Battling Copycats in the Cultural Travel Industry: A Journey of Originality and Integrity

I encountered copycats during my school years, where students would replicate each other's work. After graduation, I had forgotten about these experiences until I started working for FEST Travel 28 years ago. As pioneers in cultural tours and with a strong sense of business ethics, FEST has always been ahead in creating new destinations for Turkish-speaking cultural travellers. We've faced numerous challenges but always prevailed because we did our homework diligently. We never copied any product. Yes, we had inspirations, but we always emerged with our own originality, forging a unique path.

With increased mobility and technological advancements, I've noticed more copycats appearing. They used to at least modify what they copied to fit their own style. Unfortunately, in recent years, especially in the last decade, copycats have become more brazen, copying original ideas precisely as they are, with no reference to the original source. From an ethical standpoint, this is disgraceful to both oneself and the profession. However, it seems that copycats don’t care about ethics anymore, leading to a decline in the originality and integrity of the industry.

At FEST, we have created unique ideas and philosophies through thoughtful work and processing over time. It wasn't easy, but what is easy anyway? Our journey was paved with dedication and creativity. I remember when we started promoting our tours by creating original designs in-house. We had a creative team that made unique designs for each tour, and we used to email them out. In a couple of months (that was the copying limit back then; now it's one or two days or even hours), a so-called competitor not only took the same idea but also used the same designs with slight modifications to promote their tours. At first, I thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t. When I asked my creative team to call this copycat and kindly tell them it was unethical, they responded by accusing FEST of copying them. I was shocked, as we had encoded a unique trademark code into all our designs. We had to prove that all the designs they used were ours by showing them the hidden code. We thought that was the end of it, but it wasn't.

Then came the one-to-one copies of programs, including our own misspellings. I presume there was no effort in proofreading. They replicated everything without any effort to check for errors. Then came the copying of our wording style and tour philosophies, including using guide names (which we stopped long ago), travel coverage, giving lectures before tour departures, handing out brochures on each and every tour and providing round-trip transfers between homes and airports. I have even seen a so-called competitor copying the additional information given about specific tours one to one, not even bothering to change the literature. The experience is there. Why not take it from the original and make it ours? It's frustrating to see our hard work being duplicated so blatantly.

We created a brand called Oeconomica, a term I personally sought out from Latin. "Oeconomica" is a Latin term derived from the Greek word "ο?κονομικ?" (oikonomika), relating to household management or administration. It refers to the principles of managing resources, the root of the modern term "economics." The term encompasses the idea of managing and regulating household affairs, which can metaphorically extend to state or public affairs. Then, the copycats started popping up with Eco, Eko-type brands. This never stops. They didn't just copy the idea; they mimicked the essence of what we built.

I have to admit that the copying limit of a unique idea or program has now dropped to a few hours. It’s as if the copycats are waiting around the corner for us to launch a tour or introduce a new idea or theme into travel. They seem to be lurking, ready to pounce on any new initiative we bring to the table.

The sad thing is that they do this with disgrace, shame, and a lack of ethics. The common belief is that if something is out there, they can take it. What about the efforts of creating such a theme or process? What about the labour? But what labour is needed when you have CTRL-C and CTRL-V at your fingertips? The creativity, thought, and effort that go into developing something original are disregarded entirely.

I am ashamed to see so-called competitors bragging about their work when it’s clear as daylight that they stole the idea and philosophy. It’s disheartening to witness such blatant theft being paraded around as though it were an achievement. Oh, how original and talented they must feel, basking in the glory of their "hard work." Bravo, truly.

I want to finish with these two quotes:

• "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." – Oscar Wilde
• "The problem with copying is that you can't copy passion." – Simon Sinek