Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Destination brand and image vs brand confusion
In a travel and tourism context, tourists are faced with a great deal of information when selecting
a holiday destination and, like services in general, tourists are unable to test destinations before
visiting and so have limited knowledge about destination experiences before their actual
visit. Correspondingly, information that potential tourists acquire before a visit is generally
concerned with the concept of destination branding and images. Since the development of
the tourism industry, many countries have combined the concept of branding to promote a
positive image in order to make their destinations stand out. Customers have limited knowledge
of destinations based on their experience, hence image is believed to represent the destination
and infl uence tourists' decision-making (Tasci and Gartner 2007). Understanding the image
formation process could help to improve marketing strategy for the tourist destinations,
especially in terms of their attractiveness and competitiveness (San Martin and Rodriguez del
Bosque 2008).
Court and Lupton (1997) argue that tourists' perceptions of a destination are based on differ-
ent sources of information gathered over time. There are three main types of information that
form a destination image. According to Gunn's articulation (1997), destination image formation
is constructed by organic (non-tourist information) and induced (marketing information)
images. Destination image affects choice criteria in tourists' selection process due to this slow
agglomeration of image development based on organic and induced sources, such as books,
exposure to news media, TV documentaries, travel brochures and word-of-mouth. Andreu
et al
.
(2000) explain that image is the mental representation that forms a product/brand in consumers'
minds. Moreover, as Kotler
et al
. (1999) specifi ed, the image of a place is people's total impression
of various elements and attributions connected with places. Their defi nition emphasizes the
role of the visitor's mental processing required to pick out essential information from large
amounts of data about a destination.
Therefore, images of places are commonly used as short-cuts for information processing and
consumer decisions. Even though a place might not consciously manage its name as a brand,
people still have images of places that can be activated and associated with brands, often simply
the place name (Kotler and Gertner 2002). Similar to product and service brands, destination
brands generate sets of expectations or experiences of a place prior to a visit. Image is important
and how a place is represented can inspire people to visit and revisit (Coshall 2000). Therefore,
building a strong brand image means that companies can position their product image (and
communications appeals) directly to a target market. Consequently, destination image plays an
important role in marketing related variables, especially positioning and promotions (Tasci and
Gartner 2007). Applying a place-branding strategy, researchers concur that promotional materials
are used in order to establish, reinforce, or even change the image of a destination (Mackay and
Fesenmaier 1997; Reilly 1990; and Young 1999). Promotional materials present destination
images which become much more important because those materials speak for the tourism
product until the destination is visited (Mackay and Fesenmaier 1997).
In managing a destination brand of a country, marketers need to understand that different
places attract different tourists. Cai (2002) suggests that image is becoming very important to
destination branding, since it generates affective associations in the minds of consumers. Riezebos
(2003) also clarifi es that brand images are networks of knowledge elements stored in long-term
memory; a network such as brand name is linked to other knowledge elements. Moreover, Cai
(2002) claimed that destination branding included a consistent mix of brand elements to identify
and distinguish a destination, so that differences in meaning and dimensions may occur. However,
certain destination attributes can contribute to how destination promotions are perceived
