Many definitions have been given to the word “tourism”, and all of them vary for small de-tails, including or leaving out certain elements or aspects that others do not. According to the
United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism is “a social, cultural and eco-nomic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes”. Hence, tourism is related to people’s activities, travelling to a place different than the usual one for various purposes, and for a period of time of less than one year (UNWTO 1995). Mill and Morrison (1992, cited in Pike 2008, 21) state that tourism is “the term given to the activity that occurs when people travel. This encompasses everything from the planning of the trip, the travel to the destina-tion area, the stay itself, the return and the reminiscences about it afterwards. It includes the activities the traveler undertakes as part of the trip, the purchases made, and the inter-actions that occur between host and guest in the destination area. In sum it is all of the activ-ities and impacts that occur when a visitor travels”. The tourism sector comprises several in-dustries, such as hospitality, travel, entertainment, tour operations, that are strictly inter-connected to make the big tourism machine work (Pike 2008, 20). Tourism nowadays is one of the world’s fastest growing economic industries, ranking 6th in the largest international trades industries; more and more countries decided to invest in tourism, which has become one of the most powerful key drivers in the socio- economic development and growth of the global economy. In terms of numbers, it represents the 9% of the World’s GDP and it generated in 2013 1.4 trillions of US$ in exports, representing the 29% of services exports, and 1 in 11 jobs are in the tourism sector (World Trade Organization 2014; United Nations World Tourism Or-ganization 2014, 2.)
As in any other business, marketing plays a fundamental role in the tourism industry. Tourism phenomenon has only recently started to be considered as worthy of systematic studies and attention, and the application of marketing approaches focused on the consumer within the tourism sector is a relatively new fact, dating back to the last couple decades. Researchers have therefore been concerned with the identification of key tourism marketing trends and techniques (Kozak, Gnoth & Andreu 2010, 4). Because of the broad extent of the topic, in this paper only destination marketing, destination branding and related issues will be discussed.
Despite the differences in academic definitions on tourism, almost all scholars agree that the destination is the core of the tourism system or, as UNWTO states, “the fundamental unit of analysis in tourism” (2002, cited in Pike 2008, 2). Destinations are “amalgams of tourism products, offering an integrated experience to consumers” (Buhalis 2000). Destinations are usually well defined geographical areas, such as a country, a region, an island or a city, which attract visitors for a variable period of time and offer a cluster of resources and services available for tourists. The above mentioned clusters can exist in different conditions, being sections of a political boundary, as for example the Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, USA, being a whole political boundary, as The Gold Coast in Australia, or crossing political bounda-ries, e.g. the European Alps (Pike 2008, 24.) According to the UNWTO (2007, 1), a local
desti-nation “is a physical space in which a visitor spends at least one overnight. It includes tourism products such as support services and attractions and tourism resources within one day’s re-turn travel time. It has physical and administrative boundaries defining its management, and images and perceptions defining its market competitiveness. Local destinations incorporate various stakeholders, often including a host community, and can nest and network to form larger destinations”. The lack of adequate tourism clusters can be one of the reasons of un-successful tourism policies, as a market research on the competition between Bali and Fiji shows: Fiji failed to meet tourists’ demands in relation to attractions and services, and this caused the loss of 50% of Australian short-haul market share between 1982 and 1995 (Pike 2008, 24.) Furthermore, Buhalis (2000, 2) emphasizes that fragmenting the destination in smaller sections according to the 6 A’s framework can help in the analysis and management of the amalgam of services and products (see Table 1 below).
Table 1: Six A’s Framework for the analysis of tourism destinations (Buhalis 2000, 2)
As several authors agree, destinations are among the most problematic and difficult elements to manage and market, due to the complex nature of its internal structure and variety of stakeholders involved. Each of them has a precise sets of goals and objectives that differenti-ate from the ones of other enterprises or service providers; these dissimilarities can lead to conflicts and dysfunctions in the system, making it even more challenging for organizations to meet every stakeholders’ wishes and interests and carry out their management duties. Among other elements, one of the major issues to be taken into consideration is undoubtedly the safeguard of the natural assets of the destination, that in some cases might be utilized unrea-sonably or even exploited to reach short-term goals. One of the key factors to a successful management and marketing of a destination consists of creating compromises and balance between the various stakeholders, trying to share the benefits originating from tourism indus-try properly among the parts involved. As displayed in Table 2 below, a combination of simple common sense and fairness can help in reaching this objective (Buhalis 2000, 2-3.)
Table 2: Strategic management and marketing objectives for destinations (Buhalis 2000, 3)
Apart from the presence of sufficient clusters and services in the destinations and harmony among the stakeholders, another element that has to be carefully considered is a vigorous marketing strategy, which is needed to convince the tourist of the uniqueness of the location.
Destinations need stronger marketing actions than any other sector or business, since custom-ers have a much wider range of choices at disposal, and many factors such as distance and flight prices can influence the decision; therefore National and Local Tourism Boards need to find that particular feature of the destination which makes it special and unique and superior to the similar competitors (Pike 2008, 43).
Destination marketing should not only be seen as a means to attract visitors, but mainly as an essential tool to promote development in the destination and enhance its management strat-egies and competitiveness (Buhalis 2000, 4). Destination competitiveness is a highly relevant concept within destination marketing in regard to this study, being a combination of econom-ic, social, cultural and environmental aspects. This field has only been researched since the 1990s, becoming one of the focal points in the strategies of Destination Management Organi-zations (DMOs). In 2004, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTO) conducted a study with the aim of creating a destination competitiveness index, analyzing and evaluating the competitive environment in over 200 countries. The criteria used for the research were Price competitiveness, Human tourism, Infrastructures, Environment, Technology, Human re-sources, Openness and Social. A 0-100 index value was created, and the criteria were as-sessed green, orange or red light, depending on the performance and value obtained. Austral-ia ranked first for infrastructures and technologies, while China surprisingly was regarded as a leader in price competitiveness. One of the major challenges in reaching a satisfactory desti-nation competitiveness is represented by the fragmented, heterogeneous tourism industry in the destination (Pike 2008, 40-45.)
An effective and successful marketing strategy does not only include a perfect understanding of destination marketing and destination management concepts but, more in general, of the whole tourism industry. One of the first actions to take in order to create an appropriate marketing strategy is to identify and categorize the destination typology, based on its main feature. This task may not be easy, since in some cases different categories overlap due to the different motives that leads tourists in that location, yet it is extremely useful for
mar-keting and promotion purposes. Buhalis recognizes six destination typologies: Urban, Seaside, Alpine, Rural, Authentic (Third World) and Unique-Exotic-Exclusive destinations (Buhalis 2000, 6-8).
Furthermore, Wang (2011, 5) argues that for a comprehensive and integrative approach to destination marketing, the following issues should be emphasized: the concept, scope and structure of destination marketing and destination management practices; consumer decision making factors regarding the destination; principles and functions of the destination image, positioning and communication; destination product development; product distribution;
strategies and approaches on relations with stakeholders; management of destination sustain-ability and competitiveness and, last but not least, safety, crisis and disaster management.
Additionally, Buhalis (2000, 8) highlights the importance of marketing research and market segmentation in order to determine the target market for the destination, formed by custom-ers that will actually be interested in the offer and potential customcustom-ers. Finding the correct target market and directing the marketing efforts towards it will definitely maximize the ef-fectiveness of the destination marketing actions, as well as helping the stakeholders to pro-vide the most appropriate set of services and products which will meet or even exceed the demand’s expectations and demands. Table 3 below reveals the role of marketing research within destination marketing.
Table 3: Contribution of marketing research to destination marketing (Buhalis 2000, 8)