Goldair, one of Greece’s top tourism and transport companies, has just introduced the new trip-experience service Travellair. However, what we found underneath the announcement, was not what we expected from this venerable Greek company.
Tagged with the tours triptych Travel-Experience-Enjoy, Travellair is supposed to be all about users creating a unique experience. The company says it provides everything from airline ticket reservations to accommodations selection and bookings, and much more. Travellair CEO Nikos Sofiadis is quoted on GTP saying:
“This new venture of the Goldair Group comes to complete the whole range of services we offer in the tourism sector and, in combination with our many years of experience, to seal our position in the tourism market.”
The lingo Sofiadis uses in this statement set off alarm buzzers for me, but I’ll get to that later. Goldair Group’s new agency looks unrefined if web design and content make a difference. Some big images and gigantic fonts on their website remind me of every bad European startup I ever covered. In addition, the grammar and spelling on the website are atrocious. Here’s one example:
“We make the hole travelling just a simple “connecting the dots” game for you. We provide seamless journey. You just have to choose your next destination.”
Come on. The site and the social profiles attached to this new business communicate gibberish. The Insta, Facebook, and LI buttons on the site are not even linked to accounts. At a time when uncertainty and the need for trust are at an all-time high, Goldair Group unleashes this sheer mediocrity. The company is so proud of the bad grammar and spelling on the site, somebody went to the trouble to create a graphic with the above text included and accented.
Sofiadis, who is also the Deputy Managing Director of Goldair – Golemis Air Services, has an MSc in International Management from the University of Essex, for crying out loud. The last I heard, English was the required language on all their exams.
I was going to call the mobile number given for this company’s marketing team but decided Goldair should get what it deserves on this one. With hundreds of businesses in Greece going bust because of this coronavirus, it’s a kind of blasphemy to butcher opportunity this way. What an insult this fluff of a service offering is.
Finally, looking at news about Goldair CEO Regina Golemi, I doubt she’s aware of the depth of what I consider a major Travellair foul-up here. Imagine the lost opportunity cost to your brand if a high net worth individual stumbles on a quasi-business your company is tied to. Goldair – Golemis Air Services just welded itself to blistering mediocrity with this announcement. Travellair is a big “Poof!” of a web advertisement, from all outward appearances. This is not what Mrs. Golemi meant when she said the keys to success are “progressive thinking, innovative action, hard work” at an event a the Ecali Club back in 2017.
I am amazed that Datanoesis, the company that created this website, did not scream and jump up and down when Goldair decided to butcher English AND website billboarding. This company does business across eastern Europe, so translation and content localization are surely in their tool chest.