heavy government subsidies, and need to honour such generosity, demonstrating respect of it.

The result of this situation isn’t simple at all. As Noam Chomsky states in Manufacturing Consent, “censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.” If this stands, the Arab countries need a period of transition from the present state to more democratic regimes; only then journalists will feel free to properly investigate on topics now felt untouchable.

There is hope for this. Nowadays, a mechanism of great impact has been put into motion in the Middle East; in spite of every possible pressure, citizen-reporters send out bits of what is investigative journalism in its most embryonic form. As a result, the mainstream media try to reinvent themselves, because they cannot ignore the value of these forms of news coverage.

As expected, the space in which Arabs reporters seem to be more comfortable to post information as they please is the cyber space. In Egypt this has become a well-known form of factual narrative output, and the government has been watching it for a long time. As a result, bloggers have been arrested, detained, interrogated; their activity in reporting rallies, politics as commented upon on the road, and the actions of the labour movement in Egypt, has become a thorn in the side of the old regime.

Egyptian journalist Hossam el-Hamalawy stated in a video interview, taken by WorldFocus  in 2008, that his career as a journalism-blogger was built by writing about the factual, standing with one foot in cyberspace and the other on the road. Unfortunately, this kind of career in Egypt involved a routine of arrests, questioning and torture. Today, el-Hamalawy is recognized as a prominent journalist, activist and blogger. However, this does not signify a change of major relevance in the way journalists are perceived in his country. As he reports in the article for The Guardian, ‘In Egypt, Mubarak’s repression machine is still alive and well’ (16 May 2012), a mechanism of censorship continues to function in his country.

Another Egyptian journalist, Nora Younis, whose career was launched by her courage as a prominent blogger using new media tools – for which she was awarded the Human Rights First Award in New York (2008) – joined AlMasry AlYoum in the same year. She is currently the head of a qualified multimedia desk team, which works closely with reporters, photographers and caricaturists to bring news to her people in the most informative way. She is monitoring the state of investigative journalism and oversees citizen journalism pages as well, in the understanding that much has to be done to obtain freedom for the media.

The question remains: how long will take to the Arab world to give life to independent investigative journalism? And which shape will it take in the near future?

The matter is pressing, especially as Arab governments continue to control the media through licensing, or not, the right to record events, take pictures, and enter archives. What is more, Arab journalists must often obtain government permits to work, losing them if they get too pushy; and deal with the Arab media charters, introduced in 2008, which consolidated Arab states’ grip on information.

Watching the Arab fight for media freedom gives a great sense of hope to the many Arabs living in Greece. Their vision for a democratic Middle East is mesmerizing, and much can come from it. Hopefully, it will also bring some great pieces of investigative journalism, written by courageous and determined Arab journalists.