Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
40
Tourism marketing
from 1990-2010
Two decades and a new paradigm
Daniel R. Fesenmaier and Zheng Xiang
Introduction
Tourism marketing has gone through a substantial evolution over the past two decades as the
tourism industry struggled to respond to the dramatic shocks brought about by an increasingly
connected world. The goal of this chapter is to identify and describe some of the leading forces
of change and their impacts on tourism marketing during this time. This chapter takes the
perspective that the last two decades represent a time whereby most of the original foundations
of tourism marketing were fi rst dismantled, but then rebuilt and replaced by a new paradigm
such that they are now much better equipped to meet the enduring forces of change. The
discussion is organized into three sections. The fi rst briefl y discusses the global forces that have
buffeted the travel and tourism industry; the second section describes three important responses
from the industry, particularly through the lens of destination marketing organizations, to these
challenges. The last section outlines an emergent paradigm for tourism marketing based upon
our understanding of changes in response to these changes in society.
Tourism marketing and the foundations of change
One way to characterize tourism marketing over the past two decades is 'paradigm shift'. Driven
by the development of the Internet, the world changed during this time to such a remarkable
degree that one would not be able to understand nor predict the extent to which the tourism
industry would be transformed. Perhaps the most important work that set the foundation for this
transformation is Michael Porter's book
The Competitive Advantage
(1985), whereby he explained
how information technology could be used to 'deconstruct' the value chain in order to more
effectively compete in traditional and non-traditional marketplaces. Further, the early books
such as
Paradigm Shift
(Tapscott and Caston 1993),
Digital Capital
(Tapscott, Ticoll and Lowy
2000) and
Being Digital
(Negroponte 1995), followed by Michael Dertouzos' (2001)
The
Unfi nished Revolution
and
The Cluetrain Manifesto
by Levine, Locke and Searls (2001) provided a
complex vision of how fi rms including destination marketing organizations could realize the
promises of this new technology. Also in an important political essay,
The World is Flat: A Brief
History of the Twenty
-
First Century
(2005), Thomas Friedman argued that the Internet had enabled
