Destination marketing through film and literature

Last week, students on our Destination Marketing module learned about historic fictional literature figure, Heidi.

Heidi is epitomised as the curly haired Swiss girl running through the Swiss Alps. She is the immortalised character of author Johanna Spyri, who created Heidi in the late 1800s.

Onna Rageth, a senior research associate at the University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons in Switzerland came to speak to our students about a project she’s currently working on involving beloved Heidi.

Onna shared the history of Heidi, and spoke to our students about a research project that is hoping to utilise the fictional character as a brand strategy for destination marketing in the Alps.

Students watched videos and looked at images to learn about the story of Heidi. Event lecturer Dr Barbara Grabher, who leads this module, also shared leaflets from the Heididorf in Switzerland.

Barbara provided our students with context behind using film, TV and literature for destination marketing. Onna then provided an in-depth analysis of the character Heidi, and invited our students to consider what potential issues there might be around the brand ‘Heidiland’ and the recognition of Heidi as a UNESCO Memory of the World.

The lecture was incredibly interesting for our students so thank you to Onna for visiting us, and Barbara for arranging this visit.