Destination Branding and Images: Perceptions and Practices from Tourism Industry Professionals

The intensified competition among convention cities has created an increasing interest for cities to better understand how to market themselves as a convention destination. A city's image is one of the highest indicators of its success as a convention location. It becomes imperative for each city to specifically analyze its strengths and weaknesses. Because there is a lack of literature regarding medium-sized convention cities, this study compares Knoxville, Tennessee to other similarly populated cities in the southeastern United States. The perceived importance of city attributes and the tourism professional's perception of the strengths and weaknesses of the particular city as a convention destination are based on the years of experience of the tourism professional in the industry and participants' demographic characteristics. The sample of the study was industry professionals that attended the Tennessee Governor's Conference on Tourism held in Knoxville in September 2006. Implications from this study may be used to improve the competitive position of Knoxville as a convention destination.     

Consumer Insights and the Importance of Competitiveness Factors for Mature and Developing Destinations

This article aims to understand the importance of various destination attributes to the competitiveness of tourism destinations from a consumer perspective, while at the same time contrasting these in a mature versus developing destination. A sample of Australian-based domestic tourists were surveyed to assess the relative importance of tourism destination competitiveness (TDC) attributes in the context of developing and mature destinations. This research firstly appears to verify that the importance of many TDC elements, highlighted by consumers, is not dissimilar from other stakeholder-based TDC studies. Furthermore, this research effort established that in terms of attribute performance, relative destination immaturity may well constrain a developing destination’s ability to satisfy the needs of consumers.     

海滨城市旅游目的地非功用性定位研究——以大连为例

全球化背景下旅游产品的同质化增强,传统依靠功用属性定位的方法日渐乏力。纳入"情感选择"和"自我一致"机制,研究开发并实际阐释了一个目的地非功用性定位的概念模型。以海滨城市目的地大连相对于其北方4个竞争对手的重定位分析为案例,借助实证研究,识别出最佳情感形象和品牌个性定位因子。最终,提出了对大连非功用性定位的建议性战略,并对研究的理论和实践启示进行了总结。     

The tourism effect of President Trump's participation on Twitter

This research analyzes the effect of President Donald J. Trump's participation on Twitter on the performance of the United States as a tourism destination as reflected in the market value of tourism the country's tourism industry. Based on the effects that brand associations have on brand image and brand knowledge, this research proposes a conceptual model whereby a destination's association with a public figure might lead this personality's participation in social media to have an effect—derived from the resulting social media sentiment—on consumers' destination's brand knowledge and, consequently, on the incoming flow of travelers to the destination and on the tourism market value. The empirical application carried out on the tweets that the President of the United States posted over more than 150,000 trading minutes shows that the participation of public personalities in social media can have repercussions on the market value of their country's tourism industry.     

旅游目的地品牌标识评价研究——以中国优秀旅游城市为例

品牌标识是旅游目的地的核心品牌要素,也是其竞争优势的重要来源.但是,目前国内外对旅游目的地品牌标识及其评价的研究很少.文章在分析旅游目的地品牌标识内涵和类型基础上,提出旅游目的地品牌标识评价应遵循市场营销之功能性原则.基于此,文章构建了旅游目的地品牌标识评价的IDCAM模型,提出一个好的品牌标识应该具备识别性、区分性、一致性、易于被注意和易于被记忆之特征.以该模型为基础,文章从信号传递、符号意义、要素组合、视觉要素四个视角对旅游目的地品牌标识评价的具体标准进行了研究,并构建了基于IDCAM模型的旅游目的地品牌标识评价标准模型.依据IDCAM模型,我国优秀旅游城市正在独立使用的149个品牌标识大部分具有识别性,但是区分性明显不够,而且符合理想层次评价标准者仅有31个.     

International Business Tourism: Destination Dublin or Destination Ireland?

Abstract

The Republic of Ireland has been running the same basic brand proposition in its various marketing campaigns for some decades (Morgan, Pritchard and Pride, 2002). However, it is unclear whether the destination brand construct that has served Ireland's general tourism market so well can apply equally when attracting business tourism to Dublin, the nation's capital city. This research primarily applies repertory grid analysis and on-line focus groups to understand the brand of Dublin, the capital of Ireland, and explores the way the marketing of a national capital city for business tourism both influences, and is influenced by, the marketing of the nation itself.     

高速铁路影响下的全国旅游景点可达性研究

世界旅游强国离不开良好交通的支持,而作为交通中非常重要的高速铁路的快速发展,必将有力地促进区域旅游的发展。文章探讨了2020年全国高铁网络影响下旅游景点可达性空间格局及其变化,分析旅游目的地与客源地市场空间格局变化特征,在全国尺度下定量分析高速铁路建设对旅游客源地与目的地可达性的影响。测度2020年规划高铁通车前后旅游可达性空间格局与变化。结果显示:高铁开通后,高铁沿线城市可达景点数量显著增加;尤其是"日"字形高铁沿线城市与景点的增加值最高,将成为我国重要旅游经济带,高铁沿线城市与景点是高铁网络效应的主要受益者,高铁服务带来了时空压缩效应,即高铁的开通不仅缩短旅游客源地和目的地之间的时间距离、加强了两地之间的联系,也实现了旅游者跨区域的快速外部交通,而这种快捷效应的延续同样离不开城市内部交通网络的优化,缩短中心城市到旅游景区的时间,将会进一步增强景区的吸引力。     

The impact of destination source credibility on destination satisfaction: The mediating effects of destination attachment and destination image

Building emotional destination attachment is a key tourism destination branding issue in today's tourism market. The current study aims to develop and test a comprehensive theoretical model for destination branding that borrows the concepts of brand credibility, brand image, brand attachment, and satisfaction. Based on the above concepts, this article hypothesizes the relationships among four constructs, namely, destination source credibility, destination image, and destination attachment as antecedents of destination satisfaction. These relationships are examined for a sample of 398 international tourists visiting a famous world heritage tourism destination (Angkor Wat) and a famous skyscraper (Taipei 101). The SEM indicates that destination source credibility and destination image could indeed affect tourist perceptions of destination satisfaction with regard to destination attachment. In addition, the mediating role of destination attachment and destination image is also confirmed in this study. The findings offer important implications for tourism management and practice.     

旅游目的地品牌资产驱动因素模型研究——以凤凰古城为例

旅游目的地品牌资产逐渐成为学界关注的焦点,值得深入研究。该文基于已有研究成果,分析旅游目的地品牌资产与品牌知名度、品牌形象、品牌质量、品牌价值、品牌忠诚的结构关系,构建旅游目的地品牌资产驱动因素结构模型。以湖南省凤凰古城为案例,采用问卷调查法获得基础数据,分析发现:旅游目的地品牌知名度、品牌形象、品牌质量通过旅游目的地品牌价值与品牌忠诚对旅游目的地品牌资产产生显著影响,证实了旅游目的地品牌资产的二阶驱动因素模型。具体来看,旅游目的地品牌形象对品牌忠诚的影响最大,而旅游目的地品牌忠诚和品牌资产关联度最大。根据研究结论得到管理启示:第一,全面认识旅游目的地品牌资产的驱动因素,综合递增旅游目的地品牌资产。第二,着力突出旅游目的地品牌资产的核心要素,注重提升旅游目的地品牌形象。第三,认真建设旅游目的地品牌资产的关键内容,致力强化旅游目的地品牌忠诚。     

A cross-cultural comparison of fast food restaurant selection criteria between Korean and Filipino college students

Despite the globalization of the hospitality and tourism industry, present cross-cultural research is limited to examining consumer behaviors or perceptions on the products and services the industry provides. The current exploratory study between Korea and the Philippines investigates college students’ perceptions on the fast food restaurant selection criteria with respect to the attributes they feel are important. A conjoint analysis, proven as a statistical marketing research tool with strong predictive power of consumer choices among multi-attribute product alternatives, was utilized for the analysis of the data for the study, and the analysis revealed that both Koreans and Filipinos viewed Menu Price as the most important attribute. Next important attributes, in Korea, were followed by brand, food-related factors and service- and hygiene-related factors, while in the Philippines, they were food-related factors, service- and hygiene-related factors and brand. This type of study is requisite for globalization of the food service industry in developing effective marketing strategies and establishing operational strategies, by understanding the different components of the Asian food service industry relative to the US market.     

Examining destination images from travel blogs: a big data analytical approach using latent Dirichlet allocation

ABSTRACT

In the big data era, destination images have played an increasingly important role in tourism development. However, seldom tourism research has utilised big data analytics to examine destination images from travel blogs. Therefore, this study proposes and evaluates a big data analytical approach using latent Dirichlet allocation to extract attributes of online destination images from 140,286 travel blogs about 20 cities in China. Results reveal 14 dimensions with 54 attributes of destination images of the studied cities. Interesting findings are discovered between online destination images and tourism cities. This study also summarises the implications for tourism research and practice.     

Linking Travel Motivation,Tourist Self-Image and Destination Brand Personality

Abstract

Despite a growing body of work on destination branding, there has been little investigation of whether or not tourists attribute brand personality characteristics to tourism destinations and whether or not an emotional connection exists based on tourists' perceived self-image and the ‘brand personality’ of destinations. The aim of this study is to explore the links among four key constructs proposed for the destination branding and choice processtourist needs, destination brand personality, self-congruity, and intentions to visit and satisfaction with a visit. The results indicate that where tourists can make an association between a destination and a destination brand personality, and where this association is consistent with their desired holiday experience, a high level of congruity will exist between the tourists' self-image and their perceptions of the destination. In turn this self-congruity was related to satisfaction with a visit to the destination but not to intention to travel to the destination.     

Tourism destination competitiveness: a quantitative approach

Recently, researchers have suggested an approach to tourism destination competitiveness that goes beyond conventional destination attributes to include, in addition, generic business factors of competitiveness. Despite its apparent promise, there appears to have been little applied research building on this combined approach. This paper is designed to address this gap. Factors pertaining to the competitiveness of both the destination's attractions and its tourism industry were used to construct an instrument that was used to survey tourism practitioners in Hong Kong. Respondents were asked to rate the factors for both importance and relative competitiveness, in a method consistent with importance performance analysis (IPA). The results were analysed and discussed by reference to the IPA Grid. The paper concludes that the study has developed a promising research methodology that offers a quantitative, theoretically informed empirical analysis that will be able to provide a basis for managerial and policy decisions in the tourism industry.     

The value of self-stated attribute importance to overall satisfaction

This paper provides insights into techniques used to determine the attributes that influence overall satisfaction. A survey of zoo visitors illustrates several key findings relevant for both managers interpreting survey results and researchers designing studies. First, the assumption of importance-performance analysis (IPA) that self-stated importance measures the influence of attribute performance on overall satisfaction is endorsed. Second, relative importance is shown to be vital as it improves the prediction of overall satisfaction from attribute performance while absolute importance makes it worse. Third, techniques using self-stated relative importance are shown to be superior to statistical techniques such as regression, however new techniques using both self-stated importance and regression are shown to be even better. These findings apply generally to tangible products in marketing and management as well as to tourism services.     

Modelling Long Distance Pleasure Travel Mode Using Perceived Modal Attributes

Modelling transport choice behaviour traditionally has been addressed using objective measures of attribute data: price, time, etc. The authors argue that actual brand attributes may not be a good casual influence on consumer choice of long distance tourism travel. Choice is more likely to be a function of brand perceptions or brand image, which in turn is a function of past experience, expectations, promotional influences, family life stage and other personal factors. The authors re-examine data gathered in 1985 on tourist travel between Perth and Sydney or Melbourne, Australia; about 2400 miles. The authors model actual behaviour in terms of market share as a function of respondents' perceptions of travel mode attributes using a customised Multinomial Logit program which develops separate explanatory models for identified market segments. Results demonstrate the improvement in predictability over non-segmented models. Implications for tourism operators in promotions, product design and market targeting are discussed.     

遗产旅游动机的核心-边缘结构研究--以丽江为例

遗产旅游动机存在着一个核心-边缘结构,核心动机源自遗产属性,而边缘动机与遗产属性关系不大。既有研究虽已认识到这个结构,但对于动机如何从属性而来的过程却关注不多。文章采用方法-目的链研究方法,以丽江为案例地,对该结构进行探讨。方法-目的链主张从属性到结果再到价值这样的层级性建构,可还原游客动机的产生过程。研究发现,游客动机来自丽江多个方面的属性：遗产属性、遗产相关属性和遗产无关属性。这些属性往往被综合起来提到,游客同时被这些属性吸引而不是单单被遗产属性所吸引。逃离和归属感这两个在理论上看应该是核心动机价值,但追溯其属性却发现产生这些价值的也包括非遗产属性。而寻求艳遇、成就感和寻找自我这些在理论上看似与核心动机无关的价值,却与遗产属性和遗产相关属性关系密切。这说明游客对遗产进行了遗产客观价值以外的建构。     

高速铁路影响下京津冀城市旅游空间作用变化特征研究

本文通过对现有高铁和规划高铁两种情境下京津冀地区城市旅游空间相互作用的测算与比较,分析了高速铁路的建设对京津冀地区旅游空间相互作用的空间分布特征、变化幅度和空间差异的影响,并识别了不同城市的主要空间相互作用的联系方向。研究发现:高速铁路显著提升了城市旅游空间相互作用总量,缩小了空间差异。其中,唐山、张家口、承德3个城市获益最大,作为客源地产出作用的位序分别提升了3位、2位和2位,作为目的地接收作用的位序分别提升了3位、4位和4位,而衡水则排在全区最末位。高速铁路网络化运营后,张家口作为客源地产出的空间作用弱于作为目的地接收的空间作用,而秦皇岛作为目的地接收的空间作用小于作为客源地产出的空间作用,且北京、承德作为目的地的空间作用被高速铁路网络放大,而唐山则提高了作为客源地产出空间作用的能力。最后,本文提出,240分钟的旅行时间是城市间产生较强旅游空间作用力的重要分界线,并对京津冀地区在高铁网络化运营时代的旅游产业发展提出了相关建议。     

An alternative interpretation of attitude and extension of the value–attitude–behavior hierarchy: the destination attributes of Chiang Mai,Thailand

Thailand tourism and its attributes have not been sufficiently explored. This study attempted to identify the role of tourism attributes in Chiang Mai, Thailand, bring up-to-date advancements in attitude research, and build a comprehensive extended framework rooted in the value attitude behavior (VAB) hierarchy. A sample of 541 international tourists in Chiang Mai was used for data analysis. The results of the factor analysis presented five attribute factors. All five factors loaded strongly onto a higher order factor of destination attributes. Moreover, the attitude construct was tested in the VAB hierarchy. Our results indicated that the proposed theoretical framework and hypothesized relationships were generally supported. The emotion constructs were identified to be significant contributors for better prediction of intention to revisit Thailand. Our alternative interpretation of attitude was statistically supported. Overall, the findings of this study help destination marketers invent useful strategies to boost international travelers’ intention to repeatedly visit Thailand.     

The Tourism Market's Response to the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires: The Case of Gippsland

One of the key roles of a destination marketing organization (DMO) is to portray their destination in such a way that it is both appealing and inviting to their existing and potential tourism market. A challenge faced by a DMO in the regional Victorian destination of Gippsland in Australia, is the fact that they also have to manage unanticipated sudden changes in market perceptions that may occur in response to a disastrous event. The reoccurring natural disasters of this region (fires, floods and drought)—the most recent being the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, deemed Australia's worst natural disaster in history—make it imperative that DMOs can respond effectively. This article presents the findings of an exploratory research project designed to investigate the tourism market's response to this particular disastrous event. The primary aim of the research was to better understand how a large-scale disaster impacts upon the tourist's destination image and visitation intentions, and the role of the media in these deliberations. Focus group research reveals the post-disaster media interpretations, images, and visitation intentions of intrastate and interstate, regional and metropolitan tourists. Differences are observed in relation to the participants' geographic location and distance from the fires and their understandings of the event, including their reflections on media coverage. Varying perceptions among the participants of the impact of the fires, the travel risk, and subsequent travel intentions are discussed. Managerial implications relating to media management and the refinement of future disaster management strategies are also presented.     

Competitiveness attributes of a medical tourism destination: The case of South Korea with importance-performance analysis

This study aims to explore the importance and performance of medical tourism destination competitiveness (TDC). The aims were achieved by collecting empirical data on the perceptions of stakeholders in the medical tourism industry in South Korea. Results from the importance–performance analysis (IPA) revealed that medical TDC is primarily influenced by medical treatments and services, destination attributes, and tourism-specific factors. This study not only enhances tourism literature, but also contributes significantly to the existing literature on competitiveness. The study provides useful marketing insights for medical tourism suppliers in South Korea and countries in similar situations with the relevant industry.