Where are the readers

A few days ago I called Rimini to speak to a hotel manager and fix an appointment. They put me through to his secretary, who kindly informed me that the manager was not in, and asked if she could help me in any way. I introduced myself and – as I often do – I asked if she knew Job in Tourism. The answer was that not only did she know it, but she had also found her current job though an advertisement placed on Job in Tourism. The day before I had spoken to the sales manager of an international group, who also had found that position through Job in Tourism, and the same applied to his colleague I needed to speak to, who was in charge of purchases. This is Job’s fourth year of operation, and it more and more often happens to find out that the people you speak to on the phone are not only aware of the publication, but have also used it personally. Not so long ago I used to feel as if I were lost in a desert: even during press conferences, journalists would look at me as if I were an extraterrestrial, and mangled the name of Job in Tourism, trying without success to repeat it as if they knew it. Little over three years… are they many or few? It depends on your perspective. They are certainly many in terms of time passing fast and sapping up energy, but they are few for the purpose of creating a system with which to identify, and rapidly growing to become a point of reference for a whole industry. Important hotels. International groups. But our country is also made up of tourist villages, campsites, residences, small and simple facilities… Being aware of this, I had the most rewarding experience last week, when I visited a friend in the area of Como, and he invited me to eat a pizza at a nearby pizza restaurant. We were sitting and talking, and in the meantime I was showing him the latest issue of Job, while the waiter was observing with interest. I asked him if he knew Job, and he said that he had known it from the beginning, and he had found that position through a classified we had published. I could have hugged him.