旅游目的地品牌研究

旅游目的地营销经历了旅游地形象、旅游宣传口号之后,迎来了旅游目的地品牌竞争时代,构建旅游目的地品牌已经成为一种必然趋势。通过在前人研究基础上对旅游目的地品牌做进一步研究,探究了旅游目的地品牌内涵及自身发展规律,对旅游地品牌有进一步的认识,更好的促进旅游地可持续发展。     

The Fuchsia Destination Quality Brand

SUMMARY

Quality has been widely recognised as a source of competitive advantage in tourism (Poon, 1993; Fayos-Sola, 1996; Laws, 2000). Given the shift that has taken place from interfirm competition to interdestination competition (Go and Govers, 2000; Crouch and Ritchie, 1999), a need to focus on the quality management at the destination level has been identified (Laws, 1995 and 2000; Woods, 2003). In an attempt to address this need, a case study of the Fuchsia destination quality brand, West Cork, Ireland, was carried out. The findings revealed that whilst the Fuchsia brand did not appear to function as a powerful signal of quality to the customer, it did provide a support system which fostered an environment conducive to knowledge sharing amongst the tourism service providers applying for brand membership. This was mostly as a result of the policy of compulsory training for brand applicants. The paper reveals the way in which policies and programmes undertaken to overcome reluctance to participate in a destination quality assurance system also helped remove obstacles to knowledge sharing amongst tourism suppliers at the destination.     

A comparative study of perceptions of destination advertising according to message appeal and endorsement type

As today’s world is flattening, the landscape of tourist destinations is becoming similar. In turn, an increasing number of destinations are seeking to effectively promote themselves. For these reasons, this study investigated the differences in the advertising effectiveness of destination promotions by message appeal and endorsement type. The main objective of the study was to compare the effectiveness of destination advertising by message appeal types and endorsement types respectively in order to determine the most effective type of advertising for promoting a destination. A questionnaire with hypothetical website advertising designs was used in a survey of inbound tourists to Korea of three different nationalities. To examine differences between the two advertising appeal types according to the type of offer, a series of t-tests were performed, whereas general linear model tests with repeated measures were carried out to detect the differences among the three endorsement types. The results revealed destination advertising effectiveness vary by both advertising appeal type and endorsement type. Such effectiveness was also found to vary by the message recipient’s cultural background. For destination marketers, these findings shed light on the importance of a well-curated message design by message appeal type and endorsement type.     

Regional tourism competitiveness using the PROMETHEE approach

The competitiveness of tourism destinations is a key issue because it enables destinations to know their position with regard to their competitors. The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to address the measurement of the competitiveness of tourism destinations at the regional level, (2) to show the suitability of using multi-criteria techniques to measure competitiveness, and (3) to apply the PROMETHEE and GAIA methods within a competitiveness study of eight tourist destinations located in the Northern Region of Portugal. The Metropolitan Area of Porto is the first in the ranking, followed by Cávado and Douro. The results of such an analysis show the comparative strengths and weaknesses of destinations, and allow them to identify their true competitors as well as those other destinations that are most similar to them.     

Analyzing Destination Images: A Perceptual Charting Approach

Abstract

Heterogeneity of perceptions is a neglected issue in market segmentation studies. Only recently parametric approaches toward modeling segmented perception-preference structures such as combined MDS and Latent Class procedures have been introduced. A completely different nonparametric method is based on topology-sensitive vector quantization (VQ) for consumers-by-brands-by-attributes data. It maps the segment-specific perceptual structures into bar charts with multiple brand positions exhibiting perceptual distinctiveness or similarity. A brief introduction into the VQ methodology is followed by a sample study on three urban destinations competing on the world travel markets. City images serve as the underlying behavioral constructs. Preferential data are based on respondents' comes-closest-to-ideal-city judgments and incorporated into the perceptual positions of city profiles. Perceptual charting works on two levels of aggregation named prototypes and perceptual sub-structures. The results demonstrate how this method prevents the analyst from drawing erroneous conclusions due to uncontrolled aggregation.     

Development Opportunities for a Tourism Benchmarking Tool-The Case of Tyrol

Abstract

The aim of this study is to improve an already existing Tourism benchmarking tool designed and implemented by the Austrian Provincial Government of Tyrol in 1987 (Haemmerle and Lehar 1987, Berktold 1992). After a brief introduction which overviews latest benchmarking approaches within tourism (Morey and Dittman 1995, Kozak and Rimmington 1998, Siguaw and Enz 1999, Dubé et al. 1999, Ritchie and Crouch 2000) and emphasizing its strategic significance of continually monitoring and emulating standards of performance, the principal purpose of an already existing benchmarking tool, the Tyrolean Tourism Barometer, is described in form of a case study. Both, the data gathering process as well as the operational sequences leading to a variety of indicators are thoroughly discussed. The paper concludes by analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of this secondary data based benchmarking tool. The final section of the paper critically assesses the neglect of relevant elements within the production process of tourism services. Here, the point will be made that it will not suffice to only describe structural shifts in tourism supply and demand in order to establish a reliable instrument for retrospectively evaluating tourism policy and strategically optimize future destination policies. Thus, the existing approach, initially based on price and capacity data only, is extended by linking it to both quality measures of customer satisfaction as well as resource allocation conditions (Weiermair and Fuchs 1999, Wöber 2000).     

Airport stops and flights on small airplanes as inhibitors of tourism-related air travel: A case study

This article discusses the extent to which prospective tourists' concerns about airport stops and flights on small airplanes inhibit air travel to tourist destinations, drawing on data from telephone surveys conducted in the Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas area. Respondents were queried about the extent to which one airport stop, two airport stops, and one airport stop followed by a flight on a small, propeller-powered airplane, respectively, would deter them from flying to a destination 1096 miles (1764 km) away. Findings suggest that marketers of similar destinations in similarly distant markets that are accessible by air only after two airport stops risk having their promotional appeals ignored by roughly half those who would prefer to reach such destinations by air. Moreover, those most concerned about such flight schedules were more likely than other respondents to have high incomes and to use the Internet to obtain vacation or travel information.     

Gay tourism in a sun and beach destination

Gay tourism is seen as an attractive business opportunity for many destinations. However, there is a lack of research at identifying the resources necessary for success in this type of tourism. This work is aimed at filling this gap by using the premises of the resource based view and transfers them to the analysis of territories to identify the valuable resources that are required for a sun and beach destination to attract gay tourists. To this end, this study has focused on a gay tourism sub niche, tourists lodged in gay-exclusive resorts in Gran Canaria. In order to confirm the validity of this approach, the relationship between the satisfaction of gay tourists and the condition of the valuable resources was studied by means of a robust statistical new method, namely Bayesian model averaging. That method permits the inclusion of uncertainty in the theoretical models that determine destination competitiveness, thus reducing many of the problems that arise in the application of the more conventional statistical methods in this type of analysis.     

Transforming competitiveness into economic benefits: Does tourism stimulate economic growth in more competitive destinations?

This research note investigates the impact of a destination's competitiveness upon tourism's contribution to economic growth using a cross-section with 131 countries. Destination competitiveness is measured with the World Economic Forum's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index, while tourism's contribution to economic growth is measured with the growth decomposition methodology. Results reveal that destination competitiveness has no statistically significant impact on tourism's contribution to economic growth. Tourism policy implications and directions for future research are also discussed.     

Exploring Content and Design Factors Associated with Convention and Visitors Bureau Web Site Development

Abstract

Convention and visitors bureaus (CVBs) have become important organizations within the tourism industry. The International Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaus (IACVB) reported that it represents approximately 500 destination management organizations in 30 countries (IACVB, 2003). As one of the most important components of the tourism industry in the United States, the Convention and Visitors Bureau performs various activities to facilitate destination marketing and development, with the aim of enticing leisure and convention customers to their particular city or region. Meanwhile, meeting planners are using technology to enhance their ability to produce and execute meetings that demonstrate a high return on investment. Consequently, CVBs' websites have enormous potential in selling a destination and facilitating the meeting/convention planning process. This paper explores the content and design factors associated with convention and visitors bureau web site development. It also demonstrates how planners utilize the Internet and CVB websites.