Voyager returns

I've just finished my stint on Brittany Ferries for 2012, with two talks yesterday on Walking in Finistere on the Armorique during an out-and-back between Roscoff and Plymouth. It's a very long day, but the double crossing is always pleasurable and I'm kindly given a large cabin with TV and hot drinks, so plenty of comfort. It's been great to work with the friendly professionals of Brittany Ferries and Joel the technician deserves an award for his unfailing patience as he is summoned time and again to help me with 'cabling issues.'

Giving the talks has been fun. What has been most enjoyable is to meet so many nice, interested and interesting people in the audiences, and talking to them afterwards about their experiences of Brittany and its tourist offerings has been helpful for my own work. Earlier this week I was delighted to find Michael Dodds, head honcho of Brittany Tourism in Rennes, listening to my talk on The Great Outdoors, and we had a good exchange in the bar after about, guess what, tourism in Brittany.

The Saints Shore Way has provoked a lot of enthusiasm among passengers (many of whom are from Cornwall) which encourages me to think the project will prove a real attraction for 2013.

Overall this assignment has been a great success (feedback forms very appreciative) and I'm actually proud of being able to do what I do best - promoting Finistere and Brittany in general - in a new and important arena. Brittany Ferries passengers are the dragon's teeth of Brittany tourism. They all have extended families and friends, they are group members and have work colleagues - every positive Brittany feeling and comment on their part can potentially lead to many decisions by other people to take their holidays here and come over to see for themselves all that Brittany has to offer.

A chink of light

Much heartened by listening to Michael Dodds (new head of tourism in Brittany) speak in Carhaix last night. The mix of focus and vision he outlined should have breathed some life into those of the large audience with ears to hear. Quite a few came simply to make their own mini-speeches and then leave, an indication of the narrowness of perspective that bedevils the whole show. Diversity is certainly the essence of Brittany's strength in the competitive tourist market, as I have been preaching for the last seven years - in fact it's conceivable that every person involved in every level of promotion and services here might agree on that. The problem is that that very diversity engenders a fragmentation of vision and a tightening of self-interest and parochial values that ties the whole parcel up in impossible knots rather than unwrapping it seductively for the punters. If people would only stop harping on about what they have and concentrate on what they can give, we might all get somewhere. The common ground or at the very least a modular connection between divergent interests is worth striving for.
I'm starting to work on a Food in Finistere themed trail which will promote by linkage a wide gamut of cultivators and producers: whether I can stir the least interest in relevant tourist organisations remains to be seen. But personally I felt yesterday that at last all my efforts might be reflected on a bigger stage by much more influential people, and that maybe I was in the right place at the right time after all.