Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
customer-based brand equity concept, some
further predictions are made:
Conclusion
This chapter presents the Republic of Slovenia
as a new country in the EU and summarizes
its main economic characteristics. In this con-
text, the importance of the tourism sector in
Slovenia is emphasized. However, the steady
growth rate of tourism indicators (such as the
number of international tourist arrivals, inter-
national tourism receipts) since its independ-
ence imply it is also a promising sector for
Slovenia's future.
Besides the encouraging results about
tourism development in Slovenia from previous
years, tourism could also represent a basis for
the whole country's brand development. As far
as tourism is closely connected with other activi-
ties of a country, the development of a tourism
brand can also involve the transfer of its strength
to other areas. Therefore, the chapter stresses the
main idea of brand development and presents it
through two main brand concepts: the brand
identity concept and the concept of customer-
based brand equity. The latest systematic appro-
aches in tourism destination brand development
in Slovenia regard the tourism destination
brand as an important tool to enhance the value
of the country.
Slovenia's accession to the EU in 2004
represents a challenge for further development
of the tourism destination's brand. Although EU
accession will bring some positive effects for
Slovenia's brand development, mainly evident
in its quality improvement, the biggest advan-
tage of EU membership will, in the author's
opinion, be reflected in tourists' perceptions of
Slovenia as a tourism destination. Considering
the elements of the customer-based brand equity
of a tourism destination, the author predicts the
main changes in Slovenia's awareness and its
quality perception. First, we have assumed that
EU accession will mostly increase awareness
or recognition of Slovenia. Therefore, the desti-
nation Slovenia will be included in tourists'
opportunity destination sets, giving the tourism
destination of Slovenia equal chances for poten-
tial future visits as other known tourism destina-
tions. Further, Slovenia's membership in the EU
will improve foreigners' evaluations of its quality
dimensions. However, previous investigations
have shown that the biggest gap exists in the
perception of the quality evaluation because
an increase in the awareness of Slovenia -
a short-term effect;
●
an improvement in Slovenia's image as a
tourism destination - a medium- to long-
term effect;
●
an increase in Slovenia's quality dimensions -
a medium- to long-term effect; and
●
a growth in Slovenia's attitudinal loyalty -
a medium- to long-term effect.
●
Generally, we may assume that EU acces-
sion will mainly increase the awareness of
Slovenia as a tourism destination. We suppose
that the recognition of Slovenia has already
improved and will also increase in the near
future. This is extremely important especially in
those markets where Slovenia has not been
widely recognized. The second most evident
effect will be shown in the perceptions of
Slovenia's quality dimensions. However, previ-
ous investigations have shown that the biggest
gap between what is perceived and what is
given exists in quality evaluations. Accession to
the EU will bring about an opportunity to close
the existing gaps. We also speculate about some
improvement in image evaluations from the for-
eigner's point of view, although this evaluation
was already relatively positive in the past. The
growing awareness of Slovenia as a tourism
destination, positive evaluation of its image and
quality dimensions could also boost the attitudi-
nal loyalty dimension, meaning an increase in
tourists' intentions to visit Slovenia as well as to
recommend it to others.
Although EU accession will give some
opportunity to improve the value of the destina-
tion brand of Slovenia, Slovenia's different
stakeholder groups should undertake the most
important activities. Here we have in mind all
possible stakeholders who could add some
value to the brand 'Slovenia' and, according to
their abilities, ensure that Slovenia as a tourism
destination will exist strongly in the minds of
potential tourists. Apart from the STB as a
national governmental organization, active roles
in brand-building are expected from the tourism
industry and the country's residents who should
'live the brand' and thereby take an active role
in developing and building the strong tourism
destination brand of Slovenia.
