Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
attempt has also been made to draw together hierarchical models with intervening variables into
'complex models' (Howard and Sheth 1969).
Communication issues in tourism
Communication is important for tourism since it is essentially an intangible, experiential, multi-
faceted product-service bundle, often incorporating numerous brands, and a range of channels
and media. Communication in tourism is also important because it involves the concept of a
'destination' as a critical component in the product-service communication mix, for which
images may be generated by a wide range of sources. Strategic and integrated communications
are required to communicate these intangible and experiential qualities. Furthermore, the
Internet offers new opportunities to conduct real-time, i.e. synchronous communication online
with many people that can be stored, recorded and kept for future users (asynchronously). This
may impact on credibility, and thus infl uence cognitive, affective or behavioural intentions. These
types of communications might be better capable of capturing and communicating emotion
experiences, and/or adding rich detail on experiences to help overcome the challenges of
communication for tourism services. In the following section attention turns to some key
aspects of tourism communications research along with a discussion of gaps in knowledge.
Inter and intra-sectoral comparative studies
The majority of research on marketing communications issues in the tourism domain has
focused on destination marketing issues. There are a number of possible reasons for this.
Destinations and destination marketing organizations (DMOs) in particular, are often publicly
funded (or amalgams of public and privately funded organizations) and as such, they are important
providers of tourism information representing a clearly defi ned, and bounded geographical
context. And as such, DMO marketing is characterized by being both the main channel through
which destinations are presented to publics/tourist prospects, and constrained by the need to
represent a diverse and amorphous industry. The promotional materials developed by DMOs
contribute to the formation of destination image, which is an important area of tourism research
together with opinions of others, news media and popular culture (fi lms and TV shows featuring
the place). However, a recent study undertaken by Govers, Go and Kumar (2007) found that
tourism destination marketing was not very effective in infl uencing formation (pre-visit) of
destination image, compared to other sources of information.
This perhaps questions the purpose of destination marketing materials, in terms of generating
'awareness' of the destination. Perhaps the purpose of destination marketing is to convert
'lookers into bookers', and much work has been undertaken to understand the conceptual
and methodological foundation for measuring the effectiveness of destination marketing
(see
Chapter 16
for a review). But there is little evidence in the literature of any evaluation of
marketing campaign success or failure in other sectors, either in aviation and transport, lodging
and accommodation. In much the same way as previous research has questioned the ability of
the web to generate affective responses, we need to know how different types of appeals affect
consumers across different channels (including outdoor) in different service contexts.
Loda, Coleman and Backman (2009) is practically the only example found in the literature of
a study that compared consumers' reaction to the marketing strategy of one destination in online
and offl ine channels (in an experimental design to examine attitudes towards the destination,
message strength, credibility and purchase intention). There is often little credible data available
which evaluates strategies on media channels and their literature review found no prior studies
