Destination Branding - Tracking Brand Equity for a Competitive Set of Near-Home Destinations

In the emerging literature related to destination branding, little has been reported about performance metrics. The focus of most research reported to date has been concerned with the development of destination brand identities and the implementation of campaigns (see for example, Crockett & Wood 1999, Hall 1999, May 2001, Morgan et al 2002). One area requiring increased attention is that of tracking the performance of destination brands over time. This is an important gap in the tourism literature, given: i) the increasing level of investment by destination marketing organisations (DMO) in branding since the 1990s, ii) the complex political nature of DMO brand decision-making and increasing accountability to stakeholders (see Pike, 2005), and iii) the long-term nature of repositioning a destination’s image in the market place (see Gartner & Hunt, 1987). Indeed, a number of researchers in various parts of the world have pointed to a lack of market research monitoring destination marketing objectives, such as in Australia (see Prosser et. al 2000, Carson, Beattie and Gove 2003), North America (Sheehan & Ritchie 1997, Masberg 1999), and Europe (Dolnicar & Schoesser 2003)..

Destination Image, Motivation, Attitudes and Expenditure: An Integrated PLS-SEM Measurement Approach of Structural Relationships

Although destination image, tourists’ motivations and their behavioural intentions towards the destination constitute crucial concepts and popular subjects in the tourism literature, the integration of these three key concepts in structural models is still infrequent. The same case happens in regards to the incorporation of tourists’ attitudes and expenditure in integrated models that propose to better understand the tourists’ behaviours, thus, establishing new market segments and destinations’ strategies. In this framework, the present investigation was firstly focused on how tourists perceive the attributes of two UNESCO world heritage cities (Porto and Santiago) and on the possible differences between the tourists of these two destinations. Secondly, this work presents a PLS-SEM model with the purpose of assessing the antecedents of behavioural intentions integrating composite and reflective constructs for the measurement of motivation and destination image. Thirdly, the investigation provides an integrated approach to the understanding of the structural relationships between cognitive image and tourists’ attitudes (i.e., overall image, overall satisfaction and behavioural intentions) and the possible impact of these attitudes on the overall individual tourist expenditure

Tourism on a Scenic Byway: Destination Image and Economic Impacts of the Beartooth Highway

Many tourism destination managers know who their visitors are and how they are perceived by them. However, when new destinations begin to take shape, understanding these perceptions and meeting the expectations of visitors can be a difficult task. Destination image provides the ability to explore the perceptions of visitors at a tourism place. One such place the Beartooth Highway in south-central Montana and north-central Wyoming is a scenic byway that reaches nearly 11,000 feet in elevation. Previously, little to no research has been conducted regarding travelers that frequent this region. The purpose of this study was to understand the destination image and economic impacts of nonresident travelers on the Beartooth Highway. Nonresidents were travelers who did not live in the counties of the Beartooth Highway (Park County, MT, Carbon County, MT and Park County, WY). A two-part survey method was implemented. First, an on- site visitor survey was conducted for all travelers along the highway. Second, a mailback survey was given to all nonresidents travelers. The survey included statements about the Beartooth Highway, trip spending categories, motivations for traveling the highway, and activities participated in while visiting. Visitors were intercepted at the three exit points of the Beartooth Highway. In total, 4,285 nonresident visitors were intercepted along the highway. Of those, 3,251 nonresidents were given mailback surveys. The survey was completed and returned by 1,473 respondents for a response rate of 45 percent. Results from the study show that visitors perceive the Beartooth Highway in positive light. Forty-four percent of respondents stated they were first-time visitors. Moreover, visitors who had a higher degree of loyalty to the destination had significant differences in many of the cognitive and affective image variables. Nonresident spending contributed over $50 million in economic impacts to the local communities in the four month time period. Because visitors perceive the place as a destination rather than simply a highway, it is recommended that more collaborative management be implemented. The highway should also be marketed and managed with these results in mind to ensure the preservation of the unique characteristics and qualities of the region

Resident attitudes, place attachment and destination branding: a research framework

Purpose: This paper aims to propose a new line of research that explores the relationship between residents and destination brand building behaviours through the concept of place attachment. Design and methodology: We conducted a literature review on place attachment and brand building behaviour, and focused more specifically on place identity as an accumulation based dimension of place attachment and word-of-mouth as a behavioural outcome. Approach: With the emergence of new technologies, tourism managers no longer have a complete control over the development of destination brand, since various communication tools enable for residents to engage in the destination branding process. This calls for rethinking the role of residents in destination branding and the necessity to explore various place attachment dimensions and their outcomes. Findings: This study proposes a conceptual framework to understand the role of residents in the construction of the image of their place of residence as a tourism destination. Within this framework, we suggested that place satisfaction may affect residents’ internalisation process, contributing to residents’ behavioural output process, resulting in positive word-of-mouth, participation in tourism activities, and demonstration of destination ambassador behaviour. Originality: Despite the wide interest of researchers in human-place relationship, few studies have focused on residents’ place attachment and its outcomes. This framework suggests that it is important to understanding how residents form place attachment; how they perceive their place of residence as a tourism destination, and what they communicate in order to create positive destination image and strong destination brand

Effectiveness of social media in promoting tourism in Bangladesh

Thesis(Master) -- KDI School: Master of Development Policy, 2020In this paper, we will be scrutinizing the efficacy of web-based social networking sites in the tourism industry of Bangladesh. Alongside that, we will be exploring the fact if social media usage can effectively change the condition in the current tourism sector of the country. The paper will be putting a relation among the variables of the tourism industry to navigate the scopes for the application of the social media platforms. Consequently, the importance of brand image formation and using it as an essential tool for marketing will be emphasized in the paper. The goal is to explore the tourists’ perception, attitude, satisfaction, loyalty, and intention to visit Bangladesh using social networking sites as a promotional channel. In order to implement the plans regarding the sectors it is very necessary to form a partnership among the native start-ups that have grown centering the tourism sites and the digital marketing firms. The transparent regional and central governmental relation is essential as well. There needs to be certain establishments in the tourist regions where the businessmen are going to consult for any necessities and consequently reaching up to the central department for tourism. This paper will study all these implications after exploring the mentioned perceptions of the tourists.I. Introduction II. Concept of Tourism III. Literature Review IV. Research Objective V. Research Methodology VI. Cognitive, Effective and Symbolic Perception VII. Hypothesis Development VIII. Theoretical Background IX. Data Analysis and Interpretations X. ConclusionmasterpublishedTasnim TARANNU

Destination brand love and destination coolness: A case study about Lisbon

Over the years, tourism is suffering a lot of changes. There is a constant need of adaptation to the new trends, so a destination keeps occupying a special place in tourists minds. For Lisbon, as a tourism destination is not any different since, in general, it is greatly impacted by the influx of tourism. On the other hand, tourists are now changing their perspective when it comes to decide where they should travel to and deciding it based on feelings and emotions. This study contributes to the tourism research since its main objective is to understand the influence of brand love and coolness and how it affects Lisbon as a tourism destination. For the methodological approach, a quantitative analysis was made through a questionnaire that was carried out online. To test the hypothesis purposed, multiple linear regression models were used based on several equations in SPSS. According to this study’s results, the image of a destination is primordial for the tourists’ perceptions. Also, the two main constructs of these study, brand love and coolness, lead to positive outcomes that can have great impact in Lisbon’s tourism. The results presented in this study contribute to the existing research and helping in that way the tourism sector to better understand and follow the changes that tourism is suffering every day.Ao longo dos anos, o turismo tem sofrido algumas alterações. Existe uma constante necessidade de adaptação às novas tendências para que o destino continue a ocupar um lugar especial na mente do consumidor. Esta nova adaptação não será diferente para Lisboa, como destino turístico, uma vez que no geral, a mesma é fortemente impactada pelo fluxo do turismo. Por outro lado, os turistas estão a alterar a sua perspetiva no que diz respeito à escolha de um destino turístico, tomando decisões com base em sentimentos e emoções. Este estudo contribui para a pesquisa de turismo uma vez que os seus principais objetivos passam por perceber a influência do brand love e do coolness e de que forma os mesmos podem afetar lisboa enquanto destino turístico. Para a abordagem metodológica, foi elaborado um estudo quantitativo através de um questionário realizado online. Para testar as hipóteses propostas, modelos de regressão linear múltipla foram utilizados nas várias equações elaboradas, através do SPSS. Tendo em conta os resultados apresentados neste estudo, a imagem de um destino mostrou-se primordial no que diz respeito às perceções dos turistas. É também importante referir que os dois principais construtos do presente estudo, brand love e coolness, refletem-se em resultados bastante positivos que poderão ter um grande impacto no turismo em lisboa. Os resultados apresentados neste estudo, contribuem para a literatura existente, ajudando dessa forma o setor do turismo a entender da melhor forma e a seguir as mudanças que o turismo sofre constantemente

The brand equity of a destination: A user-generated content analysis

Customer-based brand equity can be defined as the differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand. Although there are already studies focused on the brand equity of destinations, most of them are based on surveys. Still, it is possible to extract and analyse visitors’ opinion by their self-reported experience that is available on travel blogs, in which bloggers write in a way that best represents their experience. Tourism in Lisbon has been increasing over the last years and Portugal is one of the most visited countries in Europe. The novelty of this dissertation is to propose a new methodology of measuring brand equity through text-mining of user-generated blog posts, based on the visitors’ evaluations of Lisbon. For this purpose, 100 posts were collected to test a brand equity model measured by four constructs: brand awareness, brand image - decomposed in cognitive, affective, and unique image components, perceived quality, and brand loyalty. Findings revealed that the components of destination image are highly related, with the cognitive image being strongly related to higher destination brand image. Regarding to the constructs, awareness and image are the most important to make the consumers loyal to Lisbon, with image and perceived quality representing the strongest relationship between constructs. Further, higher awareness can lead to negative perceived quality, but the image can work as a moderator of this relationship. Perceived quality was the only construct that did not reveal a significant relationship with destination loyalty.O valor da marca baseado no cliente pode ser definido como o efeito diferencial do conhecimento da marca na resposta do consumidor ao marketing da marca. Embora existam estudos focados no valor da marca dos destinos, a maioria são baseados em questionários. Contudo, é possível extrair e analisar a opinião dos visitantes através do seu relato da experiência, disponível em blogs de viagens, nos quais os bloggers escrevem da forma que melhor representa a sua experiência. O turismo em Lisboa tem aumentado nos últimos anos e Portugal é um dos países mais visitados da Europa. A novidade desta dissertação é propor uma nova metodologia para medir o valor da marca através da mineração de dados de publicações em blogs, baseada na avaliação dos visitantes de Lisboa. Para isso, 100 publicações foram recolhidas para testar um modelo de valor da marca medido por quatro construtos: notoriedade, imagem - decomposta em componentes cognitivos, afetivos e imagem única, qualidade percebida e lealdade. Os resultados revelaram que as componentes da imagem do destino estão altamente relacionadas, com a imagem cognitiva fortemente relacionada à imagem da marca. Relativamente aos construtos, a notoriedade e a imagem são os mais importantes para fidelizar os consumidores a Lisboa, com a imagem e a qualidade percebida representando a relação mais forte entre eles. Além disso, maior notoriedade pode levar a qualidade percebida negativa, mas a imagem pode funcionar como moderadora desta relação. A qualidade percebida foi o único construto que não revelou relação significativa com a lealdade ao destino

Influence of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city

Purpose - This study examines the influence of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city. The study also compares the effects of perceived brand image of the city on the emotional attachment to the city across two groups: residents and visitors. Design/methodology - A total of 207 usable questionnaires were collected from 107 residents of the city of Bratislava, Slovakia, and 100 visitors to the city. Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method was used for data analysis. Findings - This study establishes that perceived city brand image significantly influences emotional attachment to the city. The study concludes that affective city image has greater impact on emotional attachment to the city among the residents than visitors. In contrast, the influence of cognitive city image on emotional attachment to the city does not vary across the two categories of residents and visitors to the city. Practical implications - City tourism marketers should focus on improving city brand images to enhance tourists’ emotional attachment to the city to promote repeat visits among visitors. Originality/value - This study contributes to improving understanding of the impact of perceived city brand image on emotional attachment to the city across the two groups, residents and visitors, using social exchange theory. Furthermore, the findings come from a relatively under-researched Central and Eastern European (CEE) region

The Influence of Lighting Settings on Museum’s Brand Image and Human Satisfaction in Exhibition Halls Using Virtual Reality

This paper analyses the influence of museum lighting design on the brand image and human satisfaction inside exhibition halls, taking Birmingham museum and art gallery as the case study of this research focusing on the exhibition that included the ancient Egyptian displays. Four different generated lighting scenes using virtual reality were generated. The results showed that the lighting had an impact on the brand image and affect the willingness of people to revisit the museum and recommend it to family and friends. This research considers the museum’s visitors as active participants not just passive recipients of environmental stimuli. The research tried to provide a better understanding of how the exhibition environment in terms of lighting is perceived and provide further insight into how exhibition lighting design can enhance the visitor’s experience and create a brand image. According to the research results, visitors tend to be willing to return and stay longer in the presence of diverse and exciting lighting settings