Destination Marketing and Branding - Essay Example

 Destination marketing and branding Introduction Tourists are noble clients in the hotel and hospitality industry, because of their economical contribution to the society at large. Firms in the hotel and hospitality industry works tirelessly to ensure tourists have the best of the best while at their disposal. Just like any business there is always desire to make as much profit as possible and so does the firms in the this industry. Strategies to beat their competitors are always designed and redesigned to enhance capability. According to (Burman, & Slemrod, 2013, pg 92), destination marketing is a phenomenon used by most authority or players in the hotel and hospitality industry to lure tourists and other clients into demanding services from respective firm within the locality. Heavy capitalization of the resources available within the area of destination plays key role in destination marketing. Clients are expected to visualize the tranquility of the destination being marketed and desire to travel. In this paper the approach taken by Bournemouth to market its destination will be discussed and analyzed. Bournemouth is a large coastal resort situated at the south coast of England. Destination marketing and branding Tourists are at liberty to visit other coastal resort not only in England, but other parts of the world. Destination marketing and consumer marketing or the other forms of marketing are very distinct. Key aspect in the designing of the destination marketing is the tourists; tourist will travel several miles and expect to enjoy the tranquility being promoted (Helfert, 1987, pg 45). Since the tourist is not captives, they will move around different hotels, restaurant and anything that fall short their expectations will result to dissatisfaction. Bournemouth coastal resort identifies the demand from their tourists over the years, with that it has differentiated its product and services to meet the diversity in tourism. Tourism cannot be defined by the traditional thought, because of the dynamics that the industry has undergone. In Bournemouth strategy, tourists should not receive anything less than what they anticipated through the destination marketing. To meet the diversity of tourists growing demand, Bournemouth has the following services for their clients to do while they are within the coastal resort; walking, attraction, cycling, garden, and shopping. Destination marker has the responsibility to spot tourists need and match with the resources available within the marketed destination. Customer demand always surpasses the capability of a firm, but still the firm has to work towards meeting those bulging demands. Assessing the successfulness of destination marketing can be identified using three performance indicators. Bournemouth has incorporated the three indicators in its strategy to measure the performance of it laid down strategy. First indicator is the tourist arrival to Bournemouth, it indisputable that high tourist arrival reflects a prospering marketing strategy. Festival events organized by Bournemouth have been receiving number of tourists including those residing near Bournemouth. Second indicator is the accommodation booking, this indicator reveals a close touch of the tourist with environment. Third indicator is visitor turnover; visitors of Bournemouth resort are expected to repeatedly visit the resort because of services offered to them. Therefore, a low turnover of visitors is expected and a variance to that should result into deep analysis. Services being marketed by Bournemouth Conference tourism Globalization has forced for numerous conference for people across the globe for idea generation ad socialization. Conference tourism has become essential to offer services requisite for successful conference goal achievement. Bournemouth has a number of conference center offered by the hotels within its vicinity. The surrounding coastal resort releases stresses generated in a tiresome conference, where the participants just relax and enjoy the resort. Sport tourism Creativity in any business is important therefore, one has to consider clients demand. It should be noted that tourists travel to a destination for a thrilling adventure, and this presents an opportunity for players in the hotel and hospitality industry to retain tourists’ loyalty. Sports have been found as one of attraction phenomenon tourists like to exploit. Players in the hotel and hospitality should develop sports that will make tourists lively while at their resorts. Bournemouth has identified cycling as an adventurous sport and has put necessary infrastructure in place for the sport. Competition is normally arranged along with other festival events that attracts a cheering squad. Simple ideas in the tourism field results to a hilarious event because of the creativity behind them. Garden tourism Garden tourism and ecotourism tend to focus on similar objective only to differ on few cases. Garden tourism is offered by Bournemouth to the tourist within the vicinity. According to (Brandes, 2004, pg 19) Garden tourism simply refers to the visiting of garden with beautiful landscape and flowers. Some of the gardens tend to have a connection with an historical happening. Ecotourism emphasizes on the care of environment as one tour the garden. Bournemouth identified the love people had on the environment. To exploit on this, there is a vast garden for newlywed, who wants to take photo for memory remembrance. It is believed that many tourists like to enjoy garden tourism because of its freshness in air composition. Camping Camping simply refers to the outdoor carrying out of activities that are normally carried indoor. Tents are used as houses. Tourists love adventure and to them this is just one of the thrilling experiences one can have in his lifetime (Canter, 2007, pg 175). Changing a routine of doing thing makes it enjoyable and memorable as opposed to doing it normally. Introduction of camping site around the resort has led to weekends and holidays being the busiest for campers. The introduction of camping marketed Bournemouth and made it a destination for campers across the globe. Hotel and attached services The coastal resort of Bournemouth has several hotels that offer quality services as demanded by the clients (tourists). Food being prepared in these hotels considers the diversity in culture and religion especially from the Muslim community. An accommodation service for the tourists is enough and prices ranges as per the rank of the hotel (three or five star). Other services offered are SPA, gymnastics, et cetera. Channels used in destination marketing Marketing for final destination of tourists and other possible clients does not just rest on the designing of possible exploration, but how the information is relayed to target tourists. Bournemouth coastal resort has a marketing team that ensures all products offered are marketed to created demand for them. The channels used in marketing tourists destination tends to be vary with the channels used in marketing consumable products. Packaging of the information is what matters because of tourist are expected to originate from different location with diverse culture. This being the case, the marketing team needs to incorporate culture diversity in their marketing strategy. The following are channels used by Bournemouth to in marketing for its destination; exhibition, online platform, billboards and posters, and ambassador endorsement. Exhibitions Tourism exhibitions are organized in various countries, the idea for such organization is to create a harmonious tourism among players. In these exhibition opportunities are created for the firms to present their services. Bournemouth exploits these opportunities, by unveiling the services it services to the members present at the exhibitions. Conference and garden tourism incorporated by the coastal beaches attracts clients from the respective countries. Exhibition has proven in the recent years to be a pillar in destination marketing resulting to massive tourists’ destination to the location with impressive, unique features. Billboards and posters Pictorial representation of a product or service being offered creates awareness and demand altogether. Billboards and posters need to be placed in busy areas where attention can be drawn and influence a number of people. Bournemouth can display the services it offers by use of billboards and posters in major cities and town in the United Kingdom. However, caution should be taken when using posters and billboards in destination promotion or marketing. What is being displayed on the posters and billboards should be what the firm offers. Clients get carried away with the first impression and they consider the features in the poster to be what the firm offers. Bournemouth ahs ensured that all its billboards display are accurate and reflect what the firms within the vicinity can offer. Endorsement Firms can decide to make it services and products get global recognition thus increasing the possible sales they can use endorsement of an individual or organization. Bournemouth has not been left behind and plans are underway to endorse several hotel companies in Africa and Asia. Endorsement makes an individual or organization to be an ambassador to the respective party. In this case, clients from Africa and Asia hotels would think of Bournemouth as the Top of Mind whenever they think of England. Online platform The power of internet to influence the society cannot be ignored. Social media like facebook, twitter, and instagram have been on the rise with huge percentage of the world population owning at least one of those accounts. Bournemouth coastal resort uses online platform to promote its tourist attraction site as well as the progress of events within the vicinity. For exemplary performance of social media in marketing various products online there is need for recruitment of communication agent who will answer online questions from clients. This exceptional performance of online platform in destination marketing has to be maintained by Bournemouth employing an agent for online clients reply or sub-contracting a call center firm. Factors that have led Bournemouth coastal resort excel in destination marketing Behind any success there must be supporting features that led to the development and progressive enhancement and so is the case with the exemplary performance of Bournemouth coastal resort. Political stability Leave alone tourists, no one enjoys a state where civil war is the order of the day. Security in England is stable that has a key selling point of firms that for firms that requires physical presence of clients like the tourism industry. Bournemouth has explored this on its advantage. Whenever tourists set destination to the resort their security is guaranteed during the stay. Promotion of its services across the globe has not received resistance nor as countries placed a security advisory for its citizens not to travel to England. Resources The resources in this section refer to the coastal beach and garden. The two resources which have been taken care by the management have to receive credit for the continuous flocking of tourists in Bournemouth coastal resort. The two features incorporated makes Bournemouth a tourist attraction site hence the destination. Government support England is one of the countries that make up the United Kingdom. Historical it is known that Britain colonized many states and thus has good relation. Through government to government support for instance, aids to countries like Kenya from United Kingdom creates a harmonious relation between Kenya and England. Bournemouth has linked with tourism industries in Kenya to market its services to potential tourist. Support from domestic tourism Many are times when tourism is just considered to be a foreigner related activities. Domestic tourism is the as much effort is focused on the foreigners the same should apply to the local residents of a nation. Bournemouth does not discriminate local tourism and in fact, encourage them to tour their nation (England). Visitation of the resort by England nationals makes the resort have consistency in the number of tourists per year. Dependency on local market for a product or service has great impact than depending on imported demand. Imported demand have tendency of fluctuating because of ecological, and economic differences. Change in season England experiences winter, summer, spring, and autumn season in a given year. Other countries in the world don not experience that transition in weather pattern and therefore, wishes to have it travel in to nations that have such season. Bournemouth has harnessed the demand from tourists especially in Africa and Asia who travel abroad for such experience. Spring festival organized by Bournemouth Coastal resort attracts residents and non-residents of England into visiting the resort. Challenges facing Bournemouth Coastal resort in achieving destination marketing Success cannot be hundred percent without hurdles and if there is any it does not qualify to be regarded as one. Bournemouth Coastal resort admits presence of challenge in its effort to implement its strategies to enhance both its brand and enhancing its destination for tourists. The challenges include: competition, currency rate, limited resources Competition Players in the hotel and hospitality industry in the world are always in “fight” to win the loyalty of both domestic and foreign tourist (Berman, 1997, pg 51)). Each firm tries to strategies all means possible to become victor of the client. One important feature in this industry is that the field is equal and the tourists just need to decide which site, resort or nation they feel to tour. Bournemouth coastal resort faces stiff competition from other coastal resorts in the Caribbean. According to (Chattopadhyay, 1982, pg 81), the resorts boast of sunshine throughout the year, thus making it the best destination for tourists especially from Europe. It has been argued that without competition in given field there is high chance of status quo to prevail. Though for Bournemouth coastal resort this might sound threat to its goal of expansion, ii is of good course since it leads to innovation among the players. Limited resources Resources available at Bournemouth coastal resorts are mainly the beach, garden, sports and conference tourism. These resources are minimal for tourists who want to explore nature to the maximum and with Bournemouth become a second option to them. Influencing foreign tourists for a given destination, number of services offered is critical in decision making of the tourists. Firm with numerous tourist attraction features ranging from wildlife to environment and botanical features has strain less in wooing tourists to chose their site as the destination. To counter this Bournemouth coastal resort are on the mission to rebrand its destination by adding new features that will make it unique. Some of the features suggested can be introduction of simple but physical games for the adults. Currency rate The difference in the rate of exchange between currencies of two countries has an impact on tourism. Since Bournemouth coastal resort is in England it is expected the currency in USA to be mostly Pounds. From foreign tourist perspective, who is knowledgeable in foreign exchange exchanging a weak currency to a strong currency results to loss. This therefore means that tourism in the nation with strong currency is expensive. Analyzing the destination of most tourists being Africa, this could be the possible reason. If touring Bournemouth coastal resort is expensive due to strength in value of the pound, potential tourist will definitely opt to travel to the Caribbean and enjoy the same treatment. Global economic crisis affects the financial markets and always have adverse effect to the developing nations. State of infrastructure Though Bournemouth has an airport, the numbers of flights are limited. This limitation simply means tourist arrival to the coastal resort is regulated by flight limitation. Urgent tourists who just want to have a view of the garden get upset whenever they are informed of fully booked flight or lack of flight to Bournemouth as the destination. This is a drawback to the destination marketing processes of Bournemouth and relevant authority should look into matter. Destination marketing and destination brand impact o Bournemouth coastal resort The strategy employed by Bournemouth to make it a tourist destination in England has definitely had a positive impact to its success. The visitation from both domestic and foreign tourists has constantly increased. Increase in tourists’ visitation is transformed into increase in the income of Bournemouth. Through destination marketing, enhancement of services offered at the coastal resort has occurred. This is primarily because of the stiff competition from other players who wants to remain relevant in tourist destination. Conclusion The value destination marketing and branding has granted to Bournemouth Coastal Resort is beyond any measurable instrument because of its lasting nature. Plans need to be underway to enhance sporting facilities offered at the resort, since this greatly affects its capability of being a tourist destination. Challenges facing Bournemouth is not selective it does affect other players even with great magnitude. Therefore, this should not be the reason for it under-performing rather; it should be a stumbling stone for moving to the next level. The level of creativity should be increased for diverse sport tourism. Incorporation of the garden tourism and ecotourism would brand the resort and hence tourists destination for those passionate with nature. References Berman, J. (1997). Challenges in tourism. Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books. Brandes, C. (2004). Forms of tourism (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Burman, L., & Slemrod, J. (2013). Tourism evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Canter, R. (2007). Future of sports tourism. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Chattopadhyay, P. (1982). Caribbean coastal resorts. Bombay Grace, D., & Cohen, S. (1995). Infrastructure and tourism. Australia: Oxford University Press. Helfert, E. (1987). Destination tourism marketing (6th ed.). Homewood, Ill.: Irwin. Koehn, Daryl. Tourism exhibition. London: Routledge, 1994. Print. Muller, M. (2003). Domestic tourism versus foreign tourism. New York: AMACOM. Palepu, Krishna G., and Paul M. Healy. Destination marketing and branding. 2nd ed. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Pub., 2000. Print Read More