This article presents the first narrative analysis of the areas of research that have developed within the destination marketing field since its commencement in 1973. Given the broad extent of the ...field, and the absence of any previous reviews in four decades, a key challenge is in providing a focus for such a disparate body of knowledge. The review is structured around one principal question: ‘To what extent is the Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) responsible for the competitiveness of the destination?’. In pursuit of this underlying question, we address a number of themes including nomenclature and the DMO, the evolution of the destination marketing literature, competitiveness as the DMO reason d'être, and DMO effectiveness including issues of branding and positioning, and future research themes in the field.
•The first comprehensive narrative analysis of the destination marketing literature.•The literature is structured around the key themes DMOs are involved with, in the pursuit of destination competitiveness.•Provides a succinct summary of research opportunities based on key relevant challenges faced by practitioners.
•Destination imagery is mostly built on holistic elements.•Favourite and dream destinations’ imagery are structurally different.•Imagery processing differs according to tourists’ country of ...origin.•Favourite destinations’ imagery is connected to the retrospective memory.•Dream destinations’ imagery is built on prospective memory.
The present paper aims at understanding how destination imagery is processed in tourists’ working memory. The research focuses on two highly desirable, but contrasting, destination brand categories: Favourite Destination, which involves retrospective memory of positive experiences in situ; and Dream Destination, based on tourists’ prospective memory. Through an online multilingual survey, 23,446 responses consisting of perceptions, evoked by way of free-recall, associated to Dream and Favourite Destinations, were collected. Findings point to clear structural differences between the imagery of Dream and Favourite Destinations. Additionally, a theoretical destination imagery model that offers a basis for future studies is proposed, and some managerial implications of significant relevance to destination marketing are discussed.
Tourists' intensive use of information and communication technologies when planning travel has forced destination marketing organizations to design online simulacra of destinations in multiple ...formats. We focus our study on official online destination platforms to analyze preliminary experiences with destination brands and the online perception of authenticity. Previous consumption studies have theorized that consumers' encounters with products/services are antecedents of their perceptions of authenticity. In the tourism literature, however, the link between online destination experiences and online destination authenticity constitutes a research gap. To fill that gap, we used a multimethod approach to develop a causal-predictive model by which we observed that the online destination brand experience directly affects destination brand authenticity. The findings also show that both of these constructs directly and indirectly influence users' behavioral intentions toward the destination. We examine the moderating role of various official online destination platforms to enrich the theoretical and managerial implications discussed.
•A measurement scale of the destination brand authenticity is validated using samples from three different countries.•The online destination brand experience is an antecedent of the destination brand authenticity.•The destination brand authenticity mediates between the destination brand experience and behavioral intentions.•Different effects in the model were identified, depending on the destination's official online platforms previously used.•All platforms tested enable destinations to foster positive brand experiences and perceptions of authenticity.
The issues relating to the functioning of the tourism economy include both the activities of tourism enterprises and spatial units, i.e., tourism destinations, as well as tourism demand, including ...tourists' purchasing behavior. The aim of the Special Issue of Economies is to present the current results of research on the functioning of the tourism market and its individual elements. The presented studies refer to four groups of issues: the foundations of the tourism industry, including general rules and economic mechanisms related to the operation of this industry market; the functioning of tourism entrepreneurs, especially in the tourism industry, mainly in the area of accommodation offers; the operation of tourist destinations and the available offers in tourist areas; the trends in tourist demand, including the purchasing behavior of tourists in tourist destinations.
Even though concepts such as brand experience and online brand credibility are critical in destination marketing strategies, there have been no previous studies that have analyzed their relationships ...and influence on tourists' behavioral intentions. This paper develops a multimethod approach using a projective technique, an online experiment, and a multigroup analysis with five official destination platforms (the website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube). The results confirm positive direct and indirect relationships among online destination brand experience (BE), perceived online destination brand credibility (PODBC), and users’ behavioral intentions toward the destination (intentions to visit/recommend). The multigroup analysis that was conducted revealed that users who had not visited the destination shaped their behavioral intentions by assigning a greater importance to the online destination BE than did those who had physically visited the destination. Conversely, users who had visited the destination showed a higher intensity in the path between PODBC and behavioral intentions.
•The online destination brand experience is an antecedent of the perceived online destination brand credibility.•The destination brand credibility is a mediator between the destination brand experience and behavioral intentions.•Different effects in the model tested were identified depending on tourist physical pre-experience with the destination.•The destination website is the most balanced platform regarding brand experiences and perceived brand credibility.•Tourists describe the destination brand credibility from a dual viewpoint where official and users' contents are needed.
Destination brand engagement (DBE) has emerged as a valuable construct for developing and maintaining enduring relationships with consumers. This study investigates the relationships among DBE, ...destination brand experience, and visitor outcomes by supplementing the existing research in two ways: first, it explores how destination brand experience (sensory, affective, intellectual, and behavioral) affects DBE in a specific tourist destination. Second, the role of DBE in developing destination brand advocacy and destination revisit intentions has also been examined. Some important implications are suggested for both service providers and practitioners of the tourism industry.
In a highly competitive market, marketing staff are always looking for solutions to strengthen what can be called their destination values (unique place, services, and human resources, etc.). They do ...this by concentrating on vital factors which can enhance their brand equity. Nevertheless, there is a shortage of studies about how destination brand evaluations are related to visitor appraisals. Using the opinions of 531 foreign tourists visiting a destination in Vietnam and a partial least squares (PLS) approach, this study examines four elements of destination brand equity (perceived quality, loyalty, awareness, image) regarding travel intentions and the moderating effect of destination familiarity. Results revealed that brand equity is positively related to travel intentions. Additionally, destination familiarity has positive moderating effects on destination awareness and perceived quality of travel intentions. This study offers some managerial insights into the effective building of destination brand equity.
•Elements of destination brand equity are evaluated from a tourist perspective.•Destination brand equity positively related to travel intentions.•Destination familiarity has positively moderating effects of destination awareness and perceived quality on travel intentions.•Contributes to understanding of enhancing, improving and developing equity in their destination brands.•Provides theoretical and practical implication of destination brand equity management.
Using social identification, attachment and experience theories, this study aims to develop and test a theoretical model of destination branding, which integrates the concepts of destination brand ...experience, identification, value congruence, attachment and tourist's behavioural intentions. To investigate these issues, the present study draws on tourist data collected from key tourism destinations in India, including in Jammu and Kashmir. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data. Findings suggest that brand experience, value congruence, and destination credibility exert differing effects on destination brand identification, which subsequently affects tourists' destination attachment, advocacy, and brand loyalty towards tourism destinations. As such, this study bids newer insight into the role of destination branding, from which we develop relevant implications.
The aim of this study is to propose a conceptual framework for building destination brand credibility. This research proposes a novel framework to explore the antecedents of destination brand ...credibility based on four constructs: enduring culture involvement, destination brand identification, destination brand reputation and destination brand attachment. The data used to assess the proposed research model was collected through in-person-administered surveys conducted in Indonesia and Spain. The study shows that destination brand credibility is influenced by enduring cultural involvement, destination brand identification and destination brand reputation. In addition, destination brand attachment partially mediates the relationship between destination credibility and the three antecedents. The findings contribute to the relevant literature by improving the knowledge of the antecedents of destination brand attachment and destination brand credibility.
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