Development History of Destination Marketing - Dissertation Example

Development History of Destination Marketing Definition of Destination Different authors have defined the term ‘destination’ in various ways. According to certain authors, destination can be viewed as the units at various geographical levels, however without different geographical boundaries. It is even seen as an image that results from social practice. The concept of destination can be regarded as agglomeration of services as well as attraction, while on the other hand the term destination can be regarded as the dynamic agglomeration of services, events, culture and attractions (Framke, 2002). Definition of Destination Marketing The term ‘destination marketing’ can be defined as one of the innovative strategies in order to get an edge over other competitive destinations. It can be revealed that marketing the destination of the tourist should tend to complement with the strategic objectives of the stakeholders as well as the sustainability of the local resources. It is worth mentioning that the destinations need to develop innovative strategies and make their products distinct from those of their competitors by conducting research so that they can make and display the unique value. Destinations can as well expand partnership with various public as well as private sectors at various levels of the destination management so that they can stimulate the delivery mechanism quite promptly and effectively. It can further be argued that with the advancement of technology such as web-based promotional measures, the competition becomes more pronounced by enhancing visibility, reducing the cost as well as increasing the local co-operation. Therefore, tourism marketing can be envisioned as one of the important steps in the direction of ensuring optimisation of the impacts that tourism has and in the achievement of the stakeholder’s strategic objectives. It is worth mentioning that the destination marketing must be formed in connection to the western business model in order to lookout for the greater interest of the destinations and the stakeholders who are directly or indirectly associated with the task of promotion and development of the destinations (Swain, n.d.). The destination marketing can be considered as being an essential part of mounting as well as increasing the popularity of the particular location. It has been apparent that several times the tourist planners pay more attention towards the development of the tourism while focusing less on retaining and preserving the attributes attracting the travellers towards the destinations. Moreover, the tourism destinations are quite difficult ‘products’ to market which makes use of huge number of the stakeholders. The other thing which is worth mentioning in this regards is that the destination manager has less control over the brand image. The level of complexity as well as diversity has been well known by the tourism planners which make the brand development a difficult and cumbersome task for the national, local and regional tourism organisations. The destination marketing involves attention of the tourist-related organisations towards the destinations. The stakeholders face challenges in developing a coherent theme for the destination brands. Due to the cut throat competition, the key to the success of business is building and maintenance of the brand values. There has been a shift of brand management from peripheral marketing concern to the core business strategy (Ana, 2004). Development History of Destination Marketing The history of destination marketing can be traced back to nineteenth century in the USA. It was the time when meetings and conventions were attracted. The formal commencement of the US destination promotion industry can be remarked as the formation of the Detroit Convention and Businessmen’s League in the year 1896 in the USA. It was generally handled by the Convention and Visitors Bureau organisations. Although the domestic tourism was the initial interest, overseas promotion was first started by New Zealand. Advertisement on individual resorts began in the UK, which worked in parallel with the developments in mainland Europe and North America. It was found that Blackpool Town Council charged local taxes on the rates in order to commence advertisements on railway stations, amusements with the help of the Advertisement Committee using the leaflets in the year 1879. However, from 1881 onwards it started using posters. The attractions were included to the tourism infrastructure of the town with the help of posters. This type of tourism was generally aimed at domestic tourism as well as day-trip market in combination with the railway companies. The central government tried its best to limit the municipal spending on the promotion of tourism in the UK; however it was evident that this activity became highly competitive prior to 1914. Despite government’s attempt to restrict on domestic travel and tourism during First World War, it was found that the private railway companies still continued to promote the destinations. The development of the ‘formally-funded place marketing’ led to the foundation of destination marketing organisation in the 1920s. It was held with the help of guide books, posters and newspapers advertisement (Cengage, n.d.). It was in the year 1993 when DMAI Foundation came into being. The Destination and Travel Foundation was previously called DMAI Foundation. It can be revealed that Destination and Travel Foundation acts as a complementary organisation for DMAI and the US travel Association. It was in the year 2009 both DMAI as well as the US Travel Association joined the resources of their foundation in order to create a better organisation that has the ability of serving the professionals of destination marketing as well as highlighting the influence of travel all around the globe. Although tourism has been in an organised form, the text that has been concerned with the destination marketing, planning and management had emerged in the 1990s. Destination Marketing Process When viewed from the consumers perspectives it can be revealed that the destination-tourist product can be considered as a tourist experience, the components being delivered by various actors. This may make the consumers perceive the whole destination to be the provider of the product. Since the destination can be considered as the provider of the product, it is worth mentioning that destination can be treated as entity in the marketing process. Destination Marketing Organisation’s (DMOs) are responsible to market the whole destination. Strategy It has been evident that in most of the cases, it becomes difficult for the DMOs to have control over the supply of the products that is being offered by the actors at various destinations. It is almost impossible for them to decide on the strategies related to formulation of the product, pricing as well as distribution. The DMOs don’t have adequate resources in order to carry out the planned and desired marketing activities. In this case, there is requirement of mobilising the resources from others and hence adopt a facilitation strategy. The facilitation marketing strategy explains that it is important for the DMO to build voluntary co-operation with the interdependent actors in the destinations and support collaboration with them with the intention to mobilise the resources for the purpose of joint marketing programme. Within the destination there is requirement of the support of other actors which is a necessary condition for this strategy. It can be depicted that the Destination Management Organisations might play an influential role, however it requires the acceptance of other actors as well. In addition to these, there is also requirement of initiating the integration among the actors so that structure and processes can be developed fostering the co-operation in motion (Elbe & Et. Al., 2009). Tourist Destination Imagery Literature on the tourism marketing states that the major areas of the academic endeavour are the study of the destination imagery. There are various factors that have an influence upon destination image. According to the views of a few of the authors, the destination image can be classified into nine items that has been based upon the attributes of the destination that is quite vast and difficult to reduce to a series of simple constructs. There are various factors that tend to affect the tourist formation of destination images. The first factor is the accumulation of the images of various destinations. The second factor is modification of the initial image after having gathered information and creating an induced image. In addition to the above factors the other factors are decision to visit the destination, visiting of the destination, sharing the destination, returning home and modification of the image that is based upon the experience in order to create an organic as well as induced image (Cengage, n.d.). Dubai can be considered as the best example of destination marketing. The specialist division of the Government of Dubai Department of Tourism & Commerce Marketing is Dubai Convention Bureau. The Bureau is a non-profit organisation that offers expert and free advice to the planners of travel with the aim of guaranteeing successful events (Dubai Convention Bureau, n.d.). The dynamics of Dubai are temporary and they keep on changing. It is constantly involved at constructing something better as well as bigger than the previous. The country always faces competition with itself in order to attract the tourist towards it (Dubai, 2011). Critical Evaluation of Destination Marketing (Industry Practice) Tourism and hospitality sector have always been considered as being social as well as economic phenomena that has deeper role in the contemporary society. It is worth mentioning that the national government, the local authorities as well as the regional authorities engage themselves in promoting the tourism destination for the purpose of driving economic growth and profit. In the modern days, the competition is fierce between the destinations and the places are being encouraged to act more professionally since there is fight for the tourist market share. Hence, the marketing of the places or the destinations are becoming more professionalised, highly organised as well as specialised industry. The destination marketing also assists in maintaining the economic, social and environmental sustainability. It further helps in increasing the visitor’s satisfaction. The biggest obstacle has been related to twin objectives of profitability as well as sustainability. The other key obstacle or limitation of the destination marketing has been co-ordination of the activities of different stakeholders who are connected with tourism destinations. The main thing that needs to be considered while designing the competitive destination brands is history of destination, culture as well as physiographic. Therefore, the marketer makes an effort to create and promote the attractive destination images and drawing on the elements from the above mentioned resources so that they can differentiate their destination and maintain the competitive advantage. Thus, this can be considered as being one of the biggest challenges for the marketers. It has been perceived that there is certain intrinsic contradiction in the marketing of the tourism destinations. The reason is that the best orientation is not the marketing concept. It has been argued by various authors that tourism is generally a community industry. The destination wanting to adapt the resources of the community in order to satisfy the needs of the tourist might overlook the needs and wants of the community in turn. It is also perceived that the recognition of the inconsistency has been related to the negative impacts of the development of the tourism on the destinations such as environmental degradation, economic dependency as well as cultural imperialism. This kind of impacts tends to damage the appeal of the destinations and as a result the tourist may drop the visits to such locations. It becomes difficult to measure the effects of the destination marketing. To be able to develop coordinating marketing activities for the domain, DMOs need to adopt a strategy where a key component is the mobilisation of the resources that is generally controlled by others such as stakeholders. This is one of the biggest limitations. Since the tourist destination contains a mix of stakeholders of various kinds, there interest do not match to a greater extent that gives rise to conflicts and acts as a barrier to co-operation. This is due to the fact because some of the actors may have the feeling that they are not being rewarded according to their contribution, while other actors may have certain other priorities. Therefore, it can be argued that the most essential factors in the marketing of the tourism destination are the consideration of the requirement of the local community as well as the preservation of the natural environment (Lichrou & Et. Al., 2007). Case Study on Destination Marketing: Dubai The case study is related to the destination marketing in Dubai. It will try to evaluate the effectiveness of e-marketing of the destinations via the internet services. It can be pointed out that with the change in the time, it becomes utmost essential for the marketers to change their strategies so that the competitive advantage can be maintained. The case study is related to the e-marketing strategy of the Dubai Tourism and Commerce marketing. From the case study, it was evident that the Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing wanted to take under its control the information regarding the destination online and also wanted to build good relation with its trade partners such as tour operators and hoteliers. By partnering with Global Travel Market, in order to develop a site www.dubaitravelmarket.co.uk had provided an opportunity to serve those partners. When the consumers enter their requirement in the Meta engine database, it is generally directed to the partners’ site. The website assists them in monitoring the number of people viewing and using the site; and with the help of the investment in pay-per-click, they can attract the consumers towards the websites and purchase the ad-words such as ‘Dubai spa holidays’ as well as ‘Dubai shopping holidays’. A person clicking into the link is generally deep-linked in the site. The website assists them in monitoring where the interest is coming from. In addition to this they can be more strategic with regards to their print advertisements. They further aim at adding up to the website certain latest elements that will include dynamic developments list. It will generally guide the consumers to recognise the recent updates such as special attractions at Dubai or hotels that are under construction and scheduled to open. They further plan to involve the agents where they will get an opportunity to interact on the websites and provide their valuable feedbacks (Anon, 2008). It can be analysed that e-marketing plays a vital role in attracting the customers. It can be considered as a cost effective and most used method in destination marketing. The Dubai Tourism and Commerce Marketing is one of the Dubai's governmental agencies for the destination marketing. The building up of the website by them has helped them in maintaining strong relation with the trade partners. It has assisted them in providing large range of the tourism products and services of Dubai and they are able to monitor the revenue as well. Therefore, it can be concluded that e-marketing of the destinations can be one of the most profitable business in the modern days. Dubai will be able to attract more number of customers towards it by making new strategies. Conclusion With the globalisation into affect, the marketing of the places has grown since the countries, regions and individual destinations try to compete to attract the investment as well as the visitors. The critical success factors need to be identified so that they can compete more effectively. It is also important to ensure that these are incorporated into one strategic planning. Dubai was selected as the country as an example for the destination marketing. It was observed that the country believes at constant modification so that it can attract the tourist and uphold the competitive advantage (Baker & Cameron, 2007). 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