Why using brand management in the tourism industry ? The case of destination branding

Résumé du document

Nowadays the tourism sector is one of the most important economic sectors. The globalization of our world allows for better, easier, faster, and cheaper travel, and the technological progress achieved has left almost no place unknown.

We may observe that many destinations are now featuring in people's conversations. This is true for cities (urban areas) such as London, Paris, New-York or Hong-Kong which illustrate the new trend. Other destinations adopt different strategies and there it is the country which becomes a destination, such as Spain, Australia, New Zealand or India.

This relationship between brand management and tourism management is an interesting problematic of marketing. This paper will try to understand this relationship, its nature, components and consequences.

In the first part we will study the concept of destination branding and the role of Destination Marketing Organizations. In the second part we will look at the tourist destination choices and the role of Destination Branding in influencing this choice. The third part will deal with the tourist experience and introduce the hypothesis of destination branding. Does destination branding by cities or countries really reach the customers?

This report shows how marketing principles can be applied successfully to tourism management, and how a better brand strategy replaces heavy and aggressive communication.

Extraits

[...] (2006): "Destination Image and Destination Personality: An application of branding theories to tourism places", Journal of Business Research Hosany, S.; Ekinci, Y. and Uysal, M. (2006): "Destination image and destination personality: An application of branding theories to tourism places", Journal of Business Research, Vol 59 (2006) 638–642 Ickis, J. (2006): "Building a national competitiveness program", Journal of Business Research 59 (2006) 341 348 Interbrand. "Branding a country". Interbrand. "The future of Brands. A chapter from Brands and Branding, An Economist Book". Interbrand. "What is a Brand? [...]

[...] This helps understand how tourists consume a destination. The emotional investment is the greatest item we have to understand in this. The last document I will use in this paper, is one provided by Bargeman and Van der Poel in the Tourism Management journal n°27 (2006). By studying the habits of Dutch Vacationers, they sought to understand their decision-making process. Based on the fact that people have built an opinion during their many travels, we can say that they are experienced travelers. [...]

[...] To clearly understand what the destination stands for, and to translate this into a brand personality is the task of the researching of brand values which will allows for the positioning of the brand. The extent to which the destination's brand personality interacts with the target markets explains what the role of destination branding is. What the brand is and what the brand does are key factors in influencing the tourist's perception of a destination. The example of the "100% New Zealand" branding highlights the need to portray a unique identity. Once this identity is defined, the destination branding image will work on its own. [...]

[...] David Aaker provides the most widely accepted definition of branding (1991). He asserts that the primary role of a brand is "to identify the goods or services of either one seller, or a group of sellers and to differentiate those goods or services from those of competitors" (p. 7). For tourism destinations, the concept of visitor experience (Ryan, 2002) should be included in the definition. Ritchie and Ritchie (1998) have defined a destination brand as name, symbol, logo, word mark or other graphic, that both identifies and differentiates the destination; furthermore, it conveys the promise of a memorable travel experience that is uniquely associated with the destination; it also serves to consolidate and reinforce the recollection of pleasurable memories of the destination experience" (p. [...]

[...] Many attributes exist in destination branding. The literature proposes a list of them as follows: source: Hankinson Journal of Services Marketing The key clusters of brand attributes are, in order of importance, physical environment, economic activity, business tourism facilities, accessibility, social facilities, strength of reputation, characteristics of people, and size (Hankinson, 2005). The impact of culture is also very important. These attributes will produce an emotional reaction which in turn will create distinctiveness of the destination. The problematic of partners should be solved through a strong idea of coordination to help build up the identity of the destination. [...]