SEASONAL ADJUSTMENT AND TRANSPORTS. WHICH CAME FIRST? THE EGG OR THE CHICKEN?

(Reading time: 3 minutes)

 

Summer is over, the symbolic season of Sardinian tourism. That period of the year in which more and more and especially in some areas, thousands of tourists come to the island, driven, motivated and attracted mainly by a single product, namely the seaside: sea, sun and beaches.

Three months, ninety days, thirty of which are now a symbol of congestion and an almost impossible anthropogenic load to manage.  

And then? What happens next? What happens during the other 9 months?

One of the most inflated, most used and most loved verbs in the aftermath of the end of summer is “#destagionalizzare” meaning seasonal adjustment. 

Every year, this verb becomes a topic of discussion at the various tables having a stake in the case.

Accompanied by the inevitable #transports theme.

Let's try to go point by point. 

What exactly does “seasonal adjustment” mean? What is its significance?

"Eliminate the effects produced by seasonal factors from a given phenomenon".

What are the effects of seasonal factors that we should eliminate? And why should we do it though? Isn't the perspective from which one observes the goal one wants to achieve is wrong and too limited?

Why not to create a verb that instead of "delete" conceives the action of "add, include, insert"?

#seasonalizing for example. Enhance, decline commercially, create the supporting organizational structures that can give "legs" to ideas and correctly promote all those experiences that our territory can offer during the other 9 months.

There are markets with multiple interests that go far beyond the usual seaside. People who love to travel for reasons other than summer, the beaches and the sea. Driven by the desire to have experiences of various kinds. There are many but some are really simple experiences, in contact with nature, with traditions, with folklore, with the territory. In short, nothing complicated. But short story short, they are not valued, organized, promoted nor placed on the market.

Why haven't we taken this path yet? What is blocking us?

Often and gladly, we hear only one answer to this question: no transports available.

So, the equation would be: we do not promote the experiences of the 9 months because there is no transport.

Are we sure that the elements of the equation are positioned correctly?

Let's try to rewrite it by reversing the factors: there is no transport because we do not promote the experiences of the 9 months.

Excluding the obvious and necessary ones in order to guarantee mobility on the Italian territory with an annual continuity solution, let's try to make a quick reflection on this topic.

What drives an airline to activate routes to a specific destination at certain times of the year?

The obvious possibility of selling tickets, earning money and doing business.

How does an airline understand if that specific route in that specific period of the year can become profitable?

Carrying out market surveys in order to understand if for that specific route, in that specific period, there is an actual request to purchase tickets. Trivially, it is sufficient to check how many times a flight search has been carried out for those dates, for that destination, through his extranet site. The tools available for this type of investigation are so many nowadays.

What is the element that generates the request or request to purchase tickets for that specific destination in that specific period of the year?

The interest, the desire, the desire to reach that destination.

And what are the interests, the desires, the reasons that can push people to reach Sardinia during these neglected 9 months?

All those experiences (and many more) mentioned above. Experiences of which, unfortunately, outside (and also inside!) of our beautiful island, their existence is unknown.

So, is it likely that in November, on any travel platform or search engine, the destination Sardinia is hardly clicked?

Is it possible that all the detailed reports regarding the search for a destination indicate Sardinia as not being received in the aforementioned 9 months?

If in a shop with many products, all interesting but different from each other, we put only one in the window (without even properly determining its price or position), leaving all the others in the warehouse, hidden, covered with dust, can we expect the buyer to know them, want to have them and therefore request an important quantity of them, generating the demand that drives the purchase of the ticket to reach that shop?

Which came first then? The egg or the chicken?

Ramona Cherchi