Destination Marketing

Essentials

Steven Pike

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317430919
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Destination Marketing offers the reader an integrated and comprehensive overview of the key challenges and constraints facing destination marketing organisations (DMOs) and how destination marketing can be planned, implemented and evaluated to achieve successful destination competitiveness.

This new second edition has been revised and updated to include:

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• new slimline 15-chapter structure

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• new chapters on Destination Competitiveness and Technology

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• new and updated case studies throughout, including emerging markets

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• new content on social media marketing in destination marketing organisations and sustainable destination marketing

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• additional online resources for lecturers and students including PowerPoint slides, quizzes and discussion questions.

It is written in an engaging style and applies theory to a range of tourism destinations at the consumer, business, national and international level by using topical examples.

Chapter 1

The study of destination marketing

AIMS

To enhance understanding of:

• the rationale for the study of destination marketing;

• the extent of academic literature relating to destination marketing;

• the divide between tourism academics and practitioners.

ABSTRACT

The politics, challenges and constraints inherent in marketing a tourism destination are very different to those faced by individual tourism service businesses. Destination marketers must somehow create and manage a compelling and focused market position for their multi-attributed place, in multiple geographic markets, in a dynamic macro environment. The complexity of this is magnified by the active interest in the process and results by a diverse, dispersed and eclectic range of individual, corporate and political stakeholders who have a vested interest in the attraction of visitors to the area. Therefore, an understanding of destination marketing is essential for anyone working in, or contemplating, a managerial or entrepreneurial career in tourism, travel or hospitality. The success of individual tourism-related businesses is reliant to some extent on the competitiveness of the destination in which they are either located in, or supply services to. A major contributing factor to destination competitiveness is being effectively organised, in the form of a well-resourced and well-managed destination marketing organisation (DMO) that has strong collaborative relationships with government, media, local businesses, travel intermediaries and host communities. Understanding the DMO perspective can better equip entrepreneurs to take advantage of opportunities in promotion, distribution and product development, thereby enhancing their own success, which in turn contributes to the competitiveness of the destination. Also, it is in the interests of destination marketing practitioners to appreciate the increasingly rich depth of relevant published tourism research that has developed since the 1970s. At the same time it is also necessary that academics and students appreciate the complex realities of destination marketing practice that often render the blanket application of theory and research recommendations as easier said than done.

Introduction

Following my three previous destination marketing books (see Pike, 2004, 2008, 2010), the principle aim of Destination Marketing: Essentials is to provide a synthesis of how marketing principles might be applied by practitioners to enhance the competitiveness of tourism destinations. This is an overview of the study of destination marketing from the perspective of the DMO and is global in outlook, since the theory and case study examples highlight the commonality of challenges, constraints and opportunities facing DMO management everywhere, whether in Lima, Peru; Southampton, England; or Macau, China. Destinations have become the biggest brands in the travel industry (Morgan et al., 2002), and most countries, states and cities now fund a DMO to attract visitors to their distinctive place (Pike and Page, 2014). Therefore, the destination and destination marketing have emerged as a central element of tourism research (Wang and Pizam, 2011; Fyall et al., 2012) and perhaps even ‘the fundamental unit of analysis in tourism’ (UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), 2002), since most tourism activity takes place at destinations (Leiper, 1979). For any given travel situation, consumers are spoilt for choice of destinations, all of which compete for attention in markets cluttered with the promotional messages of substitute products and services as well as rival places. The focus of the book is the raison d’etre and mission of DMOs as being to enhance the competitiveness of their geographic space as a visitor destination.

Readership

Destination Marketing: Essentials is primarily designed for use by undergraduate students undertaking a degree or diploma in tourism, travel, leisure, recreation or hospitality. The rationale is that an understanding of the nature of DMO operations, challenges and constraints is not only a prerequisite for those seeking a career in destination marketing but should also be regarded as essential for those who will become active stakeholders, such as managers of hotels, attractions, adventure operations and airlines, as well as entrepreneurs, financiers, advertising agencies, consultants, local government politicians and policy makers. As future tourism industry managers, students will almost certainly interact with DMOs at national, state and/or local levels during their career. Opportunities exist for even the smallest of tourism-related businesses to participate in, benefit from and contribute to DMO planning and operations in some way. All DMOs around the world share a common range of political and resource-based challenges not faced by private sector tourism businesses. Understanding these will be of benefit to those who will be dealing with DMOs. Without this knowledge, initial encounters with DMO staff can be frustrating, which can then inhibit a long-term relationship with the organisation that is marketing their region. Private sector tourism managers must understand that the principles guiding staff in public sector and non-profit organisations, such as in DMOs, are often quite different to their own and that by considering these they will be able to collaborate more effectively for mutual benefit.

A destination represents an amalgam of a diverse and eclectic range of businesses and people, who might or might not have a vested interest in the prosperity of their destination community (Pike and Page, 2014). For example, some research has found that not all small business owners are necessarily interested in the viability of the destination, when their own objective for operating a business is lifestyle (Thomas et al., 2011). The aim should be to develop relationships that both create opportunities to further their own business interests more effectively, and contribute positively to the competitiveness of the destination. After all, the success of these individual tourism businesses will ultimately be reliant to a large extent on the competitiveness of their destination (Pike, 2004), just as the success of the destination will be reliant on the competitiveness of individual tourism businesses. Recent research testing this proposition includes SMEs’ dependence on DMO resources in Finland (Seppala-Esser et al., 2009) and hotel performance in Spain (Molina-Azorin et al., 2010). At one extreme, the very viability of tourism enterprises at destinations in crisis caused by a diversity of exogenous events, as has been the case with Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu in 2015; military coups d’état in 1998 and 2006 in Fiji; devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011; and terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005 in Bali, Indonesia, for example, have rendered the destination uncompetitive overnight. Clearly, hotel managers cannot stop a cyclone or military coup. What they can do is work with the DMO to prepare a disaster contingency marketing plan, for example, to mitigate the effects of such a disaster turning into a longer-term crisis.

Another audience of interest is students in business schools and creative arts schools, where tourism, hospitality or travel is not their degree or diploma major. Many students destined for careers with advertising agencies, public relations firms, business consultancies, financial services and branding agencies will likely engage with tourism clients, given the sheer scale of the tourism industry. Likewise, those heading for roles promoting special events, art galleries, museums and orchestras will engage with their DMO. It is hoped the style of the book will prove a useful reference resource for those seeking to understand the idiosyncrasies and pressures inherent in destination marketing. Working for a DMO can seem like life in a fishbowl, where every move is observed. This is particularly the case in regional communities where DMO staff will regularly run into their stakeholders in the street, shopping centre and pub!

Learning outcomes

Two clear themes underpin the discussion throughout Destination Marketing: Essentials. The first, involving both the demand-side and supply-side perspectives of marketing, is concerned with the challenges involved in promoting multi-attributed destinations in dynamic and heterogeneous markets. The second theme concerns the need to provide more effective bridges linking academic theory and research outputs with real world DMO practice. The key learning outcomes of the book are to enhance the understanding of the:

• rationale for the establishment of DMOs;

• application of marketing principles in a tourism destination context;

• differences between the concepts of destination marketing, destination management and place marketing;

• complexities of marketing multi-attributed destinations as distinctive tourism brands;

• multidimensional nature of destination competitiveness;

• rise in influence of user-generated content (UGC) on destination image formation and consumer engagement;

• structure, goals and roles of DMOs;

• key opportunities, challenges, constraints and pressures facing DMOs;

• politics in destination marketing decision making;

• design, implementation and monitoring of effective destination marketing communication strategies;

• necessity of disaster response planning;

• importance of marketing research and effective destination marketing performance measures.

Nomenclature and definitions

Since the mid-1960s, marketing practice has been structured around the four Ps framework, originally promoted by Harvard University Professor Neil Borden (see Borden, 1964), featuring product, price, promotion and place (distribution). In the tourism and hospitality fields this has been expanded to the seven Ps and eight Ps, with the inclusion of partnerships, people, programming and packaging (see, for example, Shoemaker and Shaw, 2008; Morrison, 2010). DMOs have limited influence over the practices of their destination’s service suppliers and external travel intermediaries in relation to all but one of the four or more Ps, and that is promotion. Therefore, a premise of Destination Marketing: Essentials is that the core focus of DMO activities is promotion, leading the development and implementation of collaborative marketing communication strategies that match internal (destination) resources with macro environment (market) opportunities. Destination marketing is as simple and as complicated as that.

Destination management

It is the premise above about promotion that motivates my criticism of the use of the term destination management organisation as an incorrect blanket descriptor for all DMOs. The vast majority of DMOs simply do not have the mandate or the resources to control the management of their destination’s resources, as was the case with the New Zealand Department of Tourist and Health Resorts discussed in the Preface. This early national tourism office (NTO) controlled and managed the tourism resources of the reso...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Destination Marketing
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Case Studies
• List of ‘In Practice’ Boxes
• List of Research Snapshots
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1. The Study of Destination Marketing
• 2. The Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) and Destination Competitiveness
• 3. The Role of Government in Destination Competitiveness
• 4. The Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) and Social Media
• 5. Governance of Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs)
• 6. The Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO), Meetings and Events
• 7. The Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO), Disasters, Crises and Dark Tourism
• 8. Destination Marketing Strategy Development
• 9. Destination Branding
• 10. Destination Image
• 11. Destination Brand Positioning
• 12. Destination Consumer-marketing Communications
• 13. The Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO), Public Relations (PR) and Publicity
• 14. Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) and the Travel Trade
• 15. Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) Performance Measurement
• Index