The Routledge Handbook of Destination Marketing

Dogan Gursoy, Christina Chi, Dogan Gursoy, Christina G. Chi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351588270
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

This book examines key contemporary marketing concepts, issues and challenges that affect destinations within a multidisciplinary global perspective. Uniquely combining both the theoretical and practical approaches, this handbook discusses cutting edge marketing questions such as innovation in destinations, sustainability, social media, peer-to-peer applications and web 3.0.

Drawing from the knowledge and expertise of 70 prominent scholars from over 20 countries around the world, The Routledge Handbook of Destination Marketing aims to create an international platform for balanced academic research with practical applications, in order to foster synergetic interaction between academia and industry. For these reasons, it will be a valuable resource for both researchers and practitioners in the field of destination marketing.

Part I
Destination marketing

1
A critical review of destination marketing

Sevda Sahilli Birdir, Ali Dalgic and Kemal Birdir

Introduction

As competition has been intensified among the destinations for every single traveler around the globe for the last 20 years, destination marketing has become a hot topic to study and discuss among the practitioners and academia. According to Morrison (2013a), the number of destination marketing related webpages accessed by the Google search engine rose from 4 in 1970–1979 to 4,310 between years 2000–2009 and to 3,260 between years 2010–2012 (in only three years!). And this interest on the topic is not a surprise at all. Today, there are more than 3,000 destinations around the globe that are providing some sort of tourism products and services and they are continuously seeking new tools and methods to attract more tourists to their destinations. Considering that creating new jobs for the people in almost every country in the world is getting tougher and tougher, the fight for more tourists to create more job opportunities seems to be continuously rising for all the tourism centers in the coming decades. Of course, one of the most powerful tools that destinations can utilize to attract more tourist to their home is marketing and its related instruments. Via presenting the resources and creating interest and especially boxing the destinations to differentiate them from their rival lands, marketing is able to benefit destinations in many different ways. During the last two decades, hundreds of academic studies have been trying to present the destination marketing tools and the best practices to help destinations better market themselves.

Destination management organizations and destination marketing

In their compelling work, “Destination marketing organizations and destination marketing: a narrative analysis of the literature,” Pike and Page (2014) claim that destination marketing is “a pillar of the future growth and sustainability of tourism destinations in an increasingly globalized and competitive market for tourists”. Destination marketing is one of the most important roles of Destination Management Organizations (DMOs). DMOs are the bodies that “have the overall responsibility for the coordination and integration of the destination mix elements, and for destination marketing” (Morrison, 2013a: 2). DMOs have various leadership roles to help the destinations grow and keep them competitive. According to Morrison, (2013b), DMOs’ key leadership activities might be summed up under the following topics:

1. Setting the tourism agenda: A DMO should set the agenda for tourism and coordinate all tourism stakeholder efforts toward achieving the agenda. Of course, the DMO does not and should not do the agenda-setting on its own. It needs to do this with the active involvement and input from tourism stakeholders within the destination. Setting the agenda really means defining a long-term vision for tourism and engaging the tourism sector in long-range planning. The visionary role of the DMO is one of the key requirements for its leadership.
2. Guiding and coordinating tourism sector stakeholders: The DMO needs to guide and coordinate the efforts of tourism sector stakeholders. This is a difficult task given the diversity of stakeholders and their opinions and viewpoints on tourism. The coaching role of the DMO is to bring all of the team together to focus on a shared set of goals and objectives.
3. Championing tourism: Tourism is generally not well understood and under-appreciated as an economic sector. It is often afforded the role of a second-class citizen when compared to manufacturing, agriculture, and even mining. It does not always get the respect it deserves. The championing role of the DMO is to continuously communicate and confirm the positive contributions to their destinations.
4. Educating about tourism: By conducting research and keeping up to date about tourism, the DMO is a source of data, information and facts for tourism sector stakeholders and community residents. DMO management and staff should continuously participate in training and professional development, since tourism is a dynamic and fast-changing economic sector. The scholar/teacher role of the DMO makes everybody in the destination better understand tourism and the trends in the sector and its markets.
5. Leading tourism marketing: The DMO is the body entrusted with marketing the destination as a whole. It needs to set the directions for tourism sector stakeholders to follow and provide partnering opportunities to achieve marketing goals and objectives. The DMO should develop the destination positioning and branding approaches that provide a promotional platform for all involved in tourism. The promoter role of DMOs increases awareness and brings in more visitors to the destination.
6. Serving visitors: The DMO serves visitors in many different ways, especially in providing information about tourism in the destination. It must assist in taking steps to assure the safety and security of visitors, and their ease of movement within the destination. The visitor servant role of the DMO enhances the satisfaction of people who come to the destination on business or for leisure.
7. Maintaining tourism quality standards: The DMO must participate in the setting and monitoring of tourism quality standards. It must ensure that quality standards match with the positioning and branding of the destination. The quality controller role of the DMO enhances the experiences of visitors in the destination and makes them want to return.
8. Stewarding resources: The DMO must advocate a sustainable approach to tourism development. The DMO must also be a careful steward of the funds and other resources with which it is provided. The steward role of the DMO means that resources are used prudently and that natural and cultural resources are preserved for future destinations.

Hence, since marketing and promotion activities are very expensive activities, destination marketing efforts must be well structured, strategically planned and perfectly executed to benefit the destination most. That’s why DMOs must follow a strict approach to use the destination resources effectively and on point. Some of the important questions to ask, for example, are: a) which markets to target? b) what slogans and messages to convey? and c) which products and/ or resources to be promoted and advertised? Some of the critical components of a successful destination marketing plan generally carry the following features (Morrison, 2013a):

1. Destination vision: Every DMO’s destination marketing efforts should be driven by a set of explicitly articulated marketing goals. These goals should be established to achieve the destination vision, which is identified through a planning process known as visioning where the outcome is the definition of a “super long-term goal” for the destination. A more formal description of the destination vision statement is that it represents a concise, desired “word picture” of the destination at some point in the future. It is a verbal image of the destination that local people aspire for it to become. The vision provides a clear focus on what the destination will strive to be. This sets the overall direction for the tourism marketing and development of the destination in the upcoming years. The destination vision should be articulated in a vision statement. The destination visioning process should be completed in three stages: (1) envisioning an image of the desired future destination state, which (2) when effectively communicated to those responsible (3) serves to empower these people so they can enact the vision.
2. DMO vision: The destination vision statement creates a pathway for future marketing action. However, the prime responsibility and accountability for achieving the destination vision is given to the officially recognized DMO. The next step is for the DMO to define its own vision for the future that will set it on the right course to achieving the destination vision in cooperation with its internal and external stakeholders.
3. Destination marketing goals: The destination marketing goals are like stepping-stones on the DMO’s path to realizing the destination and DMO visions. They are longer-term (three to five years) measurable results that the DMO wants to achieve for its destination marketing. It is best if the destination marketing goals are target-market and time-specific, and state an intended result in a quantified format, but not all marketing goals exactly fit these criteria.
4. Destination marketing objectives: Destination marketing objectives are short-term (usually within one year) measurable results that the DMO wants to achieve. These objectives must be based on the marketing goals and be interim steps toward achieving these goals. As with the goals, marketing objectives should, if possible, be target-market and time-specific, and indicate a quantified result. It should be realized here that many DMOs have marketing objectives, but have not derived these through a visioning process and goal-setting. Marketing objectives are often set as part of the annual process of developing a marketing plan. While marketing objectives are essential foundations for a marketing plan, they are more effective when derived from a long-term visioning process and goal setting.
5. DMO mission: The DMO mission, articulated in its mission statement, describes its reason for being. It is a broad statement about the organization’s business and scope, services and products, markets served and overall philosophy. The mission statement is not a goal or objective, but rather it is a clear description of what the DMO does and who it serves. DMO mission statements are sometimes confused with vision statements and goals, but these are three quite different concepts. In fact, the DMO’s mission statement should be derived from the destination and DMO vision statements, and be consistent with the destination marketing goals.

Naturally, a successful destination marketing plan must be systemized and articulated to follow a systematic approach (Garcia, Gomez & Molina, 2012; Pawascar & Goel, 2014). According to Rita (2000), critical success factors of a Destination Marketing System (DMS) are:

1. A comprehensive product database of attractions, accommodation, and other travel information, with explicit data quality control and cost-effective data maintenance procedures
2. Statistics gathered to inform the overall tourism impact
3. An official destination web site with full accommodation and tourism supplier data, automated availability update as well as online booking and reservation
4. Monitoring and evaluation procedures in place for systems and assessing impact
5. A link between the DMS and any Global Distribution Systems (GDS), uni or bi-directional.

As the professional link between tourists, suppliers, travel intermediaries and tourist boards, a DMS should provide (Rita, 2000):

1. Consolidation, evaluation and organization of accurate detailed information on destinations, services and package tours
2. Definition of standardized and general selection criteria
3. Input and maintenance of main data via a service center
4. Standardization of presentation in various distribution interfaces
5. Integration of various services in one area
6. Individual organization of offers in alignment with the requirements of various target groups and markets
7. A reservation capability for accommodations and other facilities in the destination.

Of course, while the above destination marketing approach carries the traditional marketing approach, today’s destinations tend to lean on more technology-lead efforts to market their destinations (Burgess, Parish, & Alcock, 2011; Wang & Fesenmaier, 2003). Rita (2000) posits that a successful web marketing effort needs three main components: web site design, promoting the web site and assessing the web site marketing effectiveness. After a comprehensive meta-analysis

Table 1.1 Success factors for destination marketing

Information quality	Variety, scope, currency, conciseness, accuracy of information, authority, reliability, uniqueness of information
Ease of use	Usability, accessibility, navigability, logical structure
Responsiveness	Accessibility of service representatives, e-mail service, reply to online reservations
Security/privacy	Protecting information during transmission and subsequent storage, security for online purchases/reservations, privacy/confidentiality statement
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Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• PART I Destination marketing
• PART II Marketing destinations to specific segments
• PART III Destination branding
• PART IV Tourist behaviour
• PART V Sustainability and the environment
• PART VI Innovation in destination marketing
• PART VII Internet and technology
• Index