Tourist Destination Management

The purpose of this study was to investigate social media usage by DMOs at Europe’s largest and most mature destinations (France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom). A systematic random sample of 752 social media postings by DMOs on four popular social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube) in 2015 were content analyzed. Results indicate that social media is of interest to top European DMOs. The study also revealed that Facebook is the most interactive social media platform and creates much higher levels of user engagement than Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. The study concludes that DMOs extensively utilize social media as a marketing tool, rather than as a customer service tool to mitigate potential customer service problems.

In contemporary neoliberal world, the collaboration of tourism academia and tourism industry is taken for granted. This collaboration is encouraged for successful destination governance. Most academics promote this collaboration around the words of “community”, “participation”, and “empowerment”. However, in this study, we object to this collaboration. The chapter first notes how neoliberal governmental practices shape the academic milieu. Then, it addresses how the collaboration of tourism academy and tourism industry depends on neoliberal governmental practices. The chapter ends by relating this collaboration to post-political practices and remarks how it privileges certain interests.

The latest European Aviation structural changes have significant implications for the tourism industry and facilitate the formation of a new contractual arrangement among destination stakeholders. Greece has experienced full air transport liberalization since 1998 being a member of the European single aviation market. However, although there is a rise in the country’s international tourism receipts this is not in line with arrivals growth and consequently per capita tourism receipts decrease. Given the unprecedented economic crisis faced by Greece today, it is very crucial to rationalize expenditure and make the best use of the very limited available public resources. An agreement under the defining aspects «Win—Win—Win» which has been developed among airports, airlines and destination authorities needs further economic and legal investigation. This chapter discusses the complex relationship that exists among the three stakeholders in the Greek marketplace.

Since the beginning of the Arab Spring movements and instability in the North of Africa, a relevant share of international tourists have changed their plans, relocating their holiday time from southern to northern shores of the Mediterranean. In this context, Spain has been one of the most benefited countries, making the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 historical records for international arrivals with more than 70 million tourists. However, times of exuberance could bring important imbalances for the future. The present chapter seeks to analyse the impact of the booming process occurring in Spanish tourism destinations, with a focus on the side of economic sustainability. In particular, we address two main issues: First, and relying on survey data of international tourists in Spain for years 2010–2015, we analyse the changes taking place in the profile of tourists arriving to four leading destinations in the country (Catalonia, Madrid, Canary islands and Balearic Islands). Second, we run expenditure functions for these destinations to estimate the main factors explaining spending decisions of tourists. Combination of these two analyses help us to get deeper understanding of the changes occurring in international tourism arriving to Spain in this period, and how these could be affecting the economic sustainability of destinations in the near future.

The study of tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty is a very fruitful area of research. In this chapter we get deeper insight on the determinants of tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty behaviour, and how both variables influence each other. With this objective, we estimate two main equations employing survey data on five Spanish destinations. The models account for information on tourist profiles and holiday trip experiences. The analysis allows investigating how the relevance of explanatory factors in the models shift according to destination characteristics and the level of the overall trip satisfaction declared by tourists. In the satisfaction model main results show that all variables increasing the set of information on the destination previous to the holiday experience help to increase the trip satisfaction level of visitors. In the case of loyalty model, an interesting result points that the overall trip satisfaction plays a second-order role in driving loyalty behaviour of tourists, with key variables appear to be those of place attachment and geographical distance to the destination.

In managing World Heritage Sites, collaborations among stakeholders are essential to concretise projects aimed at sustaining heritage preservation practices. The case of George Town World Heritage Site (GTWHS) in the State of Penang, Malaysia, is emblematic of this intricate set of partnerships and collaborations, which link civil society groups to government agencies. This study examines the role played by each group of stakeholders in creating and sustaining the winning coalitions and the long-term viability of projects in the context of heritage preservation. It uses a two-step analysis using Schmeer’s stakeholder analysis table and Eden & Ackermann’s Power/Interest grid to explore the ties between George Town World Heritage Incorporated (GTWHI), the main body responsible for heritage management, and other governmental and civil society groups. Results show a dominant role of governmental and hybrid institutions in driving these collaborations and a lack of representation of the actual voice from residents and interest groups.

The assumption is often made in the academic literature that just about every destination can identify and market unique assets, thereby achieving a point of difference against competitors. However, as the competition between destinations is increasing this is becoming difficult for destination marketing organisations (DMOs) which face problems in identifying resources that will differentiate their destination from competing places offering similar attributes and benefits. In recent years, an increasing importance of food as a destination marketing tool and a way of achieving uniqueness and difference has been noted. Accordingly, this chapter provides an insight into the use of food in the marketing of a tourist destination at a national level—in this case, England. In particular, content analysis of the Visit England website identifies four dimensions of destination marketing which illustrate how the use of experiential narratives is developed to encourage visitors to become more than passive observers, and therefore actively supports the achievement of competitive advantage for the destination. A question that arises in this chapter is the meaning of “local” food. This is easier to define in rural areas, however becomes more complex in urban places where the “local” is not only difficult to define, but often difficult to make distinctive and unique.

Tourism development in rural areas has been the focus of numerous governmental activities and plans in the past decade. All efforts aiming at its stabilization have been performed by actions as to establish sustainable European tourism as well as to keep it in a good shape as a continuous process. Bearing this in mind as well as emphasizing the specific problems means creating development plans. Development plans have been intended for and aimed at public organizations, private business and other organizations at a European, national, regional and local level. By participating in the EU pre-integration and then integration programmes, Bulgaria has chances for developing a sustainable tourism, which will make it possible to unite all sides.

Travel blogs have become an influential source of travelling information. Bloggers share their travel experiences and are generally considered as a trusted source of knowledge. They influence readers’ opinions and perceptions of places, affecting travel decisions. Despite the importance of bloggers as influencers, there is limited research on the factors affecting these individuals to blog about travel destinations. This is the topic of our study, which is based on data collected through interviews to Turkish travel bloggers. The interviews covered issues concerning motivations of bloggers, existence of collaboration and bloggers’ perceptions concerning their role as influencers. The research has important implications for theory and practice, since an improved understanding of these factors can help destinations market themselves better through blogs.

Wine tourism development requires the willingness of the winery owners to undertake tourism activities when running their business, thus meaning that a shift from a ‘pure product’ orientation to a tourism and hospitality mindset needs to occur. The analysis of the perceptions and attitudes toward wine tourism has gained huge attention in the last few years. However, in Italy very little research has been devoted to this topic adopting a supply-side perspective at a national level. This study was therefore carried out on a sample of 308 Italian wineries to deepen the knowledge about their involvement in wine tourism. Findings reveal that for the most part wineries are SMEs, or even micro, already somewhat involved in wine tourism. However, wineries lever on tourism as a further channel to both distribute and promote their wine production, while the desire to intentionally become a pole of tourism attraction is not so relevant. The marketing and promotional tools they use are mostly traditional, with a relatively low use of social media marketing activities; further, wine producers were reported to keep little data on visitors’ socio-demographic profiles and satisfaction.

This study analyses residents’ perceptions and attitudes towards tourism and community engagement with tourism planning. Overall, residents think that the positive effects of tourism development outweigh the negative impacts. Despite this, they express concerns regarding the economic future of their area and that the tourism development in their area is mostly exogenously driven. Further, they do not feel involved in tourism planning but, quite surprisingly, they do not seems to be convinced that local authorities should encourage community participation in tourism decision making. Exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster analysis were therefore conducted. Four clusters were identified: “disenchanted”, “critics”, “opponents” and “activists”. A descriptive profile of each group and the significant differences among groups are provided based on their socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Based on the findings, contributions to the body of knowledge and implications for developers and policy makers are discussed.

This chapter analyzes the international tourism demand at Spanish Mediterranean area. This destination receives the highest number of international arrivals in Spain. A dynamic econometric model is built following the Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) theory. Unlike other dynamic tourism demand models, our specification allows that the reputation and persistence effect (the effect of the lagged demand on current tourism demand) not to be constant. We estimate the model using panel data consisting of the 11 provinces which make up the Spanish Mediterranean area, and the 7 European countries which are the main origin markets, for the period 2001–2015. The results show a strong persistence in tourism demand. Furthermore, the reputation and persistence effect is positive and decreasing with the ratio between tourists and carrying capacity of the destination. Thus, this effect is not constant but varies across provinces and over time.

This chapter looks to examine the factor(s) contributing to the implementation of successful turnaround strategy in destination marketing organizations (DMOs). While turnaround strategy is not a new concept within hospitality and tourism firms, study of this area within the context of destination marketing organizations is lacking within the current literature. Within the destination marketing organization, the potential causes of turnaround strategy can be linked to a number dramatic changes in the external (macro) environment that exist beyond the control of the DMO. It is the aim of the following chapter to highlight such cases and within each, the successful use of turnaround strategy, specifically successful implementation of the two stages of turnaround strategy (retrenchment and recovery) during the global economic recession of 2007–2009 within Florida destination marketing organizations. This chapter would also look to offer insight to DMO leadership in how to recognize impending environmental factors that can contribute to turnaround strategy implementation as well as ways in which to orchestrate successful turnaround strategy.

Globally, urban destinations have witnessed exponential growth in recent years with increased ease of access, more often than not through low-cost airlines, improved touristic infrastructure and more appealing products and experiences for visitors contributing to this growth. The multi-dimensional and multi-functional nature of urban tourist cities is such that they warrant particular research scrutiny and case-based investigation. In this regard, this chapter compares and contrasts the strategies of two large urban destinations in the state of Florida, namely Miami and Tampa. Both cities are experiencing a current surge in tourist numbers at a time when the state of Florida generally is now attracting over 110 million visitors per annum. Both are very different, however, in their scale, their market attractiveness and the strategies each has adopted for the future, and the overall differentiation they are seeking. Although nowhere near the market appeal of Orlando and its abundance of world-class theme parks, Miami and Tampa have more in common with many cities around the world and each represent new geographies of urban consumption and production. While entering the world’s stage, the onus is on destination marketers to creatively generate synergy and a theme that can encompass their diverse offerings, so as to not leave their prospective visitors confused on the city’s positioning. Both of these coastal cities are primed for unprecedented success in the coming decade; two more coastal cities embracing their urban destination destiny.

Tourism as a socio-economic phenomenon, combines market aspects of economic relations and social-oriented society’s development objectives. In the contemporary environment for tourist industry development destination is a key element of tourism system, particularly manifested all interconnections and interdependencies of a given system with external socio-economic environment at the regional level. Furthermore, we monitor a need to replenish the theoretical and methodological destination analysis foundations as well as improvement of the mechanisms of its practical application.

Tourism is highly vulnerable to internal and external shocks as diverse as economic downturns, natural disasters, epidemic diseases, terror attacks and political conflicts. Therefore, there is a need for recommendations on measures that can be taken by the destinations before (risk management), during (response) and after (recovery) the crises. Hence, the aim of this chapter is to identify strategies destinations use to cope with and minimize negative effects of crises, how to manage risks and explore effectiveness of crises management tools for destinations based on Turkey as a case study. Understanding key measures that can be taken by destinations before, during and after crises might result in a more efficient design of crises response systems, strategies and their implementation.

The practicalities of destination management present daunting challenges. We introduce «The Visitor Flow Approach» as a way to deal with those challenges. This practical approach to destination management is an example of how research on destination management can bridge the divide between insights and impact despite theorizing tourism as a complex social phenomenon. Specifically, we illustrate how Swisscontact, a development agency, blends the theory of flow-based destination management and the six–step method of the St. Gallen Model for Destination Management to create real impact in emerging and developing countries. We present their experiences and lessons learned from four specific contexts (Laos, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Indonesia) and additional applications across four continents.

Over the last few years, golf has increasingly contributed to the development of tourism. In order to attract many golfers it is necessary to develop quality infrastructure, meaning not only golf courses, but also restaurants, hotels and leisure facilities. Based on data provided by diverse golf associations, federations and other organizations, we described the development of the golf tourism market in Europe, focusing more precisely on France, which has all the assets to make golf a first class sector of activity, both by developing domestic practice and attracting golf tourists. For golf tourism to become a tourism industry similar to what winter sport tourism, it is necessary for the actors to imagine a long-term strategy of coordinated investments and communication.