Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Above all, it is critical to remember that the individual tourist co-creates and forms a unique
personalized brand experience (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004). It has been highlighted that
stronger brands are created as a result of including both brand managers and consumers in the
co-creation of the brand (Brown
et al
. 2003; Coupland
et al
. 2005). Maintaining quality customer
experience and facilitating the consumer co-creation experience is critical (Prahalad and
Ramaswamy 2004). Therefore, tourism authorities and enterprises should provide compelling
and quality experiences, informed by the wealth of tourist market information on the Internet,
and facilitate the tourist in co-creating compelling brand experiences through social media.
Initiatives such as 'The Gathering' (see
Figure 11.2
)
highlight how by simply providing an idea,
and a digital platform, consumers are facilitated to co-create, and communicate a compelling a
tourism brand experience. More research is required on destination brand strategy using social
media (Goldsmith and Tsiotsou 2012). While there has been attention in the literature to tourism
branding at the individual enterprise, and destination level, and to visitor experience; there
has been a marked lack of investigation of the impact of digital platforms on tourism branding
and experience.
A challenge for academic research is to integrate examination of the tourism brand experience
with tourist self-concept, and in particular, how tourists use social media to co-create the tourism
experience. This requires an adjustment from the traditional destination management framework,
with the DMO in control, creating and communicating a tourism experience, to a consumer
driven paradigm. This will involve a multi-disciplinary lens from scholars, on destination
management, marketing, branding, and digital marketing, to consumer psychology, self-image
and consumer community.
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