I became tourism researcher by accident. I am quite fond of traveling and I over the years became a heavy user of message boards to plan my travel. While reading something about Agra on Indiamike, I was one day thinking you will never see this in a tourism brochure or on a travel agents website. And then it occurred to me that I could use some of this data academically.
I initially wrote about social media, then destination image but then I realized the concept that is most suited for what I wish to write is destination branding. The trouble is/was that I am no marketing person and I find the branding concepts a little daunting. However, I along with a co-author wrote a literature review paper on destination branding and presented it at the 4th International Conference on Services Management, May 9-10, 2009 at Oxford Brookes University, UK. I also realized that many academicians share their papers on the internet. So here is our paper on destination branding. I know this is not my usual kind of blog post but then once in a while …
If you wish to read the abstract only, here it is-
Through literature review, the role of consumers in branding is assessed from destination marketing, internet communities and marketing perspectives. Consumer experiences are often said to differ from the projected image in the destination marketing literature but consumers are not seen as actively influencing the process. Marketing and internet community literatures give consumers a prominent place in the branding process itself sometimes leading to a Doppelgänger brand image. A case study of an independent travel message board shows that consumers intend to control the content but simultaneously engage with advertising at their own terms. The issue of consumer-to-consumer branding and its implications for destination branding needs further investigation.
“I became tourism researcher by accident.” – that’s one accident you don’t regret, I’m sure 🙂
As for the paper, sometime in leisure!
Sorry!!!! it was all greek to me……
May be I am exhausted but sure try to read if I am able to procure a pdf version of it..
tourism researcher….gr8 ya…the post has lots of technical details…hard work and sweet fruits..enjoy buddy:)
Beautiful one!
Happy weekend.
Actually, I would love to see photos like that in destination advertising/marketing.
I like the information one gets in forums, though one has to read quite a lot to be able to build an opinion. People experience the same destination differently. And like mentioned, even though it’s not allowed to brand its own business, professionals tend to join exactly because of that.
What do you think about the tripadvisor/facebook connection, that one can see who of our friends where at the destination one is interested in, and so can be contacted directly?
That’s an interesting read on destination branding, and the role of consumers and internet communities. Thank you.
And that brilliant shot should not be used on any tourism brochure without your permission.:)
very interesting! never thought of anything like this… and the pic is just great! what a wonderful way to look at the Taj!
I think “brochure” is the right word?
Sangfroid that is very true 😀
Tarun when we write for academicians the language for sure is a bit arcane.
Ramesh, I must also say struggling tourism researcher.
Thank you Celine for both your comments.
Thank you Regina.
Fida thank you for your thoughtful comment, I was not aware of the Facebook/Tripadvisor connection. But I will surely keep that in mind now.
Thank you Anu.
Shrinidhi thanks for the correction, I have done it now. The word was not feeling right but I could not spot what was wrong with it.
Dear Mridula,
You might be interested in Esha Samajpati’s blog “The Business of Advertising”: http://thebusinessofadvertising.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the link Steve.