Hacker News Reader

Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

>> They've long dominated the food and fashion worlds, this year they've dominated sports, and now they're aiming for the skies.

Being the best at something wins you a prize. It rarely ever means market share. Italy has a great football team, but what percentage of world football is played there? They certainly have all the best fashion, but what percentage of the world's clothing is manufactured in Italy? This philosophy will not translate well to air travel. Having the best planes and the best staff in the world means little compared to having the lowest price and best on-time performance.

View on HN

Italian software engineer here. Just ignore the douchebags that came up with that rebranding strategy and the journalists that indulge them. It's all a massive show put on to get the investors money. It's wrong to reduce a country of 60 millions people to be "good chef and good designers". Don't lean into stereotypes of other countries and don't listen to people that try to use stereotypes to market you products from that country. Especially when the whole thing is wrapped with strong nationalism masked as pride.

Completely agree with you, this journalist’s bs is not really helping anyone to be thoroughly informed about the situation.

A chicken and egg situation. Tourism campaigns, of which the branding of national airlines is a cornerstone, is where we get stereotypes.

British airways promotes itself as the stable luxury carrier. Ryanair promotes the "frugal Irishman" image. The asian airlines usually promote their cabin crew's attention to customer service. Even Westjet promotes the "friendly Canadian" stereotype through their various christmas stunts.

> branding of national airlines is a cornerstone for tourism...

Thank you, your comment made me see a bigger picture.

Tourism has nothing to do with national airlines. Mass tourism in Europe is due more to Ryanair than to anything else.

The Irish national airline would be Aer Lingus.

Ryanair, train, flixbus, ...

What's a "frugal Irishman" image? Ever heard of the Celtic tiger? Irish people are not frugal as a trait.. to their own demise.

> Ryanair promotes the "frugal Irishman" image.

Huh? As an Irish person, I have never heard of this frugal Irishman image, can you clarify?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com