Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Marketing
This volume provides original insight into the operational opportunities, challenges
and constraints in managing tourism destination marketing. It explores how the
various tourist destination systems including tourist, places (as seen by the tourist),
public and private tourism organisations and the social and physical environment
can effectively communicate and cooperate together at a profit for each.
Advances in Tourism Destination Marketing offers a comprehensive review of a
wide range of aspects related to marketing tourism products including networks in
destinations, consumer experiences in destinations, destination branding, destina-
tion image, events in destinations and destination tourism products. Throughout
the book a network analysis perspective is applied to offer alternative solutions of
how each system can share network knowledge and system knowledge so profits
can be created effectively and maximized. The exploration of new topics such as
destination networks and destination branding, as well as original international
empirical research and case studies from well-known researchers in the area,
provide new thinking on marketing tourism destinations.
The relevance of the arguments and the salient conclusions are valuable in the
study of an ever dynamic and burgeoning industry. This stimulating volume will be
of interest to higher level students, academics, researchers within tourism and prac-
titioners in the industry.
3 Destinations
Cultural landscapes of tourism
Greg Ringer
4 Mediterranean Tourism
Facets of socioeconomic development and cultural change
Edited by Yiorgos Apostolopoulos, Lila Leontidou and
Philippos Loukissas
6 Tourism Development
Contemporary issues
Edited by Douglas G. Pearce and Richard W. Butler
14 Tourism in China
Destination, cultures and communities
Edited by Chris Ryan and Gu Huimin
Forthcoming:
Drive Tourism
Trends and emerging markets
Bruce Prideaux and Dean Carson
List of figures x
List of tables xi
List of contributors xiii
Preface xix
Part I
Destination marketing and management 1
Part III
Destination networks 111
Part IV
Vacation decision making and choice 155
Part V
Consumer experiences and perceptions 219
Index 255
Figures
The suggested change to the definition is one of the many stimulating out-
comes of the 2007 conference as it is the aim of ATMC to focus – biannu-
ally – on updating and discussing topical issues in international tourism
marketing. The specific theme is usually drawn from the conclusions of the
preceding meeting, trends in the tourism industry and priorities in tourism
marketing research. All in all, the ATMC represents an attempt to explore,
analyse and evaluate the state of the art in tourism marketing from an
international perspective, bring together researchers, policy makers and
practitioners, and provide a forum for the discussion and dissemination of
themes related to the tourism system with a marketing approach. There-
fore, the initiative of ATMC represents an important contribution for the
tourism marketing research arena and tourism industry. The general
outcome of the ATMC focuses on facilitating the analysis and interchange
of sustainable approaches and international practices as a basis for know-
ledge and innovation management in tourism marketing.
Divided into five parts, this book includes 19 chapters. The first part
sets the foundation for this book by presenting four chapters related to the
marketing and management of tourist destinations. In the first chapter,
Bigné, Alvarado Herrera and Sánchez García provide a longitudinal view
of the evolution of the tourism and destination marketing literature over
the last 12 years focusing on the main and specific topics published, meth-
odological approaches, the statistical techniques and the quantitative
methods used by researchers. In the following chapter, Fyall, Fletcher and
Spyriadis continue to synthesise a variety of views on the benefits and
drawbacks of alternative destination management structures and bring
together a number of factors deemed critical and desirable to the successful
management of destinations in the UK. The third chapter, developed by
Parra-López and Calero-García, examines how networks can increase the
competitiveness of tourism businesses and destinations and also identifies
Preface xxi
the criteria that make such factors successful in the context of the Canary
Islands, Spain. The last chapter of this part, contributed by Sainaghi, is
devoted to demonstrating the critical importance of destination-based posi-
tioning decisions in understanding the competitive and economic perfor-
mance achieved by local businesses.
The second part gives an overview of current issues in destination
branding. First, Pratt evaluates the economic impact of a movie map-
inspired marketing campaign that drives tourist visitation and incremental
visitor expenditure in a destination. In the next chapter, McCarthy,
Moscardo, Murphy and Pearce trace the development of three music festi-
vals and look at the way in which management uses weak ties to develop
an innovative and diverse festival programme. This then helps them attract
and retain sponsors and develop new audiences. The third contribution is
offered by Żemła who introduces the idea of licensing to the management
of destinations and destination branding. In the final chapter of Part II, we
are introduced to the destination of Voss in Norway. Using this as an
example, Gyimóthy and Mykletun illustrate how a destination, that is, its
products, services and its tourists interact and draw on one other to co-
create a unique self.
Recognising the importance of networking in destination marketing and
including how events are created at destinations, the scope of the Part III is
dedicated to analysing “destination marketing: managing networks”, a
topic of high relevance to researchers, public institutions, the tourist indus-
try and other stakeholders. This part starts with the study by Polese and
Minguzzi on networking approaches for sustainable destination manage-
ment. This is followed by Baggio and Antonioli Corigliano who aim at
examining how network thinking can help in understanding the interac-
tions between tourism stakeholders within a destination by comparing two
tourism destinations: the Fiji Islands and Elba, Italy. This part is concluded
with a chapter by Lawrence who discusses concepts derived from policy
network theories to develop critical understandings of network dynamics
of stakeholders actively engaged in tourism destination policy, planning,
marketing and management for the destination of Byron Bay, Australia.
Focusing closely on destination marketing and management, the fourth
part relates to vacation decision making and choice. It begins with the
chapter by Barlés, Bravo and Fraj who analyse the influence of lifestyles on
women’s role in vacation decisions. As e-commerce has become a signific-
ant element in tourism research, this issue is studied by Muro, Suárez and
Zamora who demonstrate how observed and unobserved determinants of
access to the Internet help determine the online purchase of tourism prod-
ucts or services. Next, Decrop reconsiders the emergence of different types
of destination choice sets in an interpretive perspective by interviewing
Belgian citizens. In the fourth chapter, Reichel, Fuchs and Uriely compare
backpackers travelling to Central and South America and those travelling
to Southeast Asia. In particular, they concentrate on the effects of risk
xxii Preface
perceptions and risk reduction strategies in destination choice. Finally, Lin,
Chou and Hung evaluate how tourists assess the service quality of group
package tours and analyse the attributes that have a significant influence
on the satisfaction level and repurchase intentions of tourists in Taiwan.
With its three specific chapters, the final part of this volume deals with
perceptions and experiences of consumers in tourism. First, Campo and
Garau-Vadell propose a typology of tourists visiting Mallorca, Spain, on
the basis of their motivations and then analyse how these motivations
influence the level of tourist satisfaction. In a similar vein, Gómez-Borja,
Lorenzo Romero, Mollá Descals and Mondéjar Jiménez create a cultural-
tourist profile based on motivations that direct tourists to visit the specific
destination of Cuenca, registered as a world heritage site in Spain. Last but
not the least, Suárez-Alvarez, Díaz-Martín and Vázquez-Casielles investi-
gate the impact of complaint management and trust on the probability of
ending a relationship as well as on tourists’ attitudinal loyalty to three des-
tinations in Spain.
To sum up, in this volume you will find a list of chapters dealing with a
wide range of aspects related to marketing tourism products including net-
works in tourism destinations, consumer experiences in tourism destina-
tions, destination branding, destination image, events in tourism
destinations and destination tourism products. The methodologies of the
contributing authors include both qualitative and quantitative methods
ranging from survey methods to case studies. In this collaborative effort, a
number of different perspectives on the subject of tourism marketing are
presented by researchers from over 25 different institutions and 12 coun-
tries. It is our hope that the contributions accommodated in this volume
may help marketing and management in reflecting on their strategies of
segmenting, targeting and positioning as well as in process and product
development. We encourage the dialogue with academics and researchers,
government departments and NTOs (National Tourist Organisations),
event managers, consultants and planners in the tourism and travel indus-
tries. As a final comment, we would like to acknowledge and thank all the
authors for their contributions and commitment. We also thank Routledge
for giving us such a unique opportunity to publish this volume.
References
Gummesson, E. (2008). Total relationship marketing. Oxford: Butterworth-
Heinemann.
Keefe, L. M. (2004). What is the meaning of ‘marketing’? Marketing News,
8 September, 17–18.
Kozak, M. and Andreu, L. (2006). Progress in tourism marketing. London: Elsevier.
Part I
Introduction
Tourism has been one of the very last sectors to assume a marketing
approach focused on the consumer, and therefore marketing researchers
have been concerned about the identification of key trends in tourism mar-
keting only since the last decade (Bigné, 1996, 2004; Bigné, Andreu &
Sánchez, 2005; Mattila, 2004; Oh, Kim & Shin, 2004) in line with the
recent development of tourism as a scientific discipline (see Jafari, 2005).
The continuation and updating of past efforts is required since marketing’s
scope is still evolving (Day & Montgomery, 1999; Kerin, 1996; Oh et al.,
2004), as clearly illustrated by the most recent definition of the term “mar-
keting” adopted by the American Marketing Association (AMA, 2005;
Keefe, 2004) and its already discussed limitations (Grönroos, 2006;
Palmer, Lindgreen & Vanhamme, 2005).
Some papers have identified various tourism marketing trends in the
recent past (Bowen & Sparks, 1998; Mattila, 2004; Oh et al., 2004).
Although these are very valuable contributions to the tourism marketing
literature, a long range perspective of the evolution of the field cannot be
determined since it is not possible to establish a complete temporal link to
trace it. Xiao and Smith (2006a, b) provide such a temporal perspective
but they do not focus specifically on marketing but on tourism and hospi-
tality in general. Therefore, the present research is focused on identifying
research trends in tourism marketing through content analysis of the
papers published in the two top journals on tourism, Annals of Tourism
Research (ATR) and Tourism Management (TM), during the period
1995–2006, intending to be an extended update on Bigné (2004) and Bigné
et al. (2005), and establishing a complementary and comparative frame to
those.
Literature review
According to Zhao and Ritchie (2007), the growing acknowledgement of
the scientific status of tourism has led to a parallel increase in research
4 E. Bigné et al.
interest in the tourism academic community. They identify two main per-
spectives to deal with this type of research. The first aims to assess and
rank tourism journals, and it is usually based on tourism experts’ percep-
tions collected by means of a survey. The second approach focuses on
tourism researchers, trying to identify “the most frequently contributing
scholars and institutions in terms of publication productivity in a given
time frame” (p. 476).
An additional stream of this kind of research that can be identified
within tourism literature is based on the recognition and analyses of trends
(Van Doren & Heit, 1973) emerging from longitudinal observations of the
changes of topics and research methodology used by the authors (Xiao &
Smith, 2006b) such as those that have been made in the field of hospitality
(Baloglu & Assante, 1999; Crawford & McCleary, 1992; Xiao & Smith,
2006a, b) and in the field of tourism marketing and management (Bowen
& Sparks, 1998; Buhalis & Law, 2008; Mattila, 2004; Oh et al., 2004;
Pike, 2002).
Effectively, as Xiao and Smith (2006b) point out, state-of-the-art
tourism research can be a useful source of hypotheses on the evolution of
tourism knowledge because the empirical study of the content of the pub-
lished papers provides “hard data” to obtain verifiable and grounded con-
clusions. Therefore, researching published trends is useful for scholars as
well as for journal managers because what we are researching and publish-
ing and how we are doing it is an attractive issue for future researchers and
for tourism departments to establish research priorities.
Focusing on research trends in tourism marketing, Mattila (2004) made
a systematic analysis based on the consumer behavior articles published
during 2003 in 13 well-known tourism and hospitality journals with the
aim of identifying key trends on the subject. The author found that the
Internet was a relevant topic for hospitality researchers, followed by service
encounters, price issues, loyalty and shopping behavior. As far as tourism
researchers are concerned, studies mainly deal with destination marketing,
segmentation and decision making. Finally, in both subfields, survey was
found to be by far the most common methodology, whereas researchers
were reluctant to use experimental designs.
Oh et al. (2004), based on Bowen and Sparks’ (1998) work, analyzed
the content of the marketing papers published during 2002–03 in eight
tourism and hospitality oriented journals. The marketing topics that had
received more attention in the hospitality and tourism literature were
market segmentation and positioning, followed by satisfaction, complain-
ing and recovery behavior. Relationship marketing and new technologies
issues had also received some attention, while the least studied topics were
those related with social responsibility, physical distribution, theory and
philosophy of science and special marketing applications. Oh et al. found
that most of the studies (91 percent) were empirical, based on survey meth-
odology (63.7 percent).
Research in tourism marketing 5
Although the previous works provide very useful insights in tourism
marketing research, they focus on a narrow temporal period. Thus, the
main purpose of this study is to analyze the evolution in tourism marketing
research within two international top journals of tourism: ATR and TM,
considering a broad longitudinal perspective. We selected these journals
because they are the two best ranked journals of tourism according to the
recent research of McKercher, Law and Lam (2006) on the topic. More
specifically this research aims to fulfill four objectives. First, to identify the
trends in the number of tourism marketing papers included in TM and
ATR through the last 12 years, both at the global and at the journal level.
Second, to understand the evolution of the researched topics in tourism
marketing published in the previous journals throughout the last 12 years.
Also to recognize the most studied tourism subsectors throughout the last
12 years and their research trends. And, finally, to identify the most
common methodologies used by tourism marketing researchers and their
trends through the last 12 years.
Methodology
Content analysis methodology allows the symbolic content of communica-
tions to be evaluated in a quantitative, objective, systematic and reliable
manner (Kolbe & Burnett, 1991). Its main characteristics are: (a) clear
rules and classification procedures, (b) the adequate selection and training
of the judges, (c) pilot testing of the categories, (d) the independence and
autonomy of the coders and (e) the establishment of ad hoc reliability
indexes (Bigné, 1999; Kolbe & Burnett, 1991) such as those proposed by
Holsti (1969) and Perreault and Leigh (1989), among others. In addition,
the use of more than two judges and the solution of discrepancies based on
majority rules increase the objectivity of the analysis (Perreault & Leigh,
1989). Finally, if content analysis is used to replicate and to extend previ-
ous studies, as is the case here, the same procedure and classification
scheme are recommended (Stern & Resnik, 1991).
Following the above recommendations, we employed a two step
approach in this work. First, we carried out Content Analysis on the
190 papers published from 2004 to 2006 in ATR and TM that were
identified as “marketing tourism focused” by three judges. The abstracts of
the 404 featured papers published in TM and ATR from 2004 to 2006
were sent to the judges and they were asked to identify those focused
on tourism marketing. As a result, the judges selected 190 papers as
the universe of study corresponding to that period. The full text of the
190 papers was then sent to the judges within a database that included
an electronic form designed ad hoc to evaluate the following variables:
main and specific topic and, if applicable, subtopic; specific tourism
subsector addressed in the paper; methodological approach of the
paper; data collection techniques employed in the research; statistical
6 E. Bigné et al.
treatment of data; and quantitative techniques used to analyze the data (if
applicable).
Classification of general and specific topics and subtopics is based on
the Journal of Marketing’s classification scheme. Once the judges ended
their evaluations, their opinions were compared to determine the reliability
of the analysis. The agreement indexes achieved were higher than the
minimal acceptable standard of 0.8 (Perreault & Leigh, 1989; Riffe, Lacy
& Fico, 2005). Those related to the Main theme variable showed the
highest values: 0.874 (Holsti, 1969) and an Index of reliability Ir = 0.912
(Perreault & Leigh, 1989) for 95 percent confidence limits (0.889–0.937),
while the lowest were those related to the Specific theme variable: 0.827
(Holsti, 1969) and Ir = 0.904 (Perreault & Leigh, 1989) for 95 percent
confidence limits (0.878–0.929). After establishing the reliability, the
judges had to meet to try to agree on the papers where discrepancies per-
sisted after the first round of coding. The final database included 62 papers
published in ATR and 128 from TM.
The second step of the methodology encompasses integration of data
from 2004 to 2006 with the results obtained in previous research by Bigné
(2004) and Bigné et al. (2005) to obtain a broader longitudinal perspective
(from 1995 to 2006). Thus, the general database comprises a total of 382
papers; of those, 126 were issued by ATR and 256 by TM.
Discussion of findings
Regarding the percentage of tourism marketing oriented papers published
in TM and ATR from 1995 to 2006, the t test revealed that the relative
number of marketing papers issued by TM is significantly higher (38.9
percent) than the number of those papers published by ATR (22.5 percent)
during the 12 years studied (p < 0.01). During the last four years, there
seems to be an important increase in tourism marketing papers in both
journals, by about 40 papers per period, and especially in ATR. To cor-
roborate this trend, considering that the observations of the same objects
were equally spaced in time (Lessne & Hanumara, 1988), we calculated
polynomial trends for each journal and for both for the 12 year period.
The results confirmed this notion as shown in Figure 1.1.
Table 1.1 shows the evolution of main and specific research topics
covered by tourism marketing papers published at ATR and TM during the
1995–2006 period. The marketing environment has been the most studied
topic during the analyzed period, followed by marketing functions. Market-
ing research and other specific topics are, by far, the least appealing topics
for tourism marketing researchers. All differences are significant through
time at least for p < 0.05. However, as the relative number of papers focused
on marketing functions grows from 31.3 percent in 1999–2000 period to 50
percent during 2005–06, there seems to be a tendency change linked to the
second main theme investigated, which is detailed below.
Research in tourism marketing 7
60
50
40 R2 = 0.2865
Percentage
30
R2 = 0.6096
20 R2 = 0.4958
10
0
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Figure 1.1 Evolution and trends of tourism marketing papers within ATR and TM
(source: own elaboration, based partially on data from Bigné et al.,
2005).
Note
Data were grouped in two year periods only to assist tables’ building and reading. All trends
were calculated on yearly basis.
Source: Own elaboration, based partially on data from Bigné et al. (2005).
Notes
** All main theme differences are significant at p < 0.01 except Marketing environment and Market functions, which is significant at p < 0.05 level.
Research in tourism marketing 9
ing, followed by marketing strategy (14.4 percent), management and plan-
ning (8.9 percent) and products and services (6.8 percent). Once again,
apparently there are changes in specific topics tendencies that could
explain, at least partially, the changes detected in the main topics. Findings
show that marketing strategy issues are becoming more relevant to tourism
marketing researchers, while products and services-focused papers only
present a moderate increase and consumer/traveler behavior research has
slightly descended. As Table 1.2 shows, destinations (38 percent) and types
of tourism (24.3 percent) have been the preferred tourism subsectors for
marketing researchers, followed by works that are not focused on a spe-
cific subsector (16 percent).
To identify the most common methodologies used by tourism marketing
researchers, we analyzed four variables containing judgments on the
paper’s methodological approach, the data collection techniques employed
in the research, the kind of statistical data analysis and the quantitative
techniques used. Concerning the methodological approaches used in
tourism marketing oriented papers through time, clearly far fewer theoreti-
cal articles have been published than empirically based papers at global
level and per journal. Moreover, there is a global tendency to continue
increasing the relative amount of empirical works (R2 = 0.46) to the detri-
ment of the theoretical ones.
Regarding data collection techniques, the most common ones have been
ad hoc questionnaires, used in 67.6 percent of the papers, followed by sec-
ondary data collection (18.8 percent) and in depth interviews (17.9
percent). The least used types of data collection were creativity and projec-
tive techniques. These findings are consistent with the preeminence of
quantitative over qualitative methods in tourism, as already pointed out by
Walle (1997). Trends show that the use of ad hoc questionnaire based
research is suffering a moderate decrease (R2 = 0.23) in relative terms, in
favor of the use of secondary data (R2 = 0.23) and in depth interviewing
(R2 = 0.25). The most frequently used combination of statistical analyses
has been the one that comprises univariate, bivariate and multivariate data
analysis (27 percent), followed by the use of univariate and bivariate tech-
niques (23.9 percent) and by the use of univariate and multivariate tech-
niques (15 percent).
Finally, we investigated the most used quantitative techniques in data
analysis by analyzing trends in addition to relative frequencies (Table 1.3)
because the quantitative variable is multiple response. All quantitative
techniques have a positive tendency except for the use of Correspondence
Factor Analysis. The most powerful upward trends are the use of struc-
tural equations modeling/path analysis, principal components analysis and
discriminant analysis.
Table 1.2 Relative frequencies of tourism marketing papers published at ATR and TM by subsector
Subsector Period
1995–96 1997–98 1999–2000 2001–02 2003–04 2005–06 1995–2006
(n = 43) (n = 39) (n = 48) (n = 44) (n = 80) (n = 128) (n = 382)
Source: Own elaboration, based partially on data from Bigné et al. (2005).
Notes
** “Destinations” is significant at p < 0.01 when compared with all other subsectors but “Types of tourism.” “Types of tourism” is significantly different
at p < 0.01 when compared with all other subsectors but “Destinations” and “No specific subsector.”
Research in tourism marketing 11
Table 1.3 Relative frequencies and trends of quantitative methods used in tourism
marketing papers
Source: Own elaboration, based partially on data from Bigné et al. (2005).
Notes
* Multiple response variable.
Arrow direction meaning:
↑ positive trend.
↓ negative trend.
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http://www.marketingpower.com/content24159.php.
Baloglu, S. & Assante, L. (1999). A content analysis of subject areas and research
methods used in five hospitality management journals. Journal of Hospitality
and Tourism Research, 23(1), 53–70.
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2 Diversity, devolution and
disorder
The management of tourism
destinations
Alan Fyall, John Fletcher and
Thanasis Spyriadis
Introduction
It is widely acknowledged that ‘the destination lies at the very heart of the
travel and tourism system, representing as it does an amalgam of products
that collectively provide a tourism experience to consumers’ (Fyall, Garrod
and Tosun, 2006, p. 75). The fact that destinations comprise so many
products, stakeholders and complex management and political relation-
ships, contribute to them being regarded as one of the most difficult ‘prod-
ucts’ to manage and market (Buhalis, 2000). To manage best the
complexities and ‘imperfections’ inherent within destinations it is therefore
accepted that destinations need to bring together all parties to collaborate
rather than to compete, and to pool resources towards developing an integ-
rated management and delivery system (Buhalis & Cooper, 1998; Fyall &
Garrod, 2005; Prideaux & Cooper, 2002; Telfer, 2001). Referred to by
King (2002) as the ‘network economy’, destination management organisa-
tions are, in the future, recommended to enter into strategic relationships
with partners who collectively can deliver a seamless visitor experience to
customers. King (2002, p. 108) argues that this will occur due to the fact
that it is the ‘relevance of the experience they offer the customer, rather
than the destination they promote, which will be the key ingredient for
success in the future’.
In view of the calls for a more collaborative approach to the manage-
ment of destinations (Palmer & Bejou, 1995), many destinations in
England are beginning to re-evaluate their modus operandi and begin to
address four quite fundamental questions, namely: what functions should
an effective destination management organisation carry out to provide
maximum short-, medium- and long-term benefit to the destination; what
is a reasonable allocation of resources to each of these functions; what is
the most appropriate form and structure for any new organisation; what
other models exist and what lessons can be learnt from other successful
and failed partnerships? The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to critically
evaluate existing and emerging collaborative destination management
16 A. Fyall et al.
structures in England. Set within the specific context of the devolution of
tourism that currently exists in the country the chapter examines a number
of case studies and identifies a series of lessons to be drawn for the future
management of destinations in England.
Literature review
A number of forces and issues are at play in the wider environment that
are driving change in the management of destinations. These include the
necessity to adhere to the needs, wants and expectations of more mature
and knowledgeable customers; the requirement for more accurate and con-
temporary information upon which to make decisions; the recognition of
intermediary pressures and the imbalance of channel power in destinations;
the exponential growth of discount airlines and ‘surplus’ of destinations in
the marketplace; and the continued and long-standing division between the
public and private sector management (Bennett, 1999). A more recent
study by King (2002, p. 106), while acknowledging many of the above,
commented on the need to focus on the destination ‘experience’ rather
than ‘what the destination has to offer’. King adds that it is now ‘the cus-
tomer who can decide how and when they access their travel and tourism
information and how and through what process they access and purchase
their travel and tourism arrangements’ (p. 106).
As stated previously, tourism and the management of destinations is
increasingly becoming a more complex business and as such greater profes-
sionalism is needed vis-à-vis its management (Ashworth & Goodhall,
1990; Augustyn & Knowles, 2000; Bramwell, 2006; Buhalis, 2000;
Dredge, 2006; Wang & Fesenmaier, 2007). Although many local authori-
ties have a strong history of managing the destination well, for the future a
more dynamic and innovative structure and approach are required that
incorporate the views of all stakeholder groups that will advance destina-
tions in a more holistic manner and facilitate the delivery of a ‘seamless’
visitor experience. Market forces are also such that destinations now need
to be far more proactive in responding to market needs. Visitors have far
more choice and variety of destinations than ever before. Many have
increasing leisure time and more disposable income, are sophisticated and
demonstrate higher expectations.
In addition to the above, visitors are also able to benefit from improved
communications, cheaper travel, cheaper accommodation and the exten-
sive use of the Internet. Increasingly, destinations have to work within the
context of regional airport expansion, and accommodate visitors seeking
experiences and shorter stays. Convenience is key as is the need for desti-
nation distinctiveness. Changing booking trends are also significant in that
patterns of visitor decision making, booking and payment all need to be
reflected in a new approach to the wider management of tourism at the
destination level.
Diversity, devolution and disorder 17
In order to accommodate industry and market changes, therefore, far
more proactive and ‘light-footed’ destination management organisations
are required to keep abreast of developments. It is true that tourism
requires some form of ‘local’ control but alongside this, there is the need
for far greater innovation and creativity. New structures need to be less
adversarial in their approach as there remains a sense of genuine frustra-
tion among industry figures that previous structures have been more exclu-
sive, rather than inclusive, in their orientation with many lacking a suitable
vision for the future with a tendency to rely on ‘more of the same’.
Although the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in spring 2001 in the
UK and the soon thereafter destruction of the Twin Towers in New York
on 9/11 were significant events in shaping the future of tourism in the UK,
in England political devolution and the regionalisation of tourism came to
the fore in 2003 when the mantra of ‘greater leadership by regions in
tourism strategy’ was expanded in that strategic responsibility for regional
tourism was devolved by central government. The principal outcome of
this decision was that the funding, delivery, management and responsibility
for sectoral performance of tourism now resided with England’s nine
Regional Development Agencies (RDAs). The RDAs have now become an
integral element of the delivery of domestic tourism in England and are
today in the process of either developing or implementing their regional
sustainable tourism strategies. It is within this context that the potential
future management of destinations in England is examined.
Working on the assumption that a more collaborative and holistic
approach to the management of destinations in England will involve at
best the same but most probably less resources from local authorities,
many emerging Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) are fore-
cast to be of an ‘arm’s length’ nature in the future. In reality, this means
that many DMOs may operate outside local authority control and repre-
sent public–private sector partnerships that are inclusive of the trade and
stakeholder groups with a mandate to develop the destination in its
entirety. If this is to be the way forward, a number of benefits and draw-
backs are anticipated. The potential benefits of establishing such an
approach is that it often provides a vehicle to share ownership for the man-
agement of tourism in the destination between the local authority, industry
and other stakeholders, continues to facilitate the opportunity to minimise
overheads and can enhance stronger partnership working across adminis-
trative boundaries. Such an approach can also encourage the industry to
engage more fully in the wider development of the destination and be more
responsive to the changing needs of the market, to develop a greater sense
of focus and trade ‘buy-in’ – particularly with regard to marketing – and
be free of local political bias, and offer greater opportunities to engage and
sustain the support of all stakeholders. Finally, such an approach is ulti-
mately expected to reduce duplication of effort and facilitate improvements
in quality.
18 A. Fyall et al.
In contrast, the potential drawbacks of adopting an ‘arm’s length’
approach to the management of destinations include the means by which
such a structure facilitates the ease with which the local authority can
reduce its contribution to the development of the destination and have the
potential to reduce the local authority’s interest – and commitment – to
tourism, makes more difficult the relationships with ‘other’ services and
how they are managed and relationships maintained, and leads potentially
to a gradual dilution of investment in the destination brand. Conflict with
other membership organisations can also occur while such structures can
generate excessive expectations on the part of the private sector and, in the
short term, impact on the stability of the organisation throughout the
initial period of organisational adaptation and learning.
Methodology
In order to critically evaluate existing and emerging collaborative destina-
tion management structures in England, initial insights were gained from a
variety of secondary sources and conference materials. Key secondary
sources used at the outset included work by NWDA (2004), Pike (2004)
and World Tourism Organisation (WTO, 2002, 2004). In addition, a large
number of face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted with des-
tination managers across a number of regional and subregional destina-
tions in England to elicit the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats of the management of their respective destinations.
To identify good practice and those factors deemed critical and desira-
ble to the success of managing destinations in the future, a combination of
face-to-face and telephone interviews and focus groups were conducted
with a large number of managers of destinations across the country in
addition to a selection of RDAs and Regional Tourist Boards. In addition,
a review of a number of recent studies was conducted to identify existing
and future trends of the management of destinations in the international
context. This includes the review of a study conducted for the WTO (2004)
as well as the recent Benchmark Survey of Convention and Visitors
Bureaux around the world (Koutoulas, 2004). The review of international
practice was an important aspect of the projects in that it helped set the
challenges being faced by the two destinations in a more global context.
Above all, it highlighted the continued role played by the public sector gen-
erally, and by local authorities in particular, in the management of tourism
at the destination level irrespective of the management structures in
existence.
Discussion of findings
Here, some brief key findings from an extensive review of contemporary
destination management practice within England are summarised. Before
Diversity, devolution and disorder 19
that, however, it is worth highlighting a number of forces that came to
light from the face-to-face and telephone interviews conducted as part of
the study. Although cost is clearly not the sole driver, funding cuts and the
need to simply maintain existing funding levels is partly driving the need
for change. Pressure on budgets, especially at the local level, is such that
many non-statutory services (such as tourism) are under constant review in
local authorities across the country. It is not unusual for those managing
destinations to manage savings in the region of 10–15 per cent per year for
the next four to five years irrespective of any changes in national govern-
ment. This clearly will have an impact on the private sector in that a
greater proportion of destination funding will have to be found outside the
traditional public purse. And, although some regions have offered tourism
as an industry substantial investment the extent to which this has filtered
down to destinations is somewhat debatable.
Cost aside, it is fair to say that despite the importance of tourism to
local, subregional and regional economies and its rich tourism heritage,
perceptions both from within and outside destinations suggest that a
number of other issues are beginning to challenge the existing status quo
of tourism within the political hierarchy. Advocates of tourism within des-
tinations clearly exist, but a deeper understanding of the complex dynam-
ics of the industry, the forces of change and their impacts, are believed to
be less well understood. This also applies to the clear benefits the industry
delivers, not only to visitors but the substantial resident populations in
many destinations. Whereas local authorities have historically been the
principal vehicles for the routing of funding (especially capital projects) the
devolution of tourism in England is significant in that the regions are now
the principal hubs for the routing of such funding.
With regard to specific destinations, the future of Blackpool as a desti-
nation is closely interlinked to its massive programme of urban regenera-
tion while it sits within a region – the northwest – that is highly structured
and well funded in its approach to the regional development of tourism.
Blackpool is however faced with budget pressures at the local level and is
becoming more and more commercial in its outlook to maintain its com-
petitive position in the marketplace. Specific to this chapter is that Black-
pool’s tourism industry is deemed to have an insufficiently mature
relationship with its tourism department as yet to warrant the adoption of
an ‘arm’s length’ approach to tourism.
Marketing Manchester is frequently lauded as an excellent model for
the management of destinations. It is in fact one of a group of urban
destination marketing organisations that has grown in stature over the
past decade via its innovative attempts at reinvigorating often old indus-
trial areas into chic and fashionable destination products. Although in
stark contrast to the challenges facing traditional ‘resort’ and ‘rural, herit-
age’ destinations, Marketing Manchester represents a considerable ‘integ-
rated’ pan-conurbation DMO that incorporates numerous political and
20 A. Fyall et al.
administrative boundaries. It demonstrates a sound collective vision for the
Greater Manchester area, is strongly commercial in its remit and has been
central to the wider urban regeneration of the area in addition to the mar-
keting of the tourism offer. Marketing Manchester has also been a signific-
ant recipient of regional funding.
The North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) offers its sub-
regional DMOs considerable direction and funding in enabling them to
deliver the subregional tourism product in a more collective and consistent
manner than is evident across most other regions. It recognises that each of
its DMOs are at different stages of development and supports/funds them
accordingly. Clearly, due to its location, the destinations referred to in this
chapter are unable to tap into the good practice demonstrated by NWDA.
For those that can, however, it is significant that the expectation within
NWDA is that local authorities continue to commit funds on a scale com-
mensurate with previous levels of funding.
The South Warwickshire Tourism Company is a very successful public–
private partnership company limited by guarantee, which retains a loyal
membership base of some 400+ organisations. This includes significant
support from two key ‘honeypot’ attractions and the critical support of
two local authorities. Hence, although widely acclaimed as a leading
organisation of its type, local authority membership and funding are
deemed critical to its success.
Torbay Development Agency, with its wider urban regeneration remit,
is able to take a more holistic view of the development of the pan-
conurbation destination. With its inclusion of an external funding strategy
and a clearly articulated long-term plan it demonstrates a clear sense of
vision and strategic direction for the area. However, it also seeks iconic
and branded hotels in the destination and has difficulty in complementing
the ambitions within the destination with the regional agenda.
Tourism South East adopts an approach that does not actively advocate
destination management ‘partnership’ structures as a solution for tourism
delivery and is one in which local authorities are actively encouraged to
develop the destination at the local level. This approach still involves
effective partnership working and the pooling of resources, but concen-
trates effort at the local level where private and public sector stakeholders
can actually deliver an enhanced tourism product. This ‘bottom up’
approach is at odds with the ‘top down’ regional strategy evident in some
other regions. Visit Brighton has the benefit of working within the regional
structures of Tourism South East where a more ‘bottom up’ approach is
advocated. Brighton has considered going ‘arm’s length’ but the current
view is that the trade is not ready to support such a development – this
despite the increasing pressures on the local authority budget. As with
most other like-minded organisations, Brighton is continuing to adopt a
more commercial stance to its activities as well as retaining its strong links
with the local authority.
Diversity, devolution and disorder 21
Finally, York is significant in that it demonstrates the potential for con-
flict between the regional structure on the one hand and attempts to deliver
a quality tourism product at the local level on the other. York has repre-
sented a model of good practice for many years but is now clearly con-
fronted by regional ambitions that have the potential to negate much good
work conducted by First Stop York and the substantial investment given
over the years by the local authority. The regional structure is not yet set
in stone but the potential for conflict is considerable and demonstrates the
tensions in many parts of the country between the regional and local
standpoints.
The extent to which each of the above cases do in fact represent ‘good
practice’ is open to question and will undoubtedly vary depending upon
one’s viewpoint and how ‘good practice’ is defined in the first instance.
For example, each destination has a different geographic and economic
context as each are unique with regard to their political and socio-cultural
contexts. Likewise, each destination is in receipt of slightly different
markets, be they domestic or overseas, leisure or business, while each des-
tination finds itself at different stages of market maturity. The difficulties
in matching like destinations with like could in fact serve to question the
validity of the methodological approach adopted. This does, however,
stretch things a little too far in that each case presented offers some useful
insights for the management of destinations generally and despite the
significant contextual factors at play, does in fact provide a number of
lessons.
What is abundantly clear, however, is the genuine complexity of the
issue at hand, the management of destinations, and the need for far greater
research in this field of a comparative nature. Notwithstanding this, based
on the evidence gathered for this study, the principal lessons to be drawn
for the future management of destinations in a devolved political context
in England are that:
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tion Marketing, 6(1), 48–54.
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3 Success factors of tourism
networks
Eduardo Parra-López and
Francisco Calero-García
Introduction
Changes in the highly competitive international tourism industry take place
at a dizzying pace – products and services are continually evolving and
markets are rapidly globalised – forcing businesses continually to seek
more cost-efficient production that does not sacrifice the quality of the
visitor experience in order to gain a competitive edge. To achieve this,
many tourism enterprises have begun collaborating with each other (Cline,
2000), creating solid business structures that optimise the investment of
their assets. For example, in recent work published on this topic Chathoth
and Olsen (2003) identified numerous strategic alliances in the hospitality
industry, Sigala (2004a) analysed the development and the competitive
advantages of collaborative practices among airlines and Morrison, Lynch
and Johns (2004) identified and discussed collaborative processes and their
benefits in a series of tourism networks.
The importance of networks and their role in the development of sus-
tainable management strategies for tourism destinations has also recently
been studied (see Pechlaner, Abfalter & Raich 2002). Due to the increasing
interdependence between all tourism businesses, it has become clear that
the behaviour and operation of enterprises in this industry should be exam-
ined from the perspective of networks. These networks give their members
access to information, resources, markets and technology. In addition to
being an extremely important business resource, partnerships also offer
sustained competitive advantages. Therefore, it is imperative for businesses
operating in a tourism destination like the Canary Islands, where access to
resources has traditionally been difficult (e.g. information on tourist beha-
viour, control over transportation), to create a network as a way to over-
come the competitive disadvantages associated with its remoteness from
the tourists’ home countries (Oreja-Rodríguez, Parra-López & Yanes,
2007).
With this in mind, the objectives of this chapter are to review the impor-
tance and role of networks in increasing the overall competitiveness
of tourism businesses and destinations and to ascertain the factors that
28 E. Parra-López and F. Calero-García
determine the success of collaborative practices. One of the first steps in
meeting this objective was to analyse the literature in tourism in order to
gain a clearer vision of what factors influence the success of tourism busi-
nesses in the Canary Islands. After completing this preliminary analysis, a
previously developed framework was then applied to the context of the
tourism industry in the Canaries in order to evaluate the readiness of
tourism businesses in this region to develop collaborative networks.
Literature review
The “networks” have been studied in various fields of economic research
(e.g. industrial economics, organisation analysis, negotiation theory,
resource dependency, social networks, industrial marketing, entrepreneur-
ship, economic policy and law, operations and value chain research), but
relatively little has been published in the field of tourism (Augustyn &
Knowles, 2000; Morrison et al., 2004; Pechlaner et al., 2002). As a con-
sequence, there is little academic and practical understanding of these net-
works, the factors that determine their success or what they entail for
tourism management. In one of the few works available in this area, Mor-
rison et al. (2004) analysed a number of international tourism networks
and identified a series of factors that were critical to their success. They
concluded that trust was the most important factor because it promotes
and supports the basic, underlying process of a network. Chathorth and
Olsen (2003) also stressed that trust and cooperation are essential to man-
aging a business successfully and maintaining partnerships with other busi-
nesses over long periods of time. These authors also pointed out the need
for more research in this area.
A network is a system of two or more exchange relationships between
organisations that are conceptualised as collective actors (Emerson, 1981).
In other words, a network is a system of connected actors performing dif-
ferent activities while interacting with each other. A network consists of
“nodes” or positions (occupied by diverse actors such as businesses, stra-
tegic business units of diversified firms, trade associations, academics,
public associations and other types of organisations) that manifest their
interest to interact with each other (Thorelli, 1986). These relationships
are not discrete transactions but rather continuous processes (Halinen &
Tornroos, 1995) characterised by three key aspects: (a) the willingness of
the members of the network to invest time and resources into the relation-
ships; (b) partner asymmetries based on the contributions made by each
member and, finally, (c) the belief that collective negotiating will reduce
costs. Therefore, a network can be conceptualised in terms of activities,
resources and actors.
In a research study, Morrison et al. (2004) identified financial, human
and physical resources as factors critical to the success of a network. These
authors also discovered five types of mechanisms that could be used to
Success factors of tourism networks 29
finance a network: (1) public funds and industry sponsorship, (2) public
funds and through its members, (3) public funds, (4) members and spon-
sorship funding, (5) membership and sponsorship and voluntary contribu-
tions in kind.
When working within a network the various actors in the supply chain
can potentially collaborate on any activity, thereby increasing the overall
competitiveness of their operations (Pechlaner et al., 2002; Sigala, 2004a).
For example, the members of a tourism network can collaborate on devel-
oping and designing the tourism product, analysing and managing demand,
developing and managing shared resources, co-producing tourism products
(especially packages of products and services), promoting the network to
other actors operating in the destination, managing tourist services and
positioning and branding the destination. Such cooperation can even
support the development of sustainable and competitive tourism strategies.
In their analysis, Morrison et al. (2004) concluded that the core function
of a network is to allow its members continuously to gain and share know-
ledge, which in turn allows them to develop other activities based on
greater insight, shared information, improved distribution, coordinated
resources, innovation and a better market position. The rationale and
philosophy of the network are “to achieve a community of sustainable
development of the tourism destination with private and public sectors
working in harmony to a commonly accepted function”.
Because it is necessary to have access to knowledge in order to formu-
late timely strategies and actively respond to and influence a dynamic, con-
stantly shifting situation, the success of any organisation competing within
today’s network and knowledge economy depends on its ability to create
and transfer knowledge (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). Knowledge manage-
ment involves capturing, storing, sharing and using the knowledge that is
created within an organisation and also knowledge acquired from external
sources. Therefore, because tourism businesses (producers) can learn a
great deal from their partners (intermediaries) it is imperative that they
create knowledge networks that help them identify the value of new
information, assimilate it and then jointly apply it to collaborative
practices.
In particular, small tourism businesses are unable to generate all of the
information they need, or process and interpret all of the information they
gather. In other words, a small business responsible for a limited area
within a destination is incapable of predicting trends or understanding
their implications because they have limited information (Pechlaner &
Tschurtschenthaler, 2002); as a consequence, tourism businesses run the
risk of falling behind the latest developments, providing less innovative
products or simply misinterpreting the current situation (Pechlaner et al.,
2002). In order to mitigate these risks all forms of cooperation between
tourism businesses within a destination and also between businesses oper-
ating in different destinations must be analysed, planned and developed
30 E. Parra-López and F. Calero-García
(Augustyn & Knowles, 2000). In addition, tourism networks could export
the knowledge they generate to companies in other industries, while simul-
taneously importing knowledge from them. The exchange of diversified,
complementary knowledge from other fields, regardless of their geographic
location, is crucial now that the preferences, expectations and experiences
of tourists have been globalised (e.g. building customer loyalty depends on
different yield management strategies, including customised, collabora-
tively designed products in which visitors, intermediaries and tourism pro-
ducers all participate); this is a key cross-industry trend that affects all
subsectors and promotes universal preferences in tourism. In this sense,
tourism businesses can learn a great deal by identifying and adopting the
best practices of other industries.
Lynch, Halcro, Johns and Buick (2000) summarised the benefits of
establishing a tourism network in three major categories (see Table 3.1);
(a) learning and exchange, (b) business activity and (c) community. More-
over, according to Skyrme (1999) a knowledge network can also provide
the following benefits:
Methodology
The first objective of this study was to review and analyse the role and
importance of tourism networks in improving the competitiveness of tourism
businesses and destinations and also to identify the factors that determine
the success of tourism networks such as common objectives and purpose,
trust, resource and organisational commitment, information sharing and
communication, following Sigala (2004b). The next objective was to evalu-
ate the overall readiness of tourism businesses located in the Canary Islands
to engage in collaborative practices and develop knowledge networks.
The first step was to design a questionnaire with the assistance of students
from the third and fourth edition of the University of La Laguna’s Master in
Tourism Business Administration. The questionnaire was developed based
on in-depth interviews with managers of tourism businesses and organisa-
tions in the Canaries dealing with the previously discussed success factors of
tourism networks. The first scale included in the questionnaire focused on
the collaborative activities and purpose of networks; responses were meas-
ured using a 1–5 Likert scale, where 1 was “unimportant” and 5 was “very
important”. The second scale centred on the willingness of tourism busi-
nesses to share information, communicate with each other, commit to a rela-
tionship and trust partners (factors that have been discussed in the
theoretical review), again using a Likert scale where 1 was “strongly disa-
gree” and 5 was “strongly agree”. Finally, the respondents were asked to
give information regarding the characteristics of their organisations.
The questionnaire was sent by e-mail and followed up by telephone
from March–June in 2005 and 2006. A total of 182 tourism businesses
responded, of which 92 questionnaires were rejected because they lacked
sufficient data, a response rate of 49.45 per cent (± 5 per cent margin
of error). The response rate was very high compared to other studies
34 E. Parra-López and F. Calero-García
conducted in the Canaries (Spain) on this topic (Parra-López, 2002; Parra-
López & Baum, 2004), which received somewhat lower response rates.
The data were analysed using version 14 of the SPSS statistics programme.
Analysing the opinions of respondents makes it quite easy to determine the
general predisposition of tourism businesses in the Canary Islands (Spain)
to establish networks and to identify the local conditions and factors that
could inhibit the development of a tourism network. Although this study
was designed to capture preliminary data for a much more extensive quali-
tative and quantitative study in the future, the findings can also be useful
to tourism businesses and intermediaries (tour operators and travel agen-
cies). These preliminary results will be analysed and discussed next.
Discussion of findings
The data regarding organisational profiles reveal that the respondents rep-
resent a wide range of tourism businesses in terms of activity, size and
ownership. The respondents were asked to provide their opinions regard-
ing the importance of taking part in a tourism network (using a 5-point
Likert scale, where 1 was “unimportant” and 5 was “very important”) for
a wide range of activities (see Table 3.2). Although, in general, the data
Collaborative activities 1 2 3 4 5
Source: Adapted to the case of the Canary Islands (Spain) from Sigala (2004b) and the
authors. The dependency and validity of the scales used, which have already been tested in
other studies (Sigala, 2004b and Morrison et al., 2004), were demonstrated by calculating
Cronbach’s alpha, with all values resulting greater than 0.60.
Notes
1 = unimportant, 5 = very important.
Success factors of tourism networks 35
reveal that respondents recognise the importance of engaging in collabora-
tive practices, the lack of importance given to some activities reflects a
selfish attitude and a lack of strategic vision in terms of establishing such
practices.
In contrast, a high percentage of respondents (72 per cent) placed great
importance on developing collaborative resources and practices in a
network. However, these respondents highlighted the fact that although
there is a need to develop the abilities and capabilities of local tourism
businesses, this is impossible due to lack of funds for training programmes
directed at new activities that would make the tourism industry more
competitive.
The realisation of collaborative strategies was not considered very
important despite the fact that they provide various benefits including
reduced prices, economies of scale and greater leverage in negotiations
with suppliers and intermediaries. This may be due to the fact that the
majority of the respondents have built and maintain long-term relation-
ships with local suppliers who help them develop strategies and their busi-
ness culture compels them to respect those relationships.
The respondent’s lack of strategic vision and tendency to think in the
short term is even more evident when examining the importance they
placed on the rest of the activities. In particular, a large percentage of
respondents placed a great deal of importance on the development of col-
laborative practices in marketing, promotion and forecasting demand, but
the co-development of tourism products was practically given no impor-
tance whatsoever. The need integrally to market tourism destinations is a
major concern within the tourism industry (Parra-López, 2002), which
may explain why the respondents placed so much importance on this
aspect. However, individual promotion cannot guarantee continuous, long-
term tourist flows or the development of sustainable tourism for the desti-
nation. On the other hand, the development of innovative tourism products
and unique tourism experiences can improve the long-term competitiveness
and attractiveness of a destination. In order to achieve this – and break
away from mass tourism products – businesses need to collaborate,
exchange and create knowledge based on their experiences and best prac-
tices. However, this was only considered moderately important by the
respondents.
These results can partially be explained by the lack of initiative to
exchange knowledge (see Table 3.3). Table 3.3 provides data on the
respondents’ perceptions and willingness regarding the factors required to
develop and maintain a collaborative network. The respondents gave little
importance to sharing information or communicating with other local tour
operators, or to trust and commitment (mean values are concentrated
around the average value for all items). In other words, the data reveal that
there are limited opportunities to share information and communicate with
other tourism businesses in the Canaries (Spain). This might be caused by
Table 3.3 Respondents’ readiness to take part in a tourism network
α Sig. SD
Source: Adapted to the case of the Canary Islands (Spain) from Sigala (2004b) and original
work of the authors based on the results of field work.
Notes
1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree.
Success factors of tourism networks 37
factors such as limited time, work pressure during different seasons, lack
of trust and openness between partners in a potential relationship and,
finally, simply being unaware that a network needs to be developed.
However, it should be emphasised that a larger qualitative study must be
carried out in order to understand the true reasons behind this attitude.
Introduction
European snow tourism, after a long development stage (Cockerell, 1994;
Spring, 1998), is subject to increasing competition. It is indeed, a market
characterised by low growth rates (Fredman & Heberlein, 2003) and it has
been faced with continuing expansion of supply driven both by the creation
of new destinations and by the growth in available resources at those already
in existence (Flagestad & Hope, 2001; Gaido, 1998; Hudson, 2000). In this
context many destination operators (businesses, associations, destination
management organisations (DMOs)) are undecided as to the strategy to be
adopted to maintain or increase their own market share and above all, as to
how to create a sustainable competitive advantage (Porter, 1985).
The issue is of great importance because the already delicate economic–
financial equilibrium of the ski corporations is being further eroded by the
new rules of the game. Indeed there are many causes that have contributed
to a significant increase in operational costs and investments – reduction in
snowfall (Agnew & Viner, 2001; Perry, 2000; Wall, 1992) and the conse-
quent development of planned snow making (Scott, McBoyle & Mills,
2003), the increased investment costs for modern transport, the growing
staff and energy costs and the increased cost of maintaining ski run safety
and environmental integrity (Hudson & Miller, 2005) including to mini-
mise the risks of avalanches (Peters & Pikkemaat, 2005). At the same time
there is also reduced room for manoeuvre in terms of real prices, the two
factors combining to reduce the profitability of invested capital.
Other contributors to the debate have emphasised how these challenges
are difficult to meet, with some exceptions, by recourse to business com-
petition strategies alone, rather requiring an appropriate strategy at the
destination level (Ritchie & Crouch, 2000; Ritchie & Ritchie, 1999). Such
a strategy requires the combined efforts of public and private players, with
the role of the DMOs having particular importance (Blain, Levy & Ritchie,
2005; Bieger, 1997; Dredge, 2006).
Nonetheless, the formulation and implementation of a deliberate desti-
nation strategy (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985) appears to be difficult to
Strategic positioning and performance 41
achieve, above all in view of the complex and multisector form taken
not only by local skiing facilities and services but above all, by the hospi-
tality facilities. This is typical of a community model that is often charac-
terised by a degree of friction between the different local players (Sainaghi,
2003; Sheehan & Ritchie, 2005), particularly between ski corporations,
the tourist hospitality businesses and local councils (responsible for the
planning use of the land). These conflicts and the inevitable divisions
arising from them in many cases prevent concentration on a destination
strategy with action plans based more on short-term policies and tactics,
unable to create or consolidate the foundations of a competitive
advantage.
This takes this debate forward and, starting from empirical evidence, is
concentrated on the links existing between a winter destination’s competit-
ive position and the performance of the ski corporations and the tourist
hospitality firms. This approach demonstrates clearly that the lack of a
destination strategy in providing dynamic regulation (i) of the structural
balances between ski-lift capacity and the availability of high turnover hos-
pitality facilities and (ii) of the destination commercial mix, with particular
attention to the division between flows originating from daily and multi-
day ski passes, tends to give rise to a positioning characterised by low-level
and not sustainable performance that is also hard to sustain.
Literature review
The literature has, over time, defined the concept of “destination” as both
a system of attractions and the geographic area that encompasses them,
identified on the basis of the range of needs of intermediate or final cus-
tomers (Leiper, 1995). In the European context winter destinations operate
principally in the Alpine region, serving a target customer group interested
in sport, skiing being of particular importance. For this reason Bieger
(1997) refers specifically to “winter sports destination” (italics added).
The Alpine destinations display the characteristics typical of the com-
munity model (Bodega, Cioccarelli & Denicolai, 2004). It is a model with
a fragmented supply side, centred on independent SMEs “operating in a
decentralised way and where no unit has any dominant administrative
power or dominant ownership within the destination” (Flagestad & Hope,
2001, p. 452). This fragmentation is reflected in the structural complexity
of the strategic positioning sought by local businesses and by potentially
conflicting views of the course the destination should take in its future
development (Buhalis, 2000; Williams, Gill & Chura, 2004). On the other
hand one often finds a sense of shared values at these destinations, an
indispensable point of departure for any dialogue between operators. Pre-
cisely such characteristics have led a number of authors to describe “com-
munity based” destinations as “tourist districts” (Dredge, 1999; Sainaghi,
2004, 2006).
42 R. Sainaghi
Of the many types of businesses operating within a winter destination,
this chapter is concentrated on ski corporations and tourist accommoda-
tion businesses. This choice is linked, on the one hand, to the central
importance of ski services in the choices made by winter customers and, on
the other, by the importance that the hospitality sector has in attracting the
end customer. Indeed, anticipating some of the empirical evidence to be
presented in more complete form later in the chapter, the most interesting
customer demand for Alpine destinations is represented by skiers staying a
number of nights as opposed to day trippers – hence the concentration on
the dual elements accommodation–ski corporation. The accommodation
structures are primarily responsible for shaping the destination’s commer-
cial mix rather than the businesses operating the ski plant.
The other local businesses, the so-called “local tourism organisations”
(LTOs) are restaurants, entertainment, transport and banking services,
public services and so on. While playing an important role in the comple-
tion of the global product required by the end customer and hence in
laying down the conditions for the consolidation of loyalty and word-of-
mouth circuits (Molteni & Sainaghi, 1997), they rarely offer services that
can be described as core.
Concentration on ski corporations and the tourist accommodation
sector highlights an imbalance in the cost structure towards fixed costs
(staff, energy and amortisation) combined with a high level of invested
capital. These conditions make the management of the operating leverage
particularly important, given that marginal cost is almost negligible (above
all in the case of ski corporations).
The dynamic management of two pivotal elements is thus important for
the destination: (i) the management of the commercial mix in order to opti-
mise sales volumes and (ii) the infrastructural balance between high turno-
ver guest beds and the hourly capacity of functional plant given the high
degree of interdependence between the two sectors.
With reference to the mix selection aimed at by the destination (whether
deliberately or emergent), while accepting a degree of polarisation and sim-
plification of the data, what appears of particular importance is the destina-
tion’s positioning with regard to customer segments represented by day
trippers and tourists (Hunt & Layne, 1991). This means that focusing on
short-term custom will tend to optimise volumes during holidays (typically
weekends, Christmas, Carnival and Easter) while also laying the foundations
for reduced levels of operation in the destination during weekdays. Further-
more, these flows tend to fluctuate widely depending on climatic conditions,
with sharp falls in numbers during bad weather. On the contrary, concentra-
tion on longer stay custom (ideally weekly) reduces the variation in flows
between weekdays and holidays. Furthermore, the greater complexity of the
needs of the long-stay customer has important knock-on effects for the other
businesses operating in the destination (LTOs). This customer segment is less
sensitive to deteriorating weather conditions because of the increased length
Strategic positioning and performance 43
of stay and tends to be prepared to accept the risk of bad weather. A person
buying a multi-day ski pass tends to be prepared to pay for the service even
on those days when he or she is not actually able to ski.
With reference to the structural balances internal to the destination, the
ratio between the ski plant’s hourly capacity and the availability of high-
turnover bed spaces is of central importance. It is obvious that where the
ratio is too high with respect to hourly capacity, the insufficient accommo-
dation means that short-stay customers are sought to fill the capacity and
when the ratio is too low, the destination risks offering reduced skiing
capacity with long queues at the ski lifts or too many people on the runs.
Methodology
The aim of the empirical research has been to confirm the following
hypotheses: clear positioning on longer-stay customers makes it more likely
that the conduct of ski corporations and hotel businesses will compliment
each other, improves the competitive performance of the ski corporations
and improves the competitive performance of tourist hospitality businesses.
The multiple case study methodology (Yin, 1984; Eisenhardt, 1989) has
been adopted as a means of testing these hypotheses, with the use of a
combination of qualitative and quantitative data although giving greater
weight to the quantitative sources. The sample is made up of nine ski
resorts forming part of the Valtellina, an Italian Alpine region specialising
in mountain tourism, winter tourism in particular. The Skiing World
Championships were held there in 1985 and 2005 as well as a number of
races in the World Cup and the Ski World Final (March 2008).
The importance of the cases is essentially to be put in relation to the dif-
ferences of the resorts in the following characteristics: (i) the size of the
resort (see Table 4.1), (ii) the winter customer target group served, (iii)
their respective distances from their demand catchment areas and (iv) their
mix of available accommodation. All the destinations have a high degree
of community participation in tourism planning and management.
The geographic positioning reflects a better proximity to the catchment
area for Madesimo, Gerola, Valmalenco, Teglio and Aprica, easily reacha-
ble in particular for clients coming from Milan. The other locations are
farther, either in terms of kilometres or, primarily, in terms of time. The
geographic positioning has got some implications on the mix per national-
ity: locations closest to Milan tend to present a stronger weight of Italians,
while the ones that are farthest are opened to international custom, with
the partial exception of Valmalenco. Furthermore, destinations closest to
Milan present a bigger frequency of daily passes (more than 55 per cent).
A variety of sources of information were used in the case study research
especially participant observation and quantitative data in particular.
A three-year database was set up for each ski corporation containing the
following data: (i) turnover, (ii) first entries (first use of ski passes) and
Table 4.1 Sample description, commercial mix and strategic positioning
2004/05 Teglio Gerola Chiesa V. Valdidentro Madesimo* Bormio** Aprica Livigno Valfurva Valtellina
Hotels
Number of hotels 6 4 33 19 31 63 22 105 31 277
Hotel beds 370 130 1,466 1,072 1,712 3,628 1,223 5,011 1,883 14,242
Significance of holiday Low Low High High High High High Low High –
homes
Ski corporations
Number of tickets 1,713 18,317 117,251 15,555 – 123,486 101,233 233,849 42,628 609,691
Passages 20,654 – 1,460,697 715,850 – 3,044,238 2,659,264 12,112,527 42,628 19,992,576
First entries 1,713 20,870 171,465 64,539 – 315,753 195,655 922,290 108,687 1,690,572
2004/05 Teglio Gerola Chiesa V. Valdidentro Madesimo*†† Bormio**† Aprica Livigno Valfurva
Hotel overnights
Italians 83% 59% 49% 50% 59% 56% 74% 38% 59%
Foreigners 17% 41% 51% 50% 31% 44% 26% 62% 41%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Iki demand (first entries)
Day tickets 100% 67% 57% 32% 60% 23% 34% 11% 6%
Multi-day tickets 0% 10% 24% 33% 25% 47% 51% 82% 71%
Season tickets 0% 22% 19% 35% 15% 30% 15% 7% 23%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Individual 100% 100% 71% 81% 70% 73% 66% 73% 68%
Agency and TO 0% 0% 29% 19% 30% 27% 34% 27% 32%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Notes
*Madesimo and Campodolcino.
** Bormio and Valdisotto.
† Excluding first entries on 2004/05 21-day ski passes given free of charge to World Cup volunteers.
†† Figures estimated based on direct interviews with ski corporation management.
Strategic positioning and performance 45
(iii) passages (total ski-pass use) broken down by type of ski pass sold, by
type of sales channel and by type of customer.
Discussion of findings
The results of the analysis undertaken demonstrate the differences between
the strategic positioning of the sample considered and the influence this has
on the performance of the local businesses and on the relations established
between ski corporations and the hospitality businesses. It was then imme-
diately obvious that it would be of assistance to draw up a map showing
strategic segmentation as a means of classifying the winter destinations
involved and to assist interpretation in the analysis of the different indic-
ators proposed (see below). The importance of the positioning decisions
made by the destinations were then analysed in relation to their effect on:
(i) the correlation between ski corporation and hotel flows, (ii) on the com-
petitive results of ski corporations and (iii) the performance of accommo-
dation businesses.
Livigno (19
million; 82%)
�3 million
Correlations
<2 days 0.41*** 0.43*** 0.78 0.56*** 0.72 0.69
Season tickets –0.51*** 0.71 0.75 –0.90*** 0.84 0.90
2 days 0.72 0.90 0.91 0.99 0.97 0.86
First entry mix
<2 days 66% 34% 24% 34% 12% 7%
Season tickets 25% 45% 28% 15% 7% 26%
2 days 9% 31% 48% 51% 81% 68%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Gerola Valdidentro Bormio Aprica Livigno Valfurva
(2003–05) (2002–05) (2002–05) (2004–05) (2002–05) (2002–05)
Correlations
2 days Individuals 0.75 0.72 0.93 0.63*** 0.94 0.90
days Agencies – 0.90 0.63 0.98 0.96 0.63
First entry mix
2 days Individuals 100% 50% 69% 37% 68% 59%
2 days Agencies 0% 50% 31% 63% 32% 41%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Teglio Gerola Chiesa V. Valdidentro Bormio Aprica Livigno Valfurva
(2003–05) (2003–05) (2003–05)† (2002–05) (2002–05) (2004–05)† (2002–05) (2002–05)
Christmas influence
Christmas* 55% 18% 18% 26% 19% 19% 11% 15%
Other periods 45% 82% 82% 74% 81% 81% 89% 85%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Weekend influence
WE** 82% 63% 52% 47% 38% 36% 26% 35%
Midweek** 18% 37% 48% 53% 62% 64% 74% 65%
Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Seasonality month
Monthly average (/000) 1 4 334 19 66 481 190 22
Monthly variance (/000) 1 2 175 8 24 286 67 67
Variance/average 0.90 0.61 0.53 0.44 0.36 0.60 0.35 0.36
Seasonality day
Daily average (/000) 37 147 11,793 771 2,118 15,184 6,089 790
Daily variation (/000) 75 190 10,651 597 1,097 12,097 3,290 420
Variance/average 2.03 1.29 0.90 0.77 0.52 0.80 0.54 0.53
Notes
* Christmas: always from 25/12 to 06/01.
** Excluding Christmas period.
*** Pairwise Correlations p > 0.05.
† Figures relate to passage rather than first entry
50 R. Sainaghi
Finally in Livigno, there does not seem on average to be much difference
in the acceptance rates of individual and organised tourism. The correla-
tion indices are very high in both cases (0.94 and 0.96). This means that
the customer mix served by the hotels is in line with that served by the
plant – 68 per cent individual customers and 32 per cent organised
customers.
The figures explained above clearly suggest both in detail and taken as a
whole, that it is above all the strategic positioning sought by the destina-
tion (deliberate or emergent) that creates a high degree of synergy or, on
the contrary, leads to a degree of dislocation, between the accommodation
sector and ski corporations. In this positioning the segmentation of flows
according to length of stay remains of primary importance even if not the
only factor. This then confirms the first hypothesis.
Average 2002/05
Teglio
Gerola
Chiesa V.
Valdidentr
Media Q3
Madesimo*
Bormio**
Av. Q4
Aprica
Livigno
Av. Q1
Valfurva
Av. Q2
Valtellina
Size
Arrivals 1,410 647 15,653 13,681 7,848 24,709 47,362 36,036 16,811 81,933 49,372 21,822 21,622 246,089
Length of stays 1.9 3.3 4.1 3.8 3.9 4.2 4.4 4.4 4.5 5.7 5.5 5.2 5.2 4.7
Overnight stays 2,635 2,153 64,804 52,502 30,523 104,157 210,138 157,148 75,963 271,198 112,952 112,952 1,166,454
Hotel beds 376 130 1,533 978 754 1,655 3,756 2,706 1,227 4,938 3,082 1,916 12,916 18,052
Occupancy
Occupancy (151 days) (%) 4.6 11.0 28.0 35.5 26.8 41.7 37.1 38.5 40.7 62.6 58.3 39.0 39.0 43.8
Hotels – ski corporations
1st entries 2 days 0 2,133 41,336 21,020 16,122 n.a. 156,708 156,708 100,007 756,179 428,093 75,496 75,496 1,152,879
2005 (A)
Hotel beds 2005 (B) 370 130 1,458 1,072 758 1,712 3,649 2,680 1,230 5,025 3,128 1,894 1,894 18,084
Ratio (A/B) – 16.4 28.4 19.6 21.3 n.a. 43.0 58.5 81.3 150.5 136.9 39.9 39.9 63.8
Notes
* Madesimo and Campodolcino.
** Bormio and Valdisotto.
52 R. Sainaghi
drawn in relation to: (i) the size of the sector (number of bed spaces and
flow size), ii) the extent of use of productive capacity (occupancy) and (iii)
the ratio between first entries and bed spaces.
Dealing first with size, the smallest resorts in terms of hotel bed spaces
are those in square three with average unit size of 754 beds. As one would
expect, this is followed by the second square (1,916 beds). These resorts
are those concentrating on longer-stay customers but with a limited range
of skiing facilities. The fourth square has an average size of 2,706 beds. It
is interesting to note that the decidedly greater length of ski lifts available
to resorts in square four in comparison to square two is not reflected in the
increased number of hotel beds. This asymmetry can be explained by the
prevalent positioning on shorter-stay customers. Finally, the first square
has the highest average number with 3,082 beds.
Two conclusions can thus be drawn with reference to size: (i) those
resorts that have more extensive skiing facilities (squares four and one)
have a larger number of hotel beds available and (ii) those resorts with a
customer mix weighted most heavily towards longer-stay customers
(squares one and two) have greater hotel facilities. This means that when
the skiing facilities in different destinations are the same, greater benefits
can be obtained from them by the hotel sector when concentration is
focused on longer-stay customers. This provides further confirmation of
the first hypothesis.
Occupancy levels too show behaviour in line with what has already
been observed with regard to beds. The lowest rates are those of the third
square (26.8 per cent). This is followed by the resorts in the fourth square
(38.5 per cent), the second (33.8 per cent) and the first (58.3 per cent).
The third indicator clearly shows the strategic link between three
factors: plant extension, hotel beds and the resort’s positioning on longer-
stay customers. The ratio between multi-day first entries and bed numbers
provides a summary measure of these three factors. Resorts in the third
square have low levels (21.3 first entries for each hotel bed). The values are
higher in the second square (39.9) and again in the fourth (58.5), with the
highest figures achieved in the first square (136.9).
It can thus be concluded that decisions made with reference to commer-
cial positioning (customer mix) at a destination level, also have an objec-
tive impact on the size of the accommodation sector and its occupancy
rate. This thus confirms the third hypothesis.
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Part II
Destination branding
5 A movie map conversion study
A case study of Pride & Prejudice
Stephen Pratt
Introduction
Tourism marketing is one of the most influential means of maintaining and
increasing the number of visitors and stays in a destination. Hence, the
evaluation of the success of a tourism marketing campaign is vital not only
for the destination, since it involves important economic benefits, but also
for the organisations funding these campaigns. Greater knowledge about
the effectiveness of different types of marketing could help government
organisations and businesses in the region to tailor their products to
achieve greater benefits from marketing expenditures. Expenditure on mar-
keting by Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) has been subject
to debate and the question of effectiveness has often been raised. Until
recently, DMOs have not attempted to answer the question with any
rigour of whether their marketing works. However, the more forward-
looking organisations are now starting to tackle this question by employ-
ing quantitative methods and analytical techniques.
This chapter outlines how a regional tourism agency evaluated a film-
inspired tourism marketing campaign. A marketing campaign was devised
to coincide with the release of the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice, a
film based on the Jane Austen novel. The key component of the marketing
campaign was the production of a movie map showing potential visitors
the locations of scenes depicted in the film. Visitor research was under-
taken to evaluate the success of the marketing campaign, with particular
emphasis on the movie map, in converting potential visitors (those request-
ing a movie map) to travel to the destination. The main focus of the
research was to determine the “conversion rate” of people requesting a
movie map. The incremental spend to the region and subsequent return on
investment of the marketing campaign was quantified. The study provides
insight into the usefulness of the creation of a movie map in driving vis-
itors to locations used in the film.
60 S. Pratt
Literature review
Film-induced tourism can be referred to as an experience that is very much
personalised and distinctive to each individual based on their own under-
standing and use of media images (Macionis, 2005). Past research has
focussed on the behavioural characteristics of the film-induced tourist. This
approach is usually set within Urry’s (1990) structure of the tourist ‘gaze’,
in terms of a film creating a ‘gaze’ for a person to view. In this context,
tourists may be induced to holiday at the destination they have seen at the
cinema, DVD or television. Riley, Baker and van Doren (1998) state that
when tourists seek the destinations they have viewed on screen, they
become film-induced tourists.
Film and television help shape consumer perceptions of destinations. In
contrast to traditional advertising, destinations depicted in movies and
television series allow the potential tourist to develop more complete desti-
nation images through vicarious consumption. Films can display attributes
and unique characteristics of destinations within a film script. Media rep-
resentations of a destination have a strong influence in how destinations
are perceived (Frost, 2006; Mercille, 2005; Sargent, 1998; Winter, 2002).
Big screen film presentations can give a destination something most
tourism promotion organisations basically could not pay for nor be able to
produce (Bolan & Davidson, 2005).
Interest in film-induced tourism is increasing in popular culture and
tourism literature. This research spans a significant breadth of media –
movies, television (both on- and off-location), film-related theme parks,
studio tours and film festivals (see Beeton, 2005; Kim, Borges & Chon,
2006). Most studies are aware of both the positive and negative impacts
associated with film-induced tourism. A significant amount of research has
been undertaken highlighting the power of movies and television series in
driving increased visitation to destinations. Early examples of films driving
visitation are documented by Riley and van Doren (1992), citing Deliver-
ance, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Field of Dreams. Tooke and
Baker (1996) come to the same conclusion using four UK case studies,
namely the TV series, To the Manor Born, Heartbreak, Middlemarch and
By the Sword Divided.
Riley et al. (1998) compile visitation data for 12 different movie loca-
tions, all in the United States. Examining attendance figures for these 12
tourism film locations for ten years before the film release and five years
after, the aggregated impact of movies was estimated to result in a 54 per
cent increase in visitor numbers to these locations. Bolan, Crossan and
O’Connor (2006), via a survey of residents’ perceptions, detail significant
incremental revenue, tourist visits and economic developments as a result
of the 1970 film Ryan’s Daughter set in Dingle, Ireland and Avoca,
Ireland, the location of the popular BBC television series Ballykissangel.
From a tourism business operators’ perspective, Connell (2005) identifies
A case study of Pride & Prejudice 61
the nature and scope of the impact of television-induced tourism on Mull,
Scotland where the BBC children’s television series Balamory was filmed.
Hudson and Ritchie (2006) outline a model for exploiting film tourism
marketing opportunities in which they highlight four types of marketing
activities that destinations can engage in to promote film tourism, catego-
rised chronologically as marketing activities before, during and after the
release of the film. Marketing activities before the release of the film
include the destination’s effort to encourage producers and studios to film
at the destination. While during the film, marketing efforts follow the more
traditional route to generate media publicity around the film and its loca-
tion. Further, destinations can then sustain interest in the location where
they promote the film location after production and, last, marketers can
design peripheral marketing activities that leverage film tourism potential.
As highlighted by Hudson and Ritchie, DMOs can leverage the expo-
sure in film to drive visitation to the destination. VisitBritain’s Movie Map,
being perhaps the most successful long-running campaign (Urry, 1990) fea-
tures some 200 film and television locations around the UK that tourists
could visit. Recently, a new series of movie maps have been created in con-
nection with the film, King Arthur (2004) and newer additions have
included trails in connection with the hugely successful British film Bridget
Jones – The Edge of Reason (2001) and Closer (2004) (Bolan & Davidson,
2005). VisitScotland has also been very supportive of the film tourism
concept (predominantly since the 1995 film Braveheart) (Beeton, 2005),
whereas Wicklow County Tourism, Ireland has not been as encouraging
due to its financial limitations (O’Connor & Flanagan, 2000).
While a significant amount of research has been undertaken into general
tourism advertising effectiveness using conversion or advertising tracking
studies, little research has been published measuring the incremental
expenditure generated by a film-induced tourism marketing campaign. This
research goes some way to counter the assertion, as pointed out by Busby
and Klug (2001) and Riley et al. (1998), that there is a tendency to be
vague in estimating the impact of films on tourism. Heeding the call by
Riley et al. (1998) to document the economic impact of one movie on a
location or community, this piece of research evaluates a film-themed des-
tination marketing campaign and its return on investment using a conver-
sion study methodology.
Methodology
To evaluate a marketing campaign, several types of quantitative methods
may be implemented. Advertising tracking studies and conversion studies
are two methodologies used extensively by state and regional destination
marketing organisations (Silberman & Klock, 1986; Woodside, 1990).
Advertising tracking models measure changes in the levels of a destina-
tion’s awareness and its image in target markets (McWilliams & Cromp-
ton, 1997). The effectiveness of the advertising is not limited by visiting a
destination or not but includes a range of psychological and cognitive
dimensions that can impact awareness and intention to visit well into the
future.
Conversion studies have been used extensively in measuring destination
marketing effectiveness. Various US state tourism departments, such as
Vermont, Virginia and Montana, have conducted conversion studies for
years (for example see Kuentzel, 1993a, 1993b; TravelMontana, 1998;
VTC, 2001). These types of studies focus on the revenue and costs gener-
ated by different media or target markets. More recently, Tierney (2000)
and McLemore and Mitchell (2001) have undertaken tourism website con-
version studies for the states of California and Arkansas respectively. This
medium has been used more prominently in the marketing of tourist
destinations.
McWilliams and Crompton (1997) differentiate advertising tracking
studies from conversion studies by the latter’s request for information as a
necessary condition for conversion behaviour rather than optional
condition:
Messmer and Johnson (1993) undertake research that compares the two
types of studies.
For any destination the key question remains: how do you know if your
marketing works? A conversion study can be implemented to help answer
this question. It is the most appropriate method to evaluate the effec
tiveness of the Pride & Prejudice campaign as the movie map is the
primary marketing tool and inquiry mechanism. The conversion study will
64 S. Pratt
calculate a net conversion rate that accounts for components of the
decision making process irrespective of other persuasive media appeals.
This conversion ratio can be used to estimate effectiveness and efficiency
ratios, economic impact and return on investment (Burke and Lindblom,
1989). The limitations of using a conversion study methodology have been
highlighted by several authors (Ellerbrock, 1981; Burke & Gitelson, 1990;
Ballman, Burke, Blank & Korte, 1984; Messmer & Johnson, 1993; Perdue
& Botkin, 1988; Silberman & Klock, 1986; Woodside & Reid, 1974;
Woodside & Ronkainen, 1984).
In order to track the effectiveness of the marketing and for future mar-
keting purposes, the DMOs captured details of potential visitors who were
exposed to and interested in visiting ‘Pride and Prejudice Country’. Visitors
to the website, http://www.visitprideandprejudice.com, needed to complete
their contact details to request more information or download the associ-
ated movie map. A total of 9,191 unique UK contacts were captured via
the ‘Pride and Prejudice’ website as well as in Tourist Information Centres
during the campaign period.
A random sample of 1,500 respondents was selected to be surveyed. A
mail pack containing the one-page survey, a cover letter from the CEO of
Lincolnshire Tourism explaining the purpose of the survey, a competition
entry form for the incentive and a pre-paid return envelope was sent by
first class post to respondents. An incentive of a weekend break for two in
‘Pride and Prejudice Country’ was offered by Lincolnshire Tourism to
encourage return of the questionnaires. After approximately four weeks,
the data collection ended with 391 completed questionnaires returned.
This resulted in a response rate of 26.1 per cent. A one-page questionnaire
was produced covering the following areas:
Allowing potential visitors the time to plan and visit the destination before
the evaluation took place and the impact of memory on expenditure recall
needed to be considered (Mak, Moncur & Yonamine, 1977; Zhou, 2000).
Following Perdue and Gustke (1992), the questionnaire measured visita-
A case study of Pride & Prejudice 65
tion by asking how many trips the respondent made rather than asking the
dichotomous question of whether the respondent visited the destination or
not. A significant number of visitors made more than one trip to the desti-
nation. This impacts the calculation of total visitor expenditures.
Discussion of findings
The results of the conversion study are now outlined, detailing the conver-
sion rate, the incremental expenditure to the region directly attributable to
the marketing campaign and the return on investment for the marketing
campaign and differences in visitors’ trip characteristics depending on the
degree of influence the movie map had on their decision to visit. The gross
conversion rate indicates the proportion of enquirers who took a trip to
the destination after requesting the movie map. A total of 187 respondents
stated that they visited the destination, a gross conversion rate of 47.8 per
cent.
However, the gross conversion rate includes visitors who had already
planned to visit the destination at the time of requesting the movie map.
Davidson (1994) explains that ‘Including those who already decided their
visits and the dollars they spent greatly distorts (overstates) the actual sales
impact and, hence, the effectiveness of the advertising-fulfilment program.’
Using a funnel analogy, Siegel and Ziff-Levine (1990) note that after con-
sumers have received the information, a subset will be interested in visiting
the destination in the immediate future (motivation) and a subset will visit
the destination during a defined time period (conversion).
The net conversion rate represents the proportion of those who
requested the movie map and who travelled to the destination as a direct
result of the marketing information they received. It is important that the
net conversion rate only includes visitors who have not committed to a trip
before requesting the movie map but were influenced by the marketing
tools on the decision to visit. This is a more appropriate measure of cam-
paign effectiveness. Excluding the respondents who specified that they had
already booked or committed to a trip to the destination, visitors to the
destination were asked the strength of influence each marketing compon-
ent had in turning a possible visit into a certainty.
For the movie map, 56 respondents answered that they were definitely
influenced by the movie map to turn a possible visit into a certainty, a
further 48 were probably influenced and 31 were possibly influenced. The
strengths of influence of the marketing campaign are ascribed different
weightings. Those visitors who were definitely influenced by the movie
map in turning a possible visit into a certainty are ascribed a weight of 100
per cent, those who were probably influenced are ascribed a weight of 50
per cent and those who were possibly influenced by the movie map are
assigned a weight of 20 per cent. These weights were defined by EMT. The
conversion rate is the weighted sum of the proportion of influenced visitors
66 S. Pratt
that report making a trip to the destination, having not booked or commit-
ted to a trip previously. The calculation is given by:
(V × W )
i i
CR = __________
i
N
Total sample
N � 391
Influence V� W � Effective V
Definitely 56 100% 56.0
Probably 48 50% 24.0
Possibly 31 20% 6.2
Total 86.2
(Pi × Wi) × S × E × L × C
i
where S is the average party size for the segment, E is the average per
person per night expenditure for the segment, L is the average length of
stay for the segment and C is the total number of unique contacts that
responded to the campaign, 9,191. Pi is the percentage of respondents of
the total sample who are influenced by the movie map and Wi is the weight
attached to the influence the movie map had on the respondent’s decision
to visit the destination. The subscript ‘i’ represents the different degrees of
influence – ‘definitely’, ‘probably’ and ‘possibly’. As in the conversion rate
calculation, the weightings for ‘definitely’, ‘probably’ and ‘possibly’ are
100 per cent, 50 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.
For the visitor segment, incremental expenditure is calculated by first
excluding the 27 respondents who had already booked or committed to a
trip to the destination. A total of 201 respondents did not visit the destina-
tion while 163 visited the destination. For those visitors to the destination
that had not booked nor already committed to making a trip, the average
party size was 2.7 persons, the average length of stay was 3.8 nights and
the average per person per day expenditure was C71.85 (£49.02). Of the
total sample, 14.3 per cent are definitely influenced, 12.3 per cent are prob-
ably influenced and 7.9 per cent are possibly influenced by the movie map
and turned the possibility of a trip into a certainty. The total amount of
expenditure undertaken by all visitors is estimated to be C1,493,670. The
calculations are shown in Table 5.1.
Visitors who had already booked or committed to a trip to the destina-
tion were asked if the movie map influenced them to extend their stay and
by how many days. On average the visitors responded that they had spent
3.2 extra days. These extenders travelled in a party size of 2.5 and spent
C82.25 on each extra day. A total of C97,448 was spent as a result of the
influence of the movie map to extend visitors’ stays.
Movie map (%) Weights Average Spend per Number Total Total
influence Pi Wi (%) party size person per of nights contacts (C)
S night L C
E
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6 Music-tourism networks
A study of three festivals in
Queensland
Breda McCarthy, Gianna Moscardo,
Laurie Murphy and Philip Pearce
Introduction
Participation in networks is now seen as critical to the success of special-
interest tourism and destinations (Baerenholdt & Haldrup, 2006; Gibson,
Lynch & Morrison, 2005; Hall, Cambourne, Macionis & Johnson, 1997;
Michael, 2007; Morrison, Lynch & Johns, 2004, Pavlovich, 2003; Shih,
2006; Stokes, 2005; Tinsley & Lynch, 2001). There are calls for more
research into networks given their potential to influence tourism planning
and investment decisions (Shih, 2006). To date, there has been little
research into music tourism networks.
The aim of this chapter is to present three case studies on music festivals
and demonstrate the incentives and disincentives for network participa-
tion. A key finding is that weak ties are associated with novel festival pro-
grammes. This chapter highlights the perspective that the future of music
festivals is enhanced by a practical engagement with the locality. Relation-
ships within the local business, tourism, educational and social spheres
create a greater interest in, and audience for the festivals, which in turn,
contribute to the vitality and viability of festivals and events. The link with
the locality is important because it is a source of differentiation and gives a
festival uniqueness.
Literature review
Festivals and events have experienced considerable growth in recent years.
They are used to attract crowds, generate publicity, enhance education,
preserve folk music and contribute to economic development (Getz, 1991;
Hall, 1992). It is implicit in the literature that festival managers engage in
multiple networks for different reasons. Knowledge of network typology is
useful in understanding network outcomes (Bagdadli, 2003). Production
networks channel mainly tangible goods. In a festival context, networks
consist of firms supplying goods and technical services as well as volun-
teers and sponsors (Baerenholdt & Haldrup, 2006). Experience networks
(Moscardo, McCarthy, Murphy & Pearce, 2008) are more humanistic in
Music-tourism networks 75
nature and their purpose is to connect people with other people. Motiva-
tions for entry into the network are socialisation, renewal of friendships
and enrichment of artistic practices.
Growing attention is being paid to the potential of festivals and events
to strengthen social networks (Matheson, 2005; Van Zyl & Botha, 2004).
In a recent literature review (Moscardo et al., 2008), two key themes
appear to be emerging: the importance of analysing stakeholder perspec-
tives and interactions (Getz, Andersson & Larson, 2007; Larson, 2002)
and the building of social capital (Arcodia & Whitford, 2007; Gursoy,
Kim & Uysal, 2004).
Despite the well-established literature on festivals and events, there is
limited application of social network concepts to festival networks. Key
network constructs are the strength or weakness of ties (Burt, 1992;
Granovetter, 1973; Uzzi, 1996). In Granovetter’s (1973) seminal work on
weak ties, he argues that such ties assist career development through casual
information exchange that is often novel and diverse. Examples of weak
ties are simple links with acquaintances or service personnel. Strong ties,
such as contacts with family and friends, are important as these actors are
strongly motivated to help one another (Granovetter, 1973). In a business
context, strength has been equated with intimacy, trust, long duration and
high frequency of interaction, openness and willingness to share informa-
tion and coordinate activities (Gilsing & Nooteboom, 2005).
In the literature on project management (Grabher 2004; Grabher &
Ibert, 2006), personal ties are seen to promote learning and problem
solving and facilitate access to labour markets. This type of network is
generally homogeneous, cohesive and local. Strong ties are often used as a
shorthand for social capital (Baerenholdt & Haldrup, 2006; Putnam,
1994). Researchers argue that optimal networks consist of strong and
weak ties since weak ties yield novel information and strong ties help
transmit tacit knowledge (Pavlovich, 2003; Uzzi, 1996). The general con-
clusion is that one can influence network outcomes depending on the types
of ties cultivated.
Festivals trade on their uniqueness and each year the programme needs
to be refreshed. According to Janiskee (1996), diversity in the festival pro-
gramme is important in offering greater entertainment value and more
choices to visitors. Although innovation is valued in the field of festival
management, research on the relationship between innovation and weak
ties is sparse. Baerenholdt and Haldrup (2006) propose that most of the
creative work in the tourism field is performed through weak ties and non-
local or spatially dispersed networks. This line of enquiry is important
since the arts are being encouraged to extend their reach in terms of audi-
ence types, prove their public value and deliver measurable outcomes,
achieved, perhaps, by entry into new types of networks. However, some
commentators question this policy shift. There are arguments that new
norms of instrumentalism – the engagement with the practical potential of
76 B. McCarthy et al.
the arts to contribute to society – could undermine artistic excellence
(Glow, Minahan & Gahan, 2005; O’Kelly, 2007). More specific investiga-
tion is needed to determine the types of networks that are developing
between arts and tourism, and if so, when, why and how.
A key debate in the literature concerns the overall structure of the
network (Pavlovich, 2003). Structure refers to the ‘architecture’ of the
network such as the number of partners, its hierarchy or stability (Rutten,
2004). The literature on cultural industries suggests that dense networks
are critical to the production of a cultural good, such as a film (Kong,
2005; Scott, 2000). Density is a sign of vitality and helps counter the inher-
ent risk in cultural production. Success in this context relies on dense net-
works of interdependent, small and medium sized firms, a wide variety of
skills, trust, cooperation and information flow between producers.
However, a problem with density is that it creates pressures to conform
and compromise (Di Maggio & Powell, 1983). In the literature on projects,
it is observed that the multidimensionality of networks gives rise to diverse
loyalties, conflicts of culture and professional identities (Baerenholdt &
Haldrup, 2006; Grabher, 2004; Grabher & Ibert, 2006). Therefore, two
opposing forces – conformity to norms and conflict – are present in
networks.
Figure 6.1 proposes a conceptual framework based on the literature
review. Studies suggest that networks characterised by sparse and weak
ties help some participants identify entrepreneurial opportunities (Burt
1992; Granovetter, 1973). In the high-tech sector, networks characterised
by dense and strong ties (Gilsing and Nooteboom, 2005) help engender
knowledge-based capabilities. This framework captures the network per-
spectives of interest in this study, specifically, (1) the analysis of relation-
ships, the strength or weakness of ties, (2) the analysis of the structure the
network, density and sparseness and (3) the analysis of network outcomes,
Knowledge-based capabilities
Figure 6.1 Conceptual framework: density, strong and weak tie connections.
Music-tourism networks 77
such as the spread of norms, creation of social capital, innovation or entre-
preneurial opportunities.
Methodology
The aim of this chapter is to explore the significance of density and strong/
weak ties for event management. Key research questions are as follows.
What types of networks are used by festival managers? What are the out-
comes of network participation? What are the incentives and disincentives
for entry into networks? What impact do weak ties have on festival pro-
gramme uniqueness? The debates in the literature show that these research
issues are worthy of exploration. If there is an understanding of how net-
works operate and how actors interact, then one can assess which net-
works are most productive and seek to optimise network outcomes.
An inductive case-based approach was taken drawing on the principles
of grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Grounded theory is the
antithesis of the positivist approach, it is ethnographical in nature, subject-
ive and subscribes to the view that truth is not provided as a single reality
but is based on multiple realities. Although many network-based studies
use quantitative techniques, there has been a growth in studies that
examine small networks qualitatively (Gilsing & Nooteboom, 2005; Pav-
lovich, 2003). A comparative case-based approach was used since it is well
suited to describing how networks operate in real-world settings, and this
approach can be justified given the limited understanding of what types of
network ties are important, when, why and how these social relationships
are beneficial (or harmful) to event organisers.
Three comparative cases were selected and classified using the taxon-
omy proposed by Paleo and Wijnberg (2006). The events differed in
important ways. The Undara Experience is a for-profit event in a single
venue with a single track programme. It does not offer a competitive com-
ponent and has only a regional profile. The Ten Days in the Towers event
is an amateur competition that promotes Australian country music; it has
a national profile and uses a range of venues with multiple events on the
programme. Finally, the Australian Festival of Chamber Music (AFCM),
like the Undara Experience, is based on a European cultural tradition. It
has a complex programme, uses varied venues and has an international
profile. These variations in characteristics offer some potential to identify
different types of networks and relationships. Table 6.1 profiles each
event.
Data for this chapter were drawn from interviews undertaken between
December 2006 and February 2007. At each case study site, a key inform-
ant, the festival manager, was identified and was the subject of a one-hour,
face-to-face semi-structured interview. Snowballing led to follow-up inter-
views being undertaken with a representative of a City Council, Tourism
Queensland, Queensland Events and Arts Queensland. These stakeholders
78 B. McCarthy et al.
Table 6.1 Profile of festivals
helped the authors explore the influence of the state on the networks as
well as assessing the validity of claims made by the primary interviewees.
A total of ten interviews were conducted. A variety of secondary sources
(i.e. websites, festival brochures and leaflets, newspaper articles, visitor
surveys, tourism reports) were used to provide context and give the authors
and researchers an insight into the key relationships formed.
The interviewees were encouraged to talk freely about the event, cover-
ing its history, any tensions or trade-offs made over the course of its devel-
opment, incentives and disincentives for entry into networks and positive
and negative outcomes associated with different types of relationships. In
order to measure the construct of strong ties and capture network out-
comes, the researchers were guided by Brian Uzzi’s (1997) study on the
significance of social ties (embeddedness) in inter-firm networks. Interviews
were taped and transcribed shortly afterwards. As regards data analysis,
the authors sought to identify common themes and patterns in the data
(Eisenhardt, 1989; Miles & Huberman, 1984) and used a grid matrix.
Discussion of findings
Here the implications of dense networks, strong and weak ties for music
tourism are outlined. Table 6.2 identifies the key themes revealed through
the fieldwork. Over time, the festivals became involved in a diversity of
networks and the networks comprised numerous actors such as local music
clubs, schools, visitor information centres, public sector agencies, the
media, local businesses and competing events. All three cases show that
event managers had to develop dense networks in order to acquire
Music-tourism networks 79
Table 6.2 Analysis of the three festivals against network constructs
Notes
No = no clear evidence.
Some = some evidence, largely indirect.
Yes = some clear evidence.
Resource acquisition
Dense networks summon up the resources needed to stage events such as
equipment, image, finance, artistic talent, venues. The festivals drew on
local resources where available, although the development of non-local
contacts with international artists helped legitimise and build an image for
the events, in particular Opera in the Outback and the AFCM. All three
events were engaged in networks that extended well beyond the state’s
geographical boundaries. At the same time, attempts were made to merge
local with non-local acts in order to appeal to a local audience. The mem-
bership of the networks was very heterogeneous, and included volunteers,
local music clubs, educational institutes, the local Visitor Information
Centre, the media and journalists, restaurants, hotels, coach tour oper-
ators, a mining company, a regional airline, a marine science institute,
local food producers and competing events.
80 B. McCarthy et al.
Spread of institutional norms
Strong norms were diffused within festival networks such as the view that
events should demonstrate direct economic impacts and increase access to
the arts. The analysis showed that state bodies can be a positive force for
change. According to a spokesperson from Arts Queensland:
Value clashes
The analysis shows that the dissemination of institutional norms into the
network had ramifications for some network participants. A good example
of the gulf between music and tourism is the Ten Days in the Towers case.
Funding bodies were keen to capitalise on the potential for tourism growth
and encouraged festival managers to become more professional in their
approach to event management. Professionalism was assessed in various
ways: use of business plans, event managers or consultants, success in
securing corporate sponsorship, plans to share resources with other events
(i.e. websites, online ticketing systems, databases or supplies), use of
famous performers and generation of local trade or demand for music-
related services. While some of these tactics could well increase revenue,
they also run the risk of undermining the morale of a volunteer committee,
reducing the participation of local, amateur musicians and increasing
rivalry between events.
There was some evidence that the emphasis of government funding
agencies on tourism gains could undermine the local networks and ele-
Music-tourism networks 81
ments that contribute the most to these events. The organisers of Ten Days
in the Towers valued the inclusive nature of the event in line with the Aus-
tralian spirit of ‘having a go’. While amateur performances given by chil-
dren had a limited public audience, the committee believed that support
for young artists helped strengthen the tradition of Australian country
music. However, one respondent was concerned that this emphasis on
amateur performances inhibited the festival’s potential for tourism devel-
opment: she saw the festival as almost immutable to change and cited con-
servatism, as well lack of time and expertise, as factors threatening
survival.
The committee has anxieties about change and argues that attempts to
copy other, more commercial country music festivals would result in the
loss of local idiosyncrasies. In recent years, the event has had to grapple
with a decline in audience figures. Some form of change became a neces-
sity. The name Ten Days in the Towers was conceived and today it oper-
ates as an umbrella brand for three different festivals. The packaging of the
events for tourist consumption was designed to secure grant aid. In effect,
one group wrestled control of branding from other parties, which is at
odds with the notion of cooperation, partnership or community cohesion.
In the case of the AFCM, its attempts to build connections and
exchanges with tourism, leisure and entertainment industries gave rise to
tensions. Care had to be taken to ensure that the new festival programmes
did not obscure the core audience that it addressed. The underlying prior-
ity was always to maintain high artistic standards and ensure that chamber
music would not be compromised by the attempts to popularise the festival
programme.
I think that these days, in the world that we live in, people want
options, people want to do different things. The festival has been going
82 B. McCarthy et al.
for a long time. You need to introduce new things, to give people
options, to ensure that the program every year is different and
interesting.
Entry into networks was also important for learning, especially about ideas
for the development of the festival programme. The manager of the Ten
Days in the Towers event, for example, spent time at other country music
festivals volunteering in order to gather ideas to bring back to his own
event. The analysis shows how forging contacts with the local business
community enhanced the viability of the event. In order to build goodwill,
the manager organised free live music performances for hoteliers during
the year. In return, locals showed their support in numerous ways: spon-
soring the festival, organising their own talent quests and themed dinners,
dressing up in cowboy regalia and decorating shop windows. This engage-
ment with local business helped ensure that there was a good atmosphere
and led to spin-off events.
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7 Destination brand licensing
Michał Żemła
Introduction
Tourism destination management is a complicated task that needs often
specific tools that are difficult to be copied directly from the rich and devel-
oped recourses of firm management. Destination branding (DB) has
recently become one of the most popular topics among tourism research-
ers. It has been recognized that ‘branding is perhaps the most powerful
marketing weapon available to contemporary destination marketers’
(Morgan & Pritchard, 2002, p. 11). However, the concept of DB seems to
be vulnerable for strong criticism from different points of view, with prob-
ably the strongest argument given by Mundt, who goes so far, that he
neglects the existence of a marketing tool that could be named ‘destination
branding’, at least with regard to traditionally understood tourism destina-
tions (Mundt, 2004). Also some other researchers point out numerous
weaknesses of DB regarding its theoretical foundation (Seaton, 1997; Tasci
& Kozak, 2006). Further on, absence of commonly accepted theory of DB
might lead destination management practitioners to conduct chaotic and
not efficient actions.
This chapter, though, is aimed at underlining some potentials of DB that
have not so far been strongly presented in tourism research literature,
which should partially respond to arguments raised by critics of the
concept. This is possible thanks to incorporating other popular concepts
like relationship marketing, clustering or networking into DB ground.
Those concepts, although popular among destination management
researchers, have not been so far analyzed from the DB point of view. The
chapter, looking for DB enhancement possibilities in other theoretical con-
cepts, as well as in destination marketing practice, is actually not present-
ing new ways of branding of tourism places. On the contrary, there are
examples of actions that are convergent with the concept presented here of
destination brand licensing (DBL), known for many years, but a proper
theoretical description seems to be missing. DBL is a new concept and has
not so far been presented in the literature. Presented examples are chosen
purposely to picture a variety of implementation of DBL actions in differ-
Destination brand licensing 89
ent countries and in different conditions. Those actions are also imple-
mented by different entities ranging from destination management
organizations (DMOs) and public authorities to private sector companies.
Literature review
All those researchers who present their doubts about propriety of the term
DB, originate their doubts from the comparison of branding of consumer
goods – the motherland of branding concept – with the nature of DB
(Mundt, 2004; Seaton, 1997). Seaton states:
Further, Seaton presents three most important reasons for such a situation,
namely: (1) absence of a homogeneous product, (2) impossibility for desti-
nation marketers to set prices or control distribution system, (3) embracing
with one brand offers targeted at very different markets, and promoted
often through a single campaign. (Seaton, 1997). This list is even pro-
longed by Mundt (2004), who adds among others, difficulties with pro-
ducer identification, very limited influence on the product possessed by
destination management as well as only indirect quality control, and legal
reasons connected with European legislation exempting geographically
defined areas from branding.
Presented arguments definitely prove that DB differs considerably from
the concept of branding created for consumer goods. However, would it
mean that DB differs too much from consumer goods branding to be called
branding at all, as suggested by Mundt? It seems to be questionable, and
not possible to answer that question without any doubts. Further consider-
ation of this dispute seems to be idle, as it concentrates more on terminol-
ogy than on the actual nature of DB. Nevertheless, the commonly agreed
concept of comparison of branding in consumer goods context with brand-
ing in tourism destination context is missing (Tasci & Kozak, 2006).
Much more attention should be devoted to the dispute on what DB
really is, as the term, although commonly used, seems to remain unclear
and ambiguous. The problem begins with the absence of a commonly
accepted definition of DB (Mundt 2004, p. 47) but is much deeper. Two
recently published studies of experts’ opinions on the nature of destination
branding (Park & Petrick, 2006; Tasci & Kozak, 2006) reveal that the
concept of DB is regarded not to be much different from destination image
90 M. Żemła
building and those two are vulnerable to be confused. Park and Petrick
wonder if ‘DB might be “old wine in a new bottle” ’ (2006, p. 264).
Conclusions reached by Hankinson (2003) on the basis of review of 20
recently published papers on DB are very much the same. He finds four
possible perspectives on DB, (1) brands as perceptual entities, (2) brands as
communicators, (3) brands as relationships and (4) brands as value
enhancers; but the most of reviewed papers fell into group 1 or 2. What is
more, basing on his earlier research (Hankinson, 2001), he states:
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8 Destinations as gadgets
Co-creating a sportive identity for
Voss
Szilvia Gyimóthy and Reidar Johan Mykletun
Introduction
Destination marketers face a number of challenges in the efforts to brand a
region, owing to a far more intricate context than the one corporate brand
managers operate in. They must balance stakeholder interests in a frag-
mented destination network and bridge the gap between the bureaucratic
cultures of public actors and the marketing cultures of private firms. Fur-
thermore, they must undertake a regional coordinating and representative
role in spite of limited ownership, budget or power to control how indi-
vidual firms deliver. Last, but not least, they must be alert to consumer
trends and look for innovative ways of involving new groups of customers
in order to develop the destination. This implies that destination branding
is a long-term, dialogue-based process (Schultz, Antorini & Csaba, 2006),
where the brand essence, values and personality of a place develops and
arises through interaction with an extended group of stakeholders. Desti-
nation marketers may act as facilitators, enablers or mediators in this
process, and sometimes, the process may partly (or entirely) bypass them.
This case study explores the organic repositioning of Voss, a Norwegian
inland destination, and thus captures a destination branding process side-
stepping the local tourism organisation. Region Voss is mostly character-
ised by a strong orientation towards active young consumers, using
contemporary popular cultural narratives to enhance tourist consumption.
Although the Voss Municipality Tourism Office promotes a traditional
rural imagery, a number of actors outside the DMO (local retailers, sports
clubs, entrepreneurs) interact in an innovative way to create a more youth-
ful and sportive identity – through a dynamic dialogue with tourists. The
goal of this chapter is to describe this dialogue by identifying key elements
in this mutual identity building process.
Literature review
Studies in destination branding have long recognised the mutual associ-
ations between local products and the place itself (Anholt, 2004; Csaba,
100 S. Gyimóthy and R. J. Mykletun
2005; Tasci & Kozak, 2006). Destination brands are conceptualised as
‘umbrella brands’ (Therkelsen, 2003) or even ‘house of brands’ (after
Aaker, 1996), defining a unanimous image (the brand essence) with the
symbolic power of a few flagship attractions and retail products. Myth-
makers of the tourism system (e.g. destination marketers, tour operators,
lifestyle magazines and travelogues) are increasingly presenting destina-
tions as shopping landscapes, featuring the unique product portfolio of a
region. In tertiary rural destinations, short of major attractions, these rep-
resentations are based on locally produced food, dishes or handicraft
deemed traditional and thus, typical to the region. This co-branding
endeavour is a result of a synergy between two simultaneous processes:
authentication (Miele & Murdoch, 2002) and aestheticisation (Welsch,
1996). Geographical earmarking, such as provenance labels, adds symbolic
qualities to consumer goods – warranting typicality, originality and even
exclusivity. At the same time, regions with no particular appeal or identity
are turned into imaginary places of ‘touristic terroirs’ (Hall & Mitchell,
2002), thanks to an aesthetic styling process. Hence, regions as well as
their products and other cultural expressions (folklore, eating habits, art
and crafts items) are commodified, that is, transformed into commercial
packages and merchandise for tourists (cf. Bell & Valentine, 1997; May,
1996; Scarpato & Daniele, 2003; Telfer & Hashimoto, 2003).
However, the rhetoric by which rural destinations are mobilised and
reinvented for tourism consumption is strikingly similar across Europe.
Regional cultural heritage is enshrined with the help of a few romantic
stereotypes, including iconic images of countryside idyll, organic farming
and rural nostalgia (Gyimóthy, 2005). Life in the countryside is euphe-
mised into an aesthetic still life of solidity, simplicity, genuineness and
timelessness. Mythmakers go along with the established imagery of tradi-
tional and friendly countryside, and seldom depict rural destinations as
cool, novel or fashionable. This tourism monotopia (Jensen & Richardson,
2003) may lead to interchangeable brand essences, reducing the diversity
of European rural destination imagery. For instance, as Frochot (2003)
notes, the way in which culinary heritage is presented in French regions
does not reflect the great variation in food ingredients, dishes and styles.
Furthermore, a nostalgic brand essence representing only ‘classic and safe’
products will uphold the image of a cultural sanctuary, which may ulti-
mately obstruct innovative development. Arguably, other arguments may
exist to attract visitors to the countryside than the rhetoric of authenticity
and lack of urbanisation. By failing to realise these alternatives, rural desti-
nations may risk losing touch with future consumer segments, especially,
cosmopolitan youth.
Taking the ontological perspective of value co-creation, destination
branding can be regarded as a mutual and ongoing process among a
number of actors. Visitor consumption and value creation is often mod-
elled as a chronological process, originating from value chain thinking.
Destinations as gadgets 101
The value chain model (Porter, 1985) stems from the industrial era, model-
ling production systems, through which raw materials are refined into pal-
pable consumer goods. Within this model, services are seen as after-sales
add-ons (residuals) to the material offering. A similar ranking principle is
perceivable in the augmented services model (Normann, 1984) and several
destination systems models (Buhalis, 2000), differentiating between core,
peripheral and supporting providers or services. Based on this classifica-
tion, various actors on a destination (retailers, leisure associations or enter-
tainers) are deemed ancillary (but not vital) to the tourism consumption
process.
In an influential article of the Journal of Marketing, Vargo and Lusch
(2004) argue for a paradigm shift in marketing theory, promoting a
service-centred model of exchange. Their proposition is inspired by the
value constellation model (Norman & Ramirez, 1994), regarding value
creation as a simultaneous dialogue between provider(s) and consumer.
This paradigm shift implies that value emerges during the interaction itself,
as it is co-created together with the customer. The reassessment of custom-
ers as being co-producers and active participants in value creation proc-
esses make the value chain logic outdated (in which there is a focus on
resources that are refined into a material output). Rather, the focus shifts
to understand resources (e.g. knowledge and skills of both customers and
providers) that produce immaterial effects and values (for both customers
and providers). This perspective has two consequences for tourism destina-
tions. First, it makes the previous typology of core and peripheral services
obsolete, as any provider may contribute to the tourist’s experience of the
destination – during the visit to a flagship attraction or while sitting in the
airport transfer taxi. Second, the material offering becomes a device or an
add-on: ‘Goods are transmitters of operant resources (embedded know-
ledge); they are intermediate products that are used by other operant
resources (customers) as appliances in value-creation processes’ (Vargo &
Lusch, 2004, p. 12, our emphasis). Going along this logic, entire destina-
tions may be regarded as ‘appliances’ in the tourist’s value creation
process. But what exactly is the value defined and sought by visitors and
how does it emerge? In order to capture these processes, it is necessary to
delve deeper into the character of contemporary tourism consumption.
Postmodern consumption theory suggests that leisure and tourism (similar
to entertainment, design and fashion) are a part of the popular cultural
matrix, dominated by the economy of icons (Sternberg, 1999). Products
are mere symbols whose meaning is created by the consumers (Firat &
Shultz, 1997), turning destinations and tourism products into fashion
accessories enhancing or expressing consumer identities. However, follow-
ing Vargo and Lush’s argumentation on interactive value creation above,
this identity production must be reciprocal. Consequently, tourists not only
build their own self-images, but may also contribute to the image forma-
tion of service providers (i.e. a destination and its actors).
102 S. Gyimóthy and R. J. Mykletun
Methodology
This study is a part of a larger project focusing on innovative destination
management networks emerging around the Voss Extreme Sport Festival,
Extremsportsveko. This chapter concentrates on the following questions:
How are young consumer identities formed and influenced by the destina-
tion products of Voss? How are local products reinterpreted, combined
and aligned with contemporary consumer culture? How is a sportive desti-
nation identity enhanced in destination actor–tourist interactions? To illu-
minate these issues, multi-method research design was chosen. This
included participant observations during the 2006 festival, resulting in field
notes from the entire week, photographs and interviews with spectators
and various stakeholders. Between June and September 2006, the follow-
ing actors were interviewed: the festival general manager, eight disciplinary
coordinators, the concert organiser, the editor of Today’s Video as well as
the coordinator of festival volunteers.
Furthermore, secondary material from different media (NRK, the public
TV channel), newspapers like Hordaland and Bergens Tidende, the Fri Flyt
magazine, and festival and community websites) was collected, and a
content analysis of Today’s Video was performed. In this chapter, these
data sources are mainly quoted as empirical illustrations in order to
support the conceptual proposition of co-created destination identity. In
the remainder, the empirical case and findings are presented, including a
brief portrait of Destination Voss. Consequently, actors that play a vital
role in repositioning Voss as an extreme destination are presented. These
parts of the chapter also highlight symbiotic relationships between tourists
and local entrepreneurs, pointing at the mutual construction of a young
and sportive identity.
Voss in a nutshell
Voss (14,000 inhabitants) is located ten miles east of Bergen, in a back
country constituted of deep valleys, highlands and mountains rising to
1,600 metres above sea level. Voss has been a tourism destination for over
200 years, claiming to offer a ‘marvellous cultural and scenic mixture [. . .]
for tourists who seek experiences that are out of the ordinary’ (Visit Voss,
2006). Like most of the inner country, Voss is struggling with depopula-
tion and bleak community budgets, but is currently undergoing an eco-
nomic transition and gradually becoming a star of the Norwegian
experience economy, hosting international cultural and sport events, pro-
ducing designer clothes and boasting local patriotism that has earned the
epithet ‘an Un-Norwegian piece of Norway’ (DnB NorBank customer
magazine 2006).
Today, Voss is the main hub in the internationally promoted ‘Norway
in a Nutshell’ tour, frequented by tourists on organised trips (including
Destinations as gadgets 103
cruise ship passengers to Bergen, Hardanger or Sogn fjords). Altogether
217,000 overnight stays were registered in 2006, of which 44 per cent
were international guests. The local DMO (Visit Voss, owned and oper-
ated by the municipality) produces a destination brand imagery featuring
Voss as pastoral and picturesque, and thereby reinventing the historical
grand tourist gaze in its communication material.
In Norway, Voss has a strong market position both as a summer and a
winter destination, with nature based and extreme sports as part of its
image. Because of favourable snow conditions in the area, Voss is a
popular winter destination, offering a range of skiing activities from
November to May. The town has earned a matchless status in Norwegian
sports history, giving Norway the most winter sports medal winners
throughout the times. Local athletes have been representing the country in
every Winter Olympic Games since 1948 and won 18 Olympic medals (in
Nordic racing, free style, alpine, ski flying and biathlon). The Voss region
also provides excellent conditions for white-water rafting, aerial sports,
rock climbing and mountain hiking, resulting in active local sports clubs in
over ten disciplines and an increasing density of outdoor sport outfitters.
This adventure cluster has taken the lead in a number of developments, of
which the best known is Extremsportsveko (Extreme Sports Festival)
organised every June since 1998. In 2002, the area was presented as the
‘Parachute Valley’ (Cater & Mykletun, 2003), and Voss has been referred
to as the ‘unofficial Adventure Capital of Norway’ in various contexts. For
example, the latest stamp series issued by the Norwegian Post (launched in
January 2007), features six tourist destinations of Norway. Here, Voss is
represented by two skydivers, also emphasising the establishing status of
Voss as an extreme sport destination.
Apart from the adventure profile, Voss also boasts rich culinary tradi-
tions, which led to the development of Vossamenyen (the Voss Menu),
promoting a wider range of local (small-scale) food products for both
domestic and tourism consumption. Yet, Smalahove (salted, smoked, dried
and cooked sheep’s head) remains Voss’ iconic dish, which has received
much attention through exposure on both Extremsportsveko and its own
festival, Smalahovesleppet (the release of the sheep heads) in October.
Recent local beverage productions – a specially brewed sweet and thick
porter based on the home-brewed Vossa ale, and a collector’s aquavit
based on traditional recipes – complement the acquired taste of Smalahove.
However, the internationally best-known beverage promoting the region is
Voss of Norway spring water sold in exclusive bottles designed by Calvin
Klein.
Three groups of actors are believed to play an important role in creating
a parallel young and sportive identity for Voss: the extreme sports festival
and its stakeholders, the retired freestyle skier and local entrepreneur Kari
Traa and Voss of Norway. These are presented below.
104 S. Gyimóthy and R. J. Mykletun
The ideologist of cool and proper adventure: Extremsportsveko
Extremsportsveko is a niche event targeted at a young audience, packaging
adventure sports and ‘celebrating playfulness’ with spectator shows and
music concerts. Since its establishment in 1998 as a non-profit foundation
by four local sports clubs in Voss, Extremsportsveko has developed from
being a small, informal meeting for extreme sportsmen into a commercially
viable festival product, attracting 20,000 visitors (sportsmen, spectators
and volunteers) in 2007. The festival is outstanding in the world, present-
ing professional championships in 16 extreme disciplines. Officially
acclaimed competitions (Norwegian, European and World Cup in some
disciplines) and national television broadcasting may indicate that these (in
some instances underground, discriminated or prohibited sporting activ-
ities) are now legitimised and formalised through the festival.
The festival is ‘more than just about extreme sports competitions. It’s
about music, playfulness and the amazing nature of Western Norway’
claims the foundation, whose additional goal is to promote Voss as an
adventure destination. This is achieved through an unparalleled, hybrid
concept combining spectator sports, adventure sports as well as a music
festival. Spectators may follow various competitions and shows in the
daytime and visit the evening festivities. They may also buy an all-inclusive
‘Try-It! Package’ (a facilitated sampling ten extreme sports, including a
sheep head meal, to combine extreme sports and extreme food adventures.
While daytime venues are free and scattered around ‘natural’ spectator
areas (lakeside, cliff towers, small rivers) in a 60-kilometre diameter, the
organisers charge high fees for the festival pass. This covers entry to the
evening programme (located in Voss centre), including the showing of
Today’s Video (an edited version of actual highlights, accompanied with
free techo-music downloads), medal ceremonies and live concerts. Today’s
Video is indeed a merchandise of ‘thrill’: an audiovisual product that has
been used since 1998 to summarize, enhance and promote adventure
experiences to the spectators of the festival. These video highlights (about
20 minutes each) are shown in the festival tent every evening, and a compi-
lation of the entire week’s Today’s Video can be bought at the end of
Extremsportsveko.
A narrative analysis of Today’s Video as well as interviews with the fes-
tival general confirmed a classic formation ideology (‘a sound soul in a
sound body’) well hidden behind the eccentrically depicted playful activ-
ities. Targeted at youngsters and serious sportsmen, the symbolic portfolio
of Extremsportsveko unites hedonism (feel good, have fun) with respons-
ibility and discipline (sobriety, healthy living, respecting nature). At first
glance, Today’s Video is dominated by a light-hearted and playful tone.
There are several close-ups featuring athletes or spectators smiling and
flirting with the camera, screaming ‘yeah’, giving thumbs-ups or ‘high five’
to appreciate each other’s performance. Fun is manifested in staged gags,
Destinations as gadgets 105
such as a kayaker’s video ballad in Bollywood style, or the presentation of
an unofficial discipline (Chinese heather and bush downhill), combining
snowboarding on grass and naked waterfall bathing. Furthermore, inter-
mezzo scenes in Today’s Video also include voyeuristic glancing of young
female visitors (camera close-ups into cleavage or elevator gazes on their
legs), establishing the dominant gaze as being that of the ‘mook’ (Rush-
koff, 2001), denoting the perpetual adolescent, characterised by infantile,
boorish and sexist behaviour. Evening concerts and Today’s Video falls in
the taste of a younger age group, featuring underground soundscapes (mix
of techno, dance, rap, funk, reggae, heavy rock). A common denominator
is a high pulse or a seductive beat underscoring the adrenaline rush in the
visual material. The title theme features a visual countdown from 100 to
zero accompanied by percussion solo and a monstrous voice whispering
‘touch the devil inside’ – connoting rage rock artists. Extreme sensory
impressions of edgework and borderlining are aptly captured in most of
the selected lyrics. These may include text strings related to craziness (‘you
make me crazy’, ‘I can’t go fast enough’, ‘out of control’), encouragement
(‘let’s get it started’, ‘get on track before we begin’) and delirious experi-
ences (‘flashlights, nightmares, explosions’ or ‘I lost myself’) and many
more.
However, border seeking, politically incorrect and sexist elements are
being weighed up by a covert educational agenda of ‘proper adventure’,
pointing at the benefits of an active and respectful lifestyle: ‘Extremsports-
veko is for serious sportsmen, not for rastahippies smoking joints. . . . we
try to avoid attracting a Roskilde festival clientele, who are drunk for a
whole week’ (interview with festival manager). Sobriety and healthy living
was promoted on various occasions. Before the showing of the video high-
lights, a sober driving campaign (Sei ifrå) was put on view every night. Fes-
tival catering was provided by Vossamenyen, offering only local meat
products, fruit, water and light beer brewed on water from the nearby
glacier. Coca-Cola was shining with its absence, thanks to the festival man-
agement’s no-frills philosophy. This also implied limited sponsor
exposition and sponsored ads, and total absence of giveaways, banners or
merchandise scattered around the destination. Several members of the
organising committee referred to other, commercial sports events and festi-
vals as ‘tasteless’ or as ‘in contradiction with environmental respectfulness’.
In addition, even social responsibility was promoted, through the presence
of Amnesty International desk and activists.
One of the reasons for the success of the extreme sports festival lies in
its essence as a cultural hybrid. It is once folksy and underground, allowing
mingling among generations, but also appealing to a young urban under-
ground musical taste. It is also both eccentric and inclusive: targeted at the
perpetual (or wannabe) younger adults, but also invite local inhabitants,
children and seniors to participate. One day is reserved for seniors and
another for children, offering specialised programmes. Finally, it is both
106 S. Gyimóthy and R. J. Mykletun
respectful and politically incorrect, blending elements of adolescent play-
fulness and serious moral issues. This fragmentation and the dual ideology
of hedonism and discipline conveyed the impression that Extremsports-
veko is not a commercial product. Nevertheless, the festival only differs
from mainstream commercial products in its narrative genre (satire) and
communication techniques. Overtly and covertly it promotes a stream of
opportunities for additional purchase (selected outdoor equipment, gar-
ments, local food providers, helicopter shuttles, etc.), as demonstrated next.
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Part III
Destination networks
9 Networking approaches for
sustainable destination
management
Francesco Polese and Antonio Minguzzi
Introduction
Modern society, recent trends and contemporary lifestyles show a general
increase in tourist flows and the growing importance of the tourism indus-
try in many countries throughout the world. Despite this phenomenon,
tourism has still proven to be a difficult issue for tourism enterprises to
deal with. It almost seems as if the tourism industry is not fully capable of
valorising international tourism and its escalating figures, especially the
ever-increasing number of people travelling to and from new emerging
markets such as East Asia. This may be due to the tourist’s profile, which
has shown constant changes in the new millennium and to global tourism
products, which tend to incorporate a wide variety of goods and services
difficultly managed by single actors. Tourists, in fact, usually tend to amass
each component offered within tourism in their overall perception rather
than rating singular factors since their needs are perceived as a whole. This
attitude does not adequately reflect the tourism production system, which
is composed of many different actors affecting the singular factors men-
tioned above. This is the main reason that the global tourism product may
be a fashionable and interesting issue when considering demand. It is,
however, much harder to deal with taking supply into account as it stimu-
lates the aggregation and collaboration of many actors in specific territo-
rial areas. Hence tourism destination management, enabling systemic
governance of territorial areas, is becoming the only means of territorial
competitiveness for local stakeholders. Even though this concept is easily
comprehensible in theory, it is very hard to carry out since it concerns
effective cooperation between private and public actors in the tourism
industry.
Moreover, the application of theoretical models to the tourism industry
emphasises how suppliers tend to be highly heterogeneous in terms of tech-
nology, clients and functions, and how they are kept together only by their
common goal of satisfying a particular type of demand connected to the
tourism experience of single actors. Therefore, multidimensional models
become unsuitable for describing the tourism phenomenon considered as a
114 F. Polese and A. Minguzzi
whole. These considerations explain the difficulties in defining specific
managerial trends and common policies in the tourism industry, leading us
to our discussion and analysis of sustainable tourism.
Empirical evidence
So far we have underlined how networks may be considered powerful
organisational forms capable of promoting territorial governance. All the
same, these aggregations may take on very different forms depending on
the nature and history of the relational patterns between nodes. One of
these forms can be identified as territorial parks and is significant in that it
makes a strong effort to aggregate local entities towards a shared develop-
ment path and purpose. Territorial parks (national or regional) are in fact
a kind of network based on local government actions promoting the valor-
isation of resources. Thus, these parks may be thought of as networks of
territorial entities aimed at satisfying the needs of many stakeholders and
promoting local development (Hawkins, 2004). Our analysis of territorial
parks is based on the comparison between two parks, both in Campania
Region (Italy), the Cilento National Park and the Matese Regional Park,
hereafter analytically described within their relative data of interest. Fol-
lowing a methodological approach to our research, first we collected and
analysed data from secondary sources. Second, after verifying the physical
and quantitative differences existing between the two parks, we defined a
collecting plan in order to approach our primary sources. More specifi-
cally, we decided to investigate territorial subjects through personal inter-
view techniques using questionnaires with open answers. Among the
interviewees were representatives of local enterprises and managers and
directors of these territorial parks.
Cilento National Park has a surface area of about 178,172 hectares and
a population density of approximately 80 units per square kilometre. Its
main tourist attractions are the archaeological sites on the Alburni Moun-
tains and Istmica road and the many natural resources in the area. The
economic analysis of the park area shows the presence of 26,030 busi-
nesses, the majority in agricultural (37.6 per cent) or trading (26 per cent)
industries. The tourism industry accounts for 6 per cent of the total
number of businesses (about 1,500).
Networking approaches 119
The Cilento National Park is included in the UNESCO World Heritage
List. The park, with its 78 municipalities, represents a very vast and differ-
entiated territory, including areas with low demographic density and low
tourism flows – such as the internal mountain towns of Roccadaspide or
Stio (beautiful sites for ecological tourism) – and coastal areas with a
greater population density and stronger tourism flows.
On the other hand, Matese Regional Park has a surface area of about
65,500 hectares, and a population density of approximately 81 units per
square kilometre. The park’s principal tourist attractions include its lakes
and waterfalls, the Pietraroja paleontological site, its many castles, several
fortified little towns and a number of natural resources, such as the WWF
Oasis of Le Mortine. There are approximately 2,702 businesses with a
majority of agricultural and typical products. The tourism industry is not a
significant component of its economy, even though tourism is a priority of
the park governance. Typical local products include olive oil, different
types of cheese, ham and lamb meat.
The Matese Regional Park is also a vast area (including 20 munici
palities), but much more homogeneous in terms of demographical density,
economic structure and perspectives, local cultures and habits. Local
actors behave in a non-conflictual manner, seeking out personal social
ties with each other and interpreting tourism as the future key for develop-
ment by all local businesses (Saxena, 2006). The park behaves just like
a private business, managing both agricultural and tourism activities as
well as increasing occupational levels and income in the area. The
economic potential of the two parks appear similar, yet in Cilento the
network form of organisation is probably not well appreciated by local
agents who seem to carry on with their highly differentiated demands,
whereas in Matese, networks seem to be diffusely appreciated and linked
to territorial interests. The governance of the Matese Regional Park
appears to be more efficient in perceiving local expectations and translat-
ing them into policies and development actions. The homogeneous charac-
teristics of the park seem to facilitate the aggregating forces of the network
form of organisation, smoothening the decision-making process and opera-
tive actions (Polese, 2009).
Empirical evidence shows that an efficient network is characterised by
policies and dynamics consistent with territorial needs: sustainable tourism
networks combine tourism development plans (based on top-down pro
cesses of policy definition and the quest for resources) with local expecta-
tions and characteristics (projected through a bottom-up process by
territorial entities). This, however, may not be enough as the local govern-
ment must work towards creating a local vision and systemic policies – as
already mentioned, the network must have a guiding centre!
In order to acquire these characteristics, the network should be based
on common and shared values, objectives and identities. Weak formal
bonds, represented by the formal constitution of a network, are supported
120 F. Polese and A. Minguzzi
by strong sentimental and cultural ties (representing effective aggregation
forces between territorial entities) (Granovetter, 1973).
Empirical evidence seems to highlight several key points. First, the
organisational form (the park model) is usually not sufficient in guarantee-
ing territorial competitiveness and long-term success. Since neither net-
works, nor parks, can be drawn on a map, they should derive from local
demands. Second, national and regional parks tend to be very different in
terms of effective territorial governance and government representative-
ness. It seems the larger the tourism network, the more a territorial area
shows difficulties in projecting a homogeneous image, a unique identity
and sharing the same opinion with regards to carrying out business and
adopting policies, strategies and operating actions. Finally, tourism net-
works need smooth communication channels between network nodes (enti-
ties); a recent contribution has shown how empowerment and
communication are important for sustainable tourism, highlighting the
relevance of the informative approach we are describing (Cole, 2006).
Both cases have shown the importance of participatory processes in
achieving effective tourism network governance. Net policy, net strategic
planning and also net dynamics and development should arise from partic-
ipatory processes, which must be enabled through common tools, such as
focus groups, territorial animation, resource qualification and so on.
Indeed, within territorial areas, socio-economic demands, environmental
care, the defence of historical and cultural heritage and the promotion of
typical local products are often key factors to local success; however in
these particular areas it seems difficult to value an approach to destination
management capable of strategically evaluating demand in tourism in
order to act and manage accordingly (Kastenholz, 2004). These instances,
in fact, may also represent conflicting objectives, especially without the
presence of an efficient super partes facilitator, or ‘network centre’, as
mentioned above. For this reason it seems important to facilitate a partici-
patory process of territorial animation in order to collect ideas, demands
and interests and then, accordingly, define policies and development paths
in line with differentiated territorial needs. This is best carried out in a cul-
turally open attitude closed to empowerment strategies (Sofield, 2003), in
line with most recent relational theories that propose a many to many
approach (Gummesson, 2006) not only in business to business interaction,
but in every relation that a business actor consciously or unconsciously
activates in light of a systemic value creation within its virtual network of
relations (Gummesson & Polese, 2009).
Assumption
ing
en
Op
Ideation
Net
governance
Surveillance Action
Clo
su
re
mo
me
nts
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10 Tourism destinations
A network analysis of the web space
Rodolfo Baggio and
Magda Antonioli Corigliano
Introduction
The dynamics of the international tourism landscape demands ever more
the adoption of innovative and structured approaches. The evolution of
tourist consumption towards models of increasing personalisation, the
increasing competitive pressure between destinations, and the globalisation
of the tourist market are only some of the factors that have dictated the
need to adopt an ‘integrated management’ of tourist locations. The intro-
duction of the logic of destination management represents an attempt to
embrace instruments to manage, in a coordinated way, the potential of a
tourist attraction. The aim is, on one hand, that of valuing the complemen-
tarities between the natural resources and services in terms of their ability
to be exploited. On the other hand, the goal is to stimulate the start of
solid cooperative relationships among all stakeholders (public and private),
with the additional objective of more profitable and efficient promotional
and commercialisation activities on the international market (Dwyer &
Kim, 2003; Framke, 2002). The empirical evidence shows the existence of
various models of destinations or types of districts, which differ in terms of
integration (or fragmentation) levels, and therefore of coordination
between the public and private actors operating in a certain area (Lozano,
Gòmez & Rey-Maquieira, 2005).
Amongst the conditions that over the course of the last few years have
allowed integrated destinations to emerge, and have given the right impor-
tance to the whole territorial network in an innovative and original way,
information and communication technologies (ICTs), with their support to
the operational and management processes, have assumed a decisive posi-
tion. They have proved to be critical for the development of this ‘informa-
tion intensive’ sector and have played an important role in binding up the
local tourism operators favouring the integration of the destination
product/service chain and spreading common competences and know-how
(Buhalis, 2003; Pollock, 1995).
A growing strand of literature considers a destination as a typical
complex adaptive system (Baggio, 2008). Characteristics such as non-linear
126 R. Baggio and M. Antonioli Corigliano
relationships among the system components, self-organisation of the struc-
tures, resilience to external shocks are defining traits for a complex adap-
tive system (Holland, 1995), and can be easily identified in a tourism
destination. A network graph representation, in which the nodes corres-
pond to the organisations (public or private) belonging to the local tourism
system, is especially suited for this type of system. The study presented in
this work uses the science and tools of network thinking to examine the
structural properties of the hyperlinks between the websites of tourism
operators in two destinations: the Fiji Islands and Elba, Italy.
Literature review
The Fiji Islands and Elba (Italy) share many similarities. The two destina-
tions offer ‘sun and sand’ tourism experiences, they both receive around
500,000 visitors per year, with three million overnights, and strong season-
ality. The accommodation capacity is of the same order of magnitude
(some ten thousand bed places). In both cases the economies are highly
dependent on the spending generated by tourism activities. The Internet
penetration is of a good level in both destinations and most companies,
mainly in the tourism field, own a website. Elba is considered a ‘mature’
tourism destination (Tallinucci & Testa, 2006). It has a long history and
has gone through a number of different expansion and reorganisation
cycles. The great majority of the stakeholders are small- and medium-sized
companies, mostly family run. Several associations and consortia operate
in the area trying to overcome an excessive ‘independence’ of the com-
panies by suggesting and developing different kinds of collaboration pro-
grammes. Geographic, economic and political factors have not favoured a
full development of tourism in Fiji (Harrison, 2004). The destination is
divided into a number of different geographical locations (different islands)
and the supply structure is highly fragmented. The hospitality sector
mainly relies on ‘all inclusive’ resorts that are self-sufficient and have
limited collaboration with other organisations besides the very basic supply
chain relationships. Only recently central tourism organisations have
started designing and realising coordinated development plans.
This work is based upon the assumption that the connections among
the websites (hyperlinks) may be considered not simply as a technological
manifestation but also as a reflection of social processes. The structure of
hyperlinks form patterns based on the designs and aspirations of the indi-
viduals or organisations that own websites. A growing literature suggests
that these networks reflect offline connections among social actors and
support specific social or communicative functions (Park, 2003).
Even considering the warnings and the limitations on the validity of this
type of interpretation, well discussed by Thelwall (2006), when websites
belonging to commercial companies are considered, it can be reasonably
assumed that the layout of the network is a reflection of the structural
Tourism destinations 127
characteristics of the social network from which it originates. The impor-
tance given to the practice of hyperlinking (Walker, 2002) further supports
this conjecture. A two-way relationship exists between the virtual and the
real world: on one side, the online linkages correspond to social relations
in the offline world; on the other side, offline interactions can affect the
way in which online relationships are established and developed (Birnie &
Horvath, 2002; Wellman, 2001).
The rest of this chapter examines how network analysis methods can
help us understanding the interactions between tourism operators within a
destination. The approach followed considers the networks from a topolo-
gical point of view, and therefore no attempt is made to identify the nature
or the features of single actors. The links between websites, in the assump-
tion made, represent some kind of transaction or collaboration agreement
between the companies. Quantitative network analysis methods are used
to compare the network characteristics of the two tourism destinations.
The main topological characteristics are measured, both from a static and
a dynamic point of view. The results show that network metrics can be
used to highlight the main features of the destination network and of the
underlying social and economic system.
Network models
A long tradition, started with the 1736 paper by Leonhard Euler on the
Königsberg bridges, has provided a comprehensive set of mathematical
tools for analysing networks and the graphs they represent. During the
twentieth century, these techniques have been applied to the study of a
wide range of systems. In the first half of last century, the ideas and tech-
niques developed for the study of these abstract objects are applied to a
completely different field. Realising that a group of individuals can be rep-
resented by enumerating the actors of the group and their mutual relation-
ships, sociologists start using graph theory and methods to describe and
analyse the patterns of social relations (Freeman, 2004). In the last years,
an active community of physicists and mathematicians has then exploited
the huge amount of data available in digital form through the Internet to
develop a whole new set of models. With these it has been possible to
describe static structural and dynamical characteristics of a wide range of
natural and artificial complex networks (Albert & Barabási, 2002; Bocca
letti, Latora, Moreno, Chavez & Hwang, 2006; Watts, 2004).
Several measurements are available today to characterise a network
structure (da Fontoura Costa, Rodrigues, Travieso & Villas Boas, 2007).
Their origins can be traced to a combination of those coming from the tra-
dition of social network analysis with the outcomes of the work of the
community of statistical physicists. A few of these metrics are normally
considered sufficient to describe fully topology and behaviour of a complex
network:
128 R. Baggio and M. Antonioli Corigliano
• Degree distribution P(k): the frequency distribution of the number of
the linkages among the network elements.
• Average path length L: the mean shortest path between any two nodes,
and diameter D: the maximal distance connecting any two nodes.
Compact networks exhibit small values for D and L.
• Clustering coefficient C: a measure of the inhomogeneity of the local
density of links expressing the concentration of the connections of a
node’s neighbours.
• Assortativity: the correlation between the degrees of neighbour nodes.
If positive (assortative network), the well-connected elements tend to
be linked to each other. The formation of strongly connected subnet-
works (communities) and their strength are strongly affected by this
quantity.
• Efficiency (local Eloc or global Eglob): giving a quantitative measurement
of the capacity of the system to exchange information over the
network.
Methodology
The analysis presented here concerns the network formed by the websites
belonging to core tourism operators in each destination: accommodation
(hotels, residences, camping sites etc.), intermediaries (travel agencies and
tour operators), transport, regulation bodies, services, etc. Links among
the websites were listed by using a simple crawler and complementing the
data obtained with a ‘manual’ count of the hyperlinks to overcome the
limitations of the program used (such as, for example, the impossibility to
find hyperlinks embedded in Flash applications or Java applets). All links
are considered of directed nature. The statistical analysis of the network
Tourism destinations 129
thus obtained is carried on by using a standard software package: Pajek
(Batagelj & Mrvar, 2004) and programs written using the Matlab
(MATLAB, 2004) development environment.
The graphical representation of the two networks is given in Figure
10.1. As it can be seen, both networks exhibit a definite structure, very dif-
ferent from what it would be if the links were distributed at random. The
numeric values calculated for the main characteristic parameters of the two
networks are given in Table 10.1.
These characteristics indicate that both networks are rather sparse,
showing very low densities and high proportions of totally unconnected
websites. Diameters and average path lengths are almost in line with those
exhibited by similar systems (Albert & Barabási, 2002; Boccaletti et al.,
2006). The relatively small values for D and L would denote a good com-
pactness of the main connected components of both networks. However,
the clustering coefficient and the local and global efficiency of the graphs
are considerably lower than those found for comparable arrangements.
Elba Fiji
Discussion of findings
When considering the data presented here as regarding a purely technolo-
gical network, we must conclude that the low connectivity and modularity
(i.e. low and sparse number of connected communities or clusters) and the
low efficiency represent a waste of resources both from a technical and an
organisational point of view. These destinations appear to be missing out
on the advantages of collaboration and cooperation mechanisms on the
1.0E � 02 1.0E � 02
1.0E � 01 1.0E � 01
1.0E � 00 1.0E � 00
1.0E � 00 1.0E � 01 1.0E � 02 k 1.0E � 00 1.0E � 01 1.0E � 02 k
Figure 10.2 In-degree and out-degree cumulative distributions for Elba and Fiji
networks.
Tourism destinations 131
Internet that could greatly improve the organisation and the management
of the destination and its capacity to face a highly competitive globalised
market. The benefits of sharing technological resources and functionalities
should be well known and have been emphasised several times (Barua,
Whinston & Yin, 2000; McLaren, Head & Yuan, 2002; Walker, 2002),
but in the destinations examined here this looks to be almost completely
neglected. From a strategic development perspective, the situation is even
more dangerous. Future search engines and recommendation systems, in
fact, will be based on dynamic agents whose main task is the dynamic
identification of connected communities on the web (Adomavicius &
Tuzhilin, 2005; Baggio, 2006; Lawrence, 2000). The websites of tourism
operators in destinations not forming well-recognisable ‘communities’
through dense interconnections will be hardly reachable by a casual user.
This will have, obviously, unfavourable consequences for the effectiveness
of the marketing and communication activities and their economic
outcomes.
As discussed above, an assumption of this work is that the network of
destination websites represents more than an artificial technological
network. The web space of a tourism destination can be seen as a represen-
tation of the underlying economic and social network. In this context, our
analysis can provide interesting insights. Under this assumption, the
general low connectivity and low clustering characteristics of both net-
works are a clear indication of a very limited degree of collaboration or
cooperation among the stakeholders. The negativity of the assortative
mixing coefficient also reinforces this reading (Baggio, 2007). A confirma-
tion of this interpretation comes from previous studies on Elba (Tallinucci
& Testa, 2006) where it has been argued that a reason is the strong inde-
pendency in which small family-run enterprises (the vast majority of the
tourism businesses on the island) are conducted. The same effect is tracea-
ble in Fiji. Here, the structure of the tourism industry is mainly based on
large resorts that have little collaboration with other organisations (Harri-
son, 2004).
Let us consider now the degree distributions (Figure 10.2). The out-
degree distribution of Fiji network exhibits a marked cut-off at high k. The
complex network analysis literature interprets this characteristic as the
result of some kind of constraint on the evolution (growth) process of the
network. Cost limitations in forming connections, ageing of nodes who
stop creating links after a certain period of time, spatial confinements of
the network or finite lifetimes, have been proposed as possible explana-
tions (Boccaletti et al., 2006).
Considering the destinations’ characteristics described above, if we
accept the idea that a tourism destination has some kind of evolutionary
path (Butler, 1980), we may legitimately say that Fiji is at an earlier stage
of development, as a tourism destination, than Elba. In early stages of
development, tourism organisations exist, but they have not yet connected
132 R. Baggio and M. Antonioli Corigliano
to others. This happens because they probably do not feel such a necessity
or because they have not yet recognised the existence of other stakehold-
ers. Larger organisations or associations, generally responsible for the
higher degrees in the network, still have to establish a link with the newer
nodes. We may say that, in this situation, there exists a limitation in (some
of) the nodes’ ability to process information about all the other nodes of
the network. This information filtering is able to generate (Mossa, Bar-
thélémy, Stanley & Amaral, 2002) the exponential truncation found in the
degree distribution of a network, in our case the one of Fiji websites.
A confirmation to the existence of a relationship between the modifica-
tions in the network topology and the evolution of a destination has also
been found in other cases. Even if only at a qualitative level, for example,
Pavlovich and Kearins (2004) in their analysis of Waitomo (New Zealand)
note a significant structural change, with an increase in number and hetero
geneity of the interconnections, and connect it with the evolutionary
growth of the destination.
The exploratory investigation presented in this chapter has a number of
important implications in the field of tourism studies. First of all it must be
noticed that the results discussed here have been obtained by combining a
quantitative and a qualitative approach. As in many other disciplines, in
fact, the results of numerical analyses, to be ‘useful’ and significant, need a
solid layer of interpretation that can only be possible by recurring to the
outcomes of qualitative studies on the same subject. Conversely, qualita-
tive investigations can greatly benefit from the possibility of an ‘independ-
ent’ quantitative confirmation of the results. This is the case, for example,
of the use of specific network metrics for assessing the extent of coop
eration in a destination.
The application of network analysis to the management of both single
and groups of organisations is not a new idea. The framework, the
methods for both data collection and analysis and the implications in
organisation theory and research have been known for a long time, at least
among some (although not many) scholars (Tichy, Tushman & Fombrun,
1979).
Managers willing to encourage effective networking practices should be
first aware of the structure and the general dynamic behaviour of a
network. The structure can be studied by using method such as those pre-
sented in this chapter and the patterns of change can be identified and
measured as it has been done in comparing the different maturity stages of
Elba and Fiji. With such an environmental knowledge, it may be more
comfortable to evaluate the stakeholder’s role in the network and to assess
the congruence between its strategic goals and possible evolutionary sce-
narios. The acknowledgement of the path of system’s evolution and its
implications may put a manager in a better position to take full advantage
of the opportunities while avoiding the threats related to the configuration
(Koka, Madhavan & Prescott, 2006).
Tourism destinations 133
A great part of the effectiveness of a networked system is due to the
actions of individual actors and single stakeholders may benefit from a
network involvement apart from the form of governance. However, it has
been shown that collective outcomes, effectiveness and behaviours are sig-
nificantly influenced by governance forms based on a systemic approach
(Berry et al., 2004; Farrell & Twining-Ward, 2004). And this is more valid
when considering an inherently networked system such as a tourism desti-
nation (Agostinho & Teixeira de Castro, 2003; Bickerdyke, 1996).
From a policy perspective, ‘when governments, communities, founda-
tions, or regional industry groups think about how they can improve their
economy, disaster preparedness, competitiveness, health and well-being of
citizens, and so on, collaboration through an interorganizational network
is an approach that is increasingly utilized’ (Provan, Fish & Sydow, 2007,
p. 512). The governance style of a network system can have significant
implications for its overall effectiveness. An effective management requires
the capability to appreciate and react to both internal and external
demands, mainly when dealing with the tensions that may arise (Provan &
Kenis, 2008). In this respect, the methods of network science can prove
highly beneficial in deepening the knowledge of the whole system and,
coupled with more traditional procedures, can provide powerful tools to
enable those adaptive management practices considered by many the only
practical way to steer the collective efforts of multiple organisations
(Bankes, 2002; Farrell & Twining-Ward, 2004; Holling, 1978; Ritter,
Wilkinson & Johnston, 2004).
The possibility to analyse in a quantitative way the relationships between
tourism operators opens new ways to the researcher interested in the struc-
ture, the evolution, the outcomes, the effectiveness and the governance of
the system. In addition, these methods and the emphasis on the whole
network and not only on the particular relations that any organisation
might have, offer effective tools to practitioners, both at single operator and
at whole destination level, to strengthen their capacity of intervention.
As discussed in the introduction, not much has been done so far in
tourism studies when network analysis is concerned. Only a few authors
have approached the different management, policy and governance issues
by using these methods (Morrison, Lynch & Johns, 2004; Pavlovich &
Kearins, 2004; Pforr, 2002; Scott, Cooper & Baggio, 2008). This work has
shown how it is possible to use network analysis techniques in the tourism
field and what kind of outcomes and considerations may emerge. Obvi-
ously this is only the beginning of a research that will be long, but has a
great potential.
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11 Exploring stakeholder roles in
destination management
networks
Meredith Lawrence
Introduction
Understanding the process in which decision making for tourism occurs
is considered to provide possibly the most important tool in the sustainable
management of tourism (Richins & Pearce, 2000). As tourism planning
and policy development takes place in dynamic, multi-actor settings, it is
important to understand how different conceptions of tourism, different
values and ideas are mediated in planning and policy processes (Hall &
Jenkins, 1995). Understanding tourism policy and planning processes,
however, requires the analyst to step beyond a single issue to develop an
appreciation for the multilayered, cross-sectoral issues that characterise
tourism (Lawrence & Dredge, 2007). Understanding these processes is
important for two reasons: (1) investigating how policy is made can help
develop explanatory insights that can be fed back into the process by way
of refinement and improvement; and (2) insights into how policy is made
can be used to develop normative models of policy that may inform policy
practice and management (Lawrence & Dredge, 2007).
Analysis should also examine the ‘calibre of activists, the extent of
mobilization among those affected by policies and the outlooks or
ideologies of the many actors who populate a system’ (Considine, 1994,
p. 105). As these stakeholders do not function independently, policy
is considered to emerge as a result of group achievement that reflects
the character, wisdom and negotiations of interdependent individuals
(p. 105). As a consequence, policy emerges because individuals find
ways to act together, and although conflict-ridden policy is primarily a
joint action among a complex range of actors (p. 105). As Considine
(p. 105) contends, ‘tracing the line of joint effort, including those which
fail, reveals a dazzling array of manoeuvres’. This chapter draws on
concepts derived from policy network theories to develop critical under-
standings of network dynamics of stakeholders actively engaged in tourism
destination policy and management systems. From this, a second aim
of this chapter is to demonstrate the application of this theoretical
framework to examine the policy and destination management system that
Exploring stakeholder roles 139
has occurred for the popular Australian destination of Byron Bay from
1988 to 2005.
Literature review
Studying networks has become an accepted way of understanding
organisational life (Stevenson & Greenberg, 2000) and a major focus for
organisational theorists since the mid 1970s (Milward & Wamsley, 1984).
Networks can be considered from various organisational perspectives, for
example, how inter-organisational business networks function, and from a
policy network perspective, where networks are seen as an important
conduit for managing public–private relationships and understanding
structures of governance (Dredge, 2003). Although traditionally two
separate branches of literature, there has been an increasing tendency to
connect the political and organisational socio-logical theoretical notions
with each other given that both pay attention to strategies that
organisations use to influence each other (Klijn, 1996).
Policy networks have therefore emerged as powerful organising
perspectives in efforts to understand relational conceptions of destination
management policy making (e.g. Burstein, 1991; Dredge, 2001, 2003,
2006a; Kerr, 2003; Marsh, 1998; Milward & Walmsley, 1984; Rhodes,
1997; Tyler & Dinan, 2001). Actor or stakeholder networks are considered
to provide a key role in our understanding of how policy systems learn,
innovate and act upon themselves (Dluhy, 1981, cited by Considine, 1994,
p. 104). According to Rowley (1997, p. 6) ‘the purpose of network analysis
is to examine the relational system in which actors dwell and to determine
how the nature of relationship structures impacts behaviours’. The study
of tourism policy and management systems framed around concepts of
policy networks provides a mechanism to examine the way in which the
structure of relations, the flow of power, influences and resources surround
formal collaborative mechanisms and partnerships (Dredge, 2003).
Tyler and Dinan (2001) surmise that a network approach is worthwhile
and justifiable as an approach to explain and describe much about the
structure and operations within the tourism policy arena. They adopted a
policy network approach to examine the role of interest groups and their
relationship with government in tourism policy development in England.
Similarly, Kerr (2003) applied a policy network approach to explain
patterns of interest group interaction in tourism policy in Scotland. Kerr
(2003) argued that a policy network approach facilitates a description of
the processes in which tourism is managed, organised and developed, and
allows the link between micro-levels and macro-levels of decision making
to be explored. Tyler and Dinan (2001) suggest that a longitudinal study
of the policy sector would be beneficial in tracking how a network
develops over time, and that this would help to show how policy dynamics
are established, how they vary with time, how they vary between the
140 M. Lawrence
strategic policy making and the development of technical policy
programmes and to expand research away from just the trade and
associated groups to include the many amenity groups that manage the
tourism resources and represent destination communities. Hall (2000)
further suggests that social and economic networks provide a useful way
of capturing a conception of relational social dynamics that exist in
tourism planning and everyday life.
Dredge (2006a) advocates that case studies can contribute important
insights into the role and influence of networks and are best understood at
the level at which destination planning and management takes place. She
also points out that historical applications of networks to tourism at a
destination level are rare, and that there is a need for the greater
understanding of the interplay between micro and macro influences that
shape the evolution of networks over time and space. Dredge (2004,
2006a) identifies a number of factors that can be used to examine how
networks intersect and influence tourism policy and planning processes at
a destination level. These factors were derived by Dredge from seminal
work of Van Waarden (1992) and developed by Howlett and Ramesh
(1995), Klijn (1995), Marsh (1998) and others. These factors are:
• the institutional space in which the tourism policy and planning occurs
– the extent to which the planning process is seen to occur within a
legitimate institutional space and the congruency between the
interpretations of this institutional space by different networks;
• issue networks – the characteristics of policy issue networks;
• policy spaces of inclusion and exclusion – the influence of networks on
creating spaces of collaboration and non-collaboration;
• spaces of collaboration and non-collaboration – the influence of
networks on spaces of collaboration and non-collaboration;
• boundaries of tension and difference – the nature of boundaries of
difference, and whether these are sites of conflict and tension or sites
of learning, innovation and creativity;
• locus of control and decision making – where power is situated;
• the nature of relational ties – the influence of relational ties between
networks;
• upon collaborative planning processes.
This study uses these factors to investigate the properties and dynamics of
policy issue networks that emerged within the destination management
system for Byron Bay from 1988 to 2005. As Dredge (2006a, p. 272)
explains the use of networks as a framework for the analysis of tourism
planning and policy processes facilitates improved understandings of how
‘policy emerges from a complex web of interactions between a diversity of
public and private sector actors and agencies’.
Exploring stakeholder roles 141
Methodology
A case study research design was utilised to trace and explore the roles,
activities and network interactions of stakeholders actively involved in the
Byron Bay tourism policy and planning system. Three data collection
methods were used: (1) analysis of archival sources (e.g. academic literat-
ure, reports and consultancies, policy and planning documents and media
reports); (2) semi-structured interviews with 39 participants representing
stakeholder groups (see Table 11.1); and (3) participant observation by the
researcher at relevant forums and meetings related to the system from Feb-
ruary 2003 until June 2005. These methods were used to trace and explore
the roles, activities, influences and interactions of stakeholders within the
system from 1988 to 2005. For the purposes of this research, a stakeholder
group was defined as any individual or group that had actively been
involved in the system during 1988 to 2005.
A purposeful sampling technique was used to identify representatives of
stakeholder groups actively functioning within the Byron Bay tourism
policy and planning system from 1988 to 2005. Representatives of stake-
holder groups were identified using a ‘reputations’ approach where the
researcher studies all or some of those named on a list of nominees pro-
duced by knowledgeable informants. Three informants were selected based
on their knowledge of tourism policy and planning processes at regional,
Notes
* Some participants represented more than one stakeholder group.
142 M. Lawrence
state and national levels pertinent to Byron Bay. These informants helped
devise a potential list of interviewees who were reputed to be the members
of the system and were knowledgeable about tourism and policy and plan-
ning issues and processes that had occurred for Byron Bay from 1988 to
2005. A snowball technique was used whereby interview participants were
asked to identify other informants within the system and interviews were
conducted until no new information was revealed. A semi-structured inter-
view format was used to guide the interview process in order to provide a
fluid responsive interview environment where emerging themes and issues
could be explored.
Discussion of findings
This part of the chapter presents a case analysis of the policy and destina-
tion management system that pertains to the popular Australian destina-
tion in Byron Bay by exploring the roles, activities and interactions of the
various institutional stakeholders involved in policy decision making and
destination management for the destination from 1988 to 2005 as inter-
preted by participants in this study. Discussion throughout the case study
144 M. Lawrence
analysis integrates concepts derived from policy network theories. It should
be noted that due to word space restrictions only an overview of the roles
of principal stakeholders is presented.
NRRDB
TNSW*
Destination level
NRT
Byron
Shire
Council
NPWS*
‘Collaborative’ planning
issue networks on selected
planning processes and
issues
Key:
BSC Byron Shire Council
DIPNR Dept. Infrastructure
Planning and Natural Resources
DSRD Dept. State and Regional
Development
NRRDB Northern Rivers Regional
Development Board
NPWS National Parks and Wildlife
Service
NRT Northern Rivers Tourism
TNSW Tourism New South Wales
Strong link
Weaker link
Boundary of policy subsystem
Figure 11.1 Nature of relational ties: the Byron Bay planning and destination man-
agement system (source: adapted from Dredge, 2006b).
Note
* At regional and state levels.
Furthermore, this case study has shown that analysis of tourism policy
and planning processes requires the analyst to step beyond a single issue or
sector to develop an appreciation of the multilayers, cross-sectoral issues
that characterise tourism (Lawrence & Dredge, 2007). In addition, this
study has demonstrated interrelated conceptions of the attributes of a par-
ticular place with the socio-political processes that have shaped the devel-
opment and implementation of policies (Hall, 2000).
Introduction
The tourism industry is an essential element in the Spanish economy,
reaching 11 per cent of the GDP in 2005 (National Statistical Institute,
INE 2005). According to the Centre of Sociological Research (2005), in
Spain most leisure trips are family related, which makes this institution a
fundamental field of research. New types of tourism (rural, sports, cultural,
adventure, etc.) are going from strength to strength as a response to new
consumer lifestyles. In this sense, Scott and Parfitt (2004) state, “recrea-
tional trips and leisure activities have always been lifestyle choices and are
becoming lifestyle purchase”.
In an academic context, those facts are also reflected in new research
lines. Researchers are considering new psychographic variables to under-
stand tourist behaviour (Bigné, Andreu & Gnoth, 2005). Destination
image, satisfaction and quality are common issues in tourism purchase
(Bigné, Sánchez & Sánchez, 2001; Chen & Tsai, 2007). From a marketing
perspective, lifestyles are seen as a way of understanding how people
choose tourism services (Thyne & Laws, 2005). Consequently, it is of
interest to find the relationships between holiday decisions and the
lifestyles of those who make them. A revision of the literature reveals
that the 1980s saw a profusion of studies related to the role of women
in the family holiday decision-making process. Nevertheless, despite
the evident relationship between lifestyles and tourism consumption, there
is a lack of literature that separately analyses the role of such variables
among women. The present study aims to bridge that gap. More specifi-
cally, we will analyse the influence of lifestyles on women’s role in holiday
decisions.
If such a relationship is confirmed, tourism companies will be able to
improve their communication programmes, since they will know which
specific decisions are made by women and to which lifestyle they can
address their promotion actions, being the receivers part of their target
public. The findings have a remarkable relevance for the sector managers,
as they will obtain added value through the contribution of their services.
158 M. J. Barlés et al.
This will increase tourists’ satisfaction and trigger their return to the desti-
nation and their positive recommendation to relatives and friends.
Methodology
Along the last trimester of 2006, a questionnaire was designed and passed
to a convenience sample of women who were married or living with a
partner. Of these, 328 surveys were responded and 300 were valid (42.9
per cent). Prior to the design of the survey, two pre-tests were conducted in
order to avoid certain problems. The survey was divided into three parts.
The first gathered questions on the influence of the couple on product and
service purchase decisions (holiday decisions) and persuasion tactics. The
second included questions on women’s lifestyles. Finally, the third con-
sisted of some socio-economic and demographic questions. The sample
description is displayed in Table 12.1.
Note
N refers to the sample size.
The variables considered in this study are divided into two types: the
ones that consider holiday decisions (endogenous) and those that define
women’s lifestyle (exogenous). In our case, considering the revision of the
literature and the peculiar characteristics of family holidays in Spain, we
decided to include the following sub-decisions: fixing holiday dates, dura-
tion, budget, information search, destination, accommodation, board
accommodation, ticket purchase, packing, places to eat, places to visit and
activities to do at the destination.
A 5-point Likert scale was employed, where 1 corresponded to “a
totally male decision” and 5 to “a totally female decision”. On the other
hand, lifestyles were measured through the AIO scale developed by
162 M. J. Barlés et al.
González (1998) for the Spanish case, from Plummer’s work (1974).
González (1998) carried out a qualitative validation of this scale through
several expert interviews and meeting groups. In the questionnaire, the
AIO scale collects three concepts (activities, interests and opinions) by
means of five questions. On the one hand, the activities subscale is meas-
ured by two questions. The first collects different hobbies and women’s
likings such as listening to music, shopping, sightseeing, going out at
nights, going to the cinema, theatres, museums and doing physical exer-
cises. The second gathered women’s fondness by several TV and radio pro-
grammes. On the other hand, the interests and opinions subscales are
measured through three questions referring to diverse global aspects:
society, work, justice, family, friends, life, fashion, etc. All the variables
were measured through a 5-point Likert scale, where 1 corresponded to
“unimportant” and 5 to “very important” for activities items, and for
interests and opinions items, 1 corresponded to “completely disagree” and
5 to “completely agree”.
Discussion of findings
The cultural environment in Spain is not the same as in the USA and since
an American scale was used in our study, it was considered to validate it.
Hence several principal exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were
conducted. Following the exploratory and confirmatory analyses, the “fit”
of the proposed model outlined in Figure 12.1 was tested using the EQS
6.1v. statistical program. Results from these analyses produced seven
factors.
In the holiday decisions scale, items were grouped into two dimensions.
The first one consisted of five items related to decisions before holiday
(DBD) (destination, accommodation, travelling, etc.), and the second one
gathered two items referred to decisions made during holidays (DDH)
(shopping, sightseeing, activities to do, etc.). These two constructs were
our dependent variables.
Regarding AIO scale, we obtained five factors that acted as independent
variables in the structural equation modelling analysis. For the activities
subscale the analysis provided three dimensions. The first one is called
“cultural outdoor activities” (COA), which gathered three items on
women’s outdoor hobbies (cinema, concerts, dancing, sightseeing). The
second and third dimensions collected women’s likings by documentaries
(DP) and debates (D) on TV and radio, respectively. And, for the interest
and opinion subscale, items assembled in two factors. The first dimension
gathered five items on women’s interest and opinion about professional
success (PIO), and the second one included two items on women’s interest
and opinion about social justice (SJIO) (Table 12.2).
Results from these analyses corroborate that data fitted well with the
proposed model and justified the existence of such dimensions (Bagozzi &
Table 12.2 Confirmatory factor analysis and final reliability
Note
Variables have been obtained from González (1998). This is a reduced version of the AIO
scale after the validation analysis was conducted.
164 M. J. Barlés et al.
Yi, 1988; Del Barrio & Luque, 2000). Moreover, convergent and discrimi-
nant validity was guaranteed (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). These factors
(DBH, DDH, COA, DP, D, PIO, SJIO) were used as input variables for the
structural equation analysis. All structural equation models were assessed
using the Robust Maximum Likelihood method.
Table 12.3 and Figure 12.2 show the results obtained in this analysis.
Regarding the first relationship between women’s activities and vacation
decisions, data indicate that only outdoor activities influence those
decisions that are taken before holidays. Moreover, women’s fondness for
some TV or radio programmes seems to have no influence on either pre-
holiday decisions or decisions made during the stay at the destination.
Therefore, hypothesis 2, which said that women’s activities would influ-
ence in their role in vacation decisions, would be partially confirmed.
The relationships between, first, women’s interests and vacation
decisions and, second, women’s opinions and vacation decisions are clearly
defined, as data specify. Thus, it is shown that women’s professional inter-
est and opinion determine the role they have in pre- and during holiday
decisions, as well as women’s interest and opinion about social justice have
shown to be the strongest determinant of these decisions. Therefore,
COA1
COA2 COA
H2
COA3 0.124*** R2 � 0.41
H2 DBH1
0.104 D1 0.77
DP1 DP H2 DBH2
H2 0.072
�0.074 DBH
DBH3
H2
D1 D 0.034 DBH4
H2
0.033 DBH5
PI01
H3 and H4
PI02 0.113** DDH1
DDH
PI03 PIO
H3 and H4 DDH2
0.15**
PI04 D2 0.63
H3 and H4
0.61* R2 � 0.61
SJI01 H3 and H4
SJIO 0.76*
SJI02
Notes
* means it is significant at 1% level, ** at 5% level,*** at 10% level.
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13 Access and use of e-commerce in
the Spanish tourism market
Juan Muro, Cristina Suárez and
María del Mar Zamora
Introduction
The use of the Internet has grown rapidly in a very short time, and nowa-
days it has become an indispensable product. Since 2000, the use of the
Internet in households and by individuals is widespread in developed coun-
tries. In the EU some countries, such as Germany, France and the UK, have
shown strong growth, as reflected in the data from the OECD (2007). The
Internet is a nearly perfect market with instantaneous information and
buyers comparing the offerings of sellers worldwide. In general, the Inter-
net could be deemed as an information system and also as an electronic
marketplace, so, these characteristics allow the Internet to be considered
an intermediary between buyers and sellers to exchange information about
prices and product offerings. One of the Internet markets that has been
developing towards higher levels of sales is the online travel-tourist market,
which has increased by as much as 34 per cent from 2004 to 2005 (Mar-
cussen, 2006).
The advantage of the use of the Internet with a tourism purpose is
twofold: it can act as a promotional tool or it can be used focusing on its
capacity to do e-trade. At first, the promotional application was the reason
why the tourist became so interested in the Internet. The second reason
was e-commerce, which should be understood as reservations and/or shop-
ping for tourist products. There are some studies that analyse demographic
characteristics linked with the individual decision to use the Internet
(Cassel, 1999; Goolsbee, 2000; Madden, Savage & Simpson, 1996; Rap-
poport, Kridel & Taylor, 2003). Others examine the consumer’s behaviour
in the online markets (Brynjolfsson & Smith, 2000; Clemons, Hann &
Hitt, 2002). However, the empirical literature on e-commerce for tourist
travel decisions is very scarce. It is limited to some mainly descriptive
papers, for Spain IBIT (2001), or for others not related to tourism consult
(Alm & Melnik, 2005; Goolsbee, 2000).
Our chapter focuses on the influence that e-commerce is having on the
tourist industry by assuming that tourists compare the stochastic utility of
several alternatives and select the one that maximizes their utility. Also,
The Spanish tourism market 171
considering that access to and use of the Internet are different concepts,
this chapter demonstrates how observed and unobserved determinants of
the access to the Internet with a tourism purpose are important in order to
buy online tourist travel products or services. With this purpose, we next
review a conceptual framework that explains the tourists’ choice in an
e-commerce model. We then describe the database and move on to show
the empirical results and the analysis on the factors that influence the
decision of e-commerce choice for foreign tourists who come to Spain.
Finally, we present the main conclusions on the impact of e-commerce on
the tourist purchase decision experience in Spain.
where q = (q1, . . ., qk) represents the vector of goods that can be purchased
preferably in traditional commerce (for example restaurant meals),
z = (z1, . . ., zn) denotes consumer goods that can be purchased in online
commerce and in traditional commerce, where they are perfect substitutes
(for example hotel beds) and, finally, d = (d1, . . ., dr) represents a good that
can be purchased preferably in online commerce (for example low-cost
airlines).
The consumer balance will be reduced to:
Subject to:
pq q + pz z + pd d = Y
where pq, pz and pd are the vectors of prices and Y represents the income
level.
In this setting each tourist is assumed to have to choose between tourist
goods that can be purchased in online commerce and in traditional com-
merce. Due to the cross-sectional nature of the database it is assumed a
myopic behaviour. For any given tourist, defined by means of individually
observed characteristics, his/her utility is derived from a number of
172 J. Muro et al.
observed goods attributes and travel features and a set of unobservable
ones. The probability that a tourist i will choose to buy online equals the
probability associated with a positive difference in the comparisons
between the utility derived from buying online and the utility related to
traditional commerce. The difference between the online commerce and
the traditional commerce can be represented as an unobserved latent vari
able Yi*. So
Yi = 0 if Yi* ≤ 0.
However, one only observes Yi for observation i if the tourist has decided
to obtain access to the Internet (Ci = 1), where Ci* follows
where
Ci = 0 if Ci* ≤ 0.
Methodology
We use Spanish data on foreign tourism that come from the 2004 wave of
EGATUR (Encuesta de Gasto Turístico) the Spanish Foreign Tourist
Expenditure Survey provided by the Spanish Tourism Studies Institute
(Instituto de Estudios Turísticos), which has the responsibility of studying
all the factors impinging on tourism, together with drawing up and com-
piling statistics, information and data on tourism. This survey offers an
The Spanish tourism market 173
accurate idea of the total tourism expenditure made by foreign visitors
who come to Spain month by month on various types of trips. It also anal-
yses key aspects of the tourists’ behaviour and socio-demographic charac-
teristics. The survey is a questionnaire answered by 60,011 foreign tourists
visiting Spain and collected on a monthly basis in the frontiers, and it
requests information on socio-economic characteristics of the tourists. The
EGATUR sample does not have problems of selection bias because the
data include all types of tourists arriving in Spain and not only those that
use the Internet with a tourism purpose.
To highlight the importance of tourist access to the Internet and tourist
use of online shopping, we remark that 40 per cent of tourists use the
Internet as a way of obtaining information to visit Spain. If we analyse
those tourists who use the Internet, we show that the greater number of
those correspond to tourists who purchase with e-commerce (61.3 per
cent).
Table 13.1 shows descriptive statistics for the whole sample and the
access to the Internet sample. Independent variables have been defined as
dummy variables, which take a value of 1 if the tourist belongs to the cat-
egory specified and 0, otherwise. While most of the characteristics are
similar across the samples, it is important to remark the growing impor-
tance of e-commerce in products related to tourism in both samples. In
general, the tourist that is most likely to use e-commerce has the following
characteristics: country of residence UK, main destination the community
of Valencia, travel in low cost company, without package tour and with
university education.
Also, a peculiar fact is observed: on average, the younger tourist
presents a strong presence in the use of the Internet, as is expected, but
when the study analysed the sample of tourists with access to the Internet,
the behaviour changed and older people preferred the e-commerce. This
suggests the presence of a threshold age level under which older people do
not find the use of Internet profitable, but when they use these new tech-
nologies they are more likely to use e-commerce, especially if the purpose
of the trip is to relax (sun and beach).
Discussion of findings
The specifications proposed in the second part of this chapter can be
summarized with the following equations: the selection equation, which is
related to Internet access with a tourism purpose (equation (2)), and the main
equation, which is related to online commerce and is only observed if Inter-
net access exists (equation (1)). These equations incorporate a group of
common variables included in Xi and Zi, which are related to characteristics
that can influence tourist purchase choices and the possibility to undertake
certain activities, and they are common in both decisions (Internet access
versus no Internet access, and online commerce versus traditional commerce).
Table 13.1 Percentage of e-commerce by tourists’ characteristics, trip attributes and other control variables
Φ(X′iβ, D = 1)
TPEDi = _____________
– 1 +
Φ(X′iβ, D = 0) (direct effect)
Ξ(D = 1)
+ _________
Ξ(D = 0)
– 1 (indirect effect)
BVN(Yi = 1, C = 1) – Φ(X′iβ)Φ(Z′iγ)
Ξi(X′i β,Z′iγ,ρ = ________________________________
Φ(Z′iγ)
Notes
Reference tourist: more than 64 years old, other motives of travel, University education, Netherlands, more than C450 of spending per person and day,
without package tour, travel by road, Balearic Island, length of stay over eight days, first quarter, less than ten visits.
*** Level of significance 1, ** level of significance, 5, * level of significance 10.
Table 13.3 Estimated pseudo-elasticities
Pseudo-elasticity
Direct Indirect Total
Age and purpose of the trip
24 years and sun and beach 25.23 25.23
24 age 44 and sun and beach 15.05 15.05
44 age 64 and sun and beach 10.36 10.36
24 years and work and business– related –25.90 –25.90
24 age 44 and work and business related –53.73 –53.73
44 age 64 and work and business related –46.05 –46.05
Spending per person and day
Less than C50 96.68 67.89 164.56
Between C50 and C99 103.36 38.00 141.37
Between C100 and C149 95.99 20.91 116.89
Between C150 and C249 89.82 16.02 105.84
Between C250 and C450 52.83 8.19 61.02
Level of education
Basic education –36.30 –5.47 –41.77
Medium education –10.13 13.56 3.43
Country of residence
France –29.95 33.64 3.69
Germany 3.78 13.24 17.02
United Kingdom 46.88 20.12 67.01
Italy –29.06 –1.75 –30.81
Rest of the World –27.76 –1.86 –29.62
Organization with package tour –80.72 –52.19 –132.92
Type of travel
Full service airline 270.37 270.37
Low cost company 463.13 463.13
Tourist main destination
Rest of Spain –31.46 –32.07 –63.52
Andalusia –26.22 10.87 –15.35
Canary Island –69.39 –62.68 –132.07
Catalonia –8.49 –15.92 –24.41
Community of Valencia 37.79 2.39 40.18
Madrid –42.95 –24.89 –67.84
Length of stay
1 days 3 52.94 60.02 112.96
4 days 7 25.57 20.94 46.51
Seasonality
Second quarter –12.65 –12.89 –25.55
Third quarter –19.50 –13.25 –32.76
Fourth quarter –8.75 –15.82 –24.57
Number of visits 10 32.70 34.63 67.33
The Spanish tourism market 181
and lead to a mistake. In general the results show that the indirect pseudo-
elasticities are changing the values of the total pseudo-elasticities and
confirm the significance of controlling Internet access with a tourism
purpose.
With respect to the differences by origin market we find that a tourist
who comes from the UK presents the greatest probability of buying online;
as Marcussen (2006) points out, the UK became the largest online travel
market in Europe in the last years. On the other hand, the tourist who
comes from France has the lowest probability. British tourists are about 67
per cent more likely to buy online than the reference tourist. A curious
effect is produced with France: nearly all of the positive total effect of the
French tourist is the indirect effect on the probability itself, as opposed to
the direct effect, which has a negative one. The main destination for tour-
ists who access and purchase using the Internet is the community of Valen-
cia, while the Canary Islands show the lowest probability for tourism
e-commerce. The percentage change in probability to buy online for desti-
nation Valencia in relation to the reference tourist is 40.2 per cent more
likely and is the only positive one.
The trade-off among package holidays has a negative effect on the prob-
ability of e-commerce. The explanation of this result can be found in the
different ways of planning travel, directly or indirectly through distribution
channels such as travel agents. A new tourism distribution system has
emerged that requires a better knowledge of environments and the Internet
can act as a promotional tool and/or it can be used focusing on its capacity
to do e-commerce for individual tourists that planned their tourism
without a package. Also evidenced in Table 13.2 is the fact that the use of
a low cost airline to come to Spain increases the probability of e-commerce.
This is one of the most important characteristics of this type of company,
which prefers direct access to a consumer only through call centres and the
Internet, and also it is important to remark that the type of service most
demanded in the online market is air travel with 56 per cent of the
demand.
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14 The formation of destination
choice sets
An interpretive approach
Alain Decrop
Introduction
Consumers’ decision making (DM) is often presented as a sequential
process involving a series of steps from need recognition (awareness) to
final choice (purchase) through evaluation. In other words, product
decisions are thought to arise from cognitive, affective and conative stages
that lie at the core of hierarchy-of-effects (e.g., Lavidge & Steiner, 1961)
and most consumer behavior models (e.g., Engel, Kollat & Blackwell,
1973). Both product alternatives and attributes may be used as a reference
point when using such models. This chapter focuses on alternatives. The
way product or brand alternatives are first considered and then evaluated
in order to come to a final choice is the focus of choice set (CS) models.
These assume a funneling categorization process in which the number of
alternatives from all brands the consumer is aware of is narrowed down to
a single final choice. The concept of choice sets will be used as a generic
term throughout this chapter to point at the different sets of destination
alternatives that are considered by consumers in their choice processes.
The aim of the chapter is to reconsider CS theory, especially that which
is related to tourism and destination choice, in a qualitative interpretative
perspective. Two major arguments justify why such a “rediscovery” is
needed. First, extant literature on destination CS involves a few controver-
sies and dark zones. As shown later, most studies have focused on the
structure and size of sets and on some variables impacting on the funneling
process related to the formation of CS. In contrast, major aspects such as
the dynamics of CS evolving over time or the categorization and evaluation
processes underlying CS remain unexplored: “it is unclear how an indi-
vidual funnels the large number of alternatives from the initial CS to select
the final destination and which principles are used in the process, at least
from an empirical point of view” (Hong, Kim, Jang & Lee, 2006, p. 750).
Second, CS theory has been dominated by a cognitive–affective–conative
hierarchical and sequential vision that is in line with the idea of a
(bounded) rational decision maker but leaves few room for hedonistic,
adaptive and opportunistic perspectives that may be very important in
184 A. Decrop
vacation DM (Decrop & Snelders, 2005). Fournier and Mick (1999, p. 5)
warn that “reliance on a single paradigm or method may pose serious lim-
itations for any marketing phenomenon.” For these two reasons, reconsid-
ering CS theory is worthwhile: what are different types of CS? How do
they relate to each other? How stable are they over time? How do they
lead to choice? These questions are addressed here by investigating CS in
depth and dynamically, in their natural context.
Methodology
This chapter is part of a larger study on vacation DM in which the destina-
tion choice process of 25 Belgian decision-making units (DMUs) has been
followed for a whole year. Informants likely to yield rich and varied
information were selected in order to maximize theory development
(Strauss & Corbin, 1990). DMUs consisted of four types: six singles (rep-
resenting tourists who decide on their own), six couples (married or non-
married), ten families with children and three groups of friends.
Acknowledging any intention to go on summer vacation was the only cri-
terion to be eligible for the study. Informants were interviewed in depth
three times (in February, April and June) before the summer vacation. This
naturalistic longitudinal design helps to understand the context and
dynamics of CS evolving over time.
During each interview, most members of the DMU were present, includ-
ing children. Informants were asked to talk about three central themes:
186 A. Decrop
(1) general vacation and travel behavior, (2) expectations and motives
and (3) current vacation projects and considered destinations for the
summer. This third theme included questions about plans, CS, constraints
and situational variables, product alternatives and attributes, information
sources and previous experience. Most informants spontaneously men-
tioned a number of destinations when telling about their summer travel
plans. Moreover, more particular questions were asked, such as: Have
you considered particular travel destinations yet? Which destination(s)?
Why that (those) destination(s)? Are these destinations available to you?
Why? (If more destinations.) Which destination do you prefer or are you
most likely to go to? Are there some destinations where you will never go?
The analysis and interpretation of the interview transcripts was based
on the grounded theory approach, which is “a qualitative research method
that uses a systematic set of procedures to develop an inductively derived
grounded theory about a phenomenon” (Strauss & Corbin, 1990, p. 24).
Categories, patterns and propositions emerged from the coding process of
the data (rather than being imposed beforehand). Coding was made at
three levels (i.e., open, axial and selective) from the most descriptive to the
most interpretive, from the most concrete events to the most abstract proc-
esses. Memos and diagrams were used as well, to assist in interpretation
and establishing connections between concepts.
Discussion of findings
The emerging findings of this empirical study are presented following three
major themes. The first theme develops a typology of choice sets that
extends previous typologies by introducing two new types (i.e., dream and
surrogate sets). Next, the focus is on the size of destination evoked sets.
Finally, emerging issues of timelessness and turnarounds in the formation
of destination choice sets are discussed.
Alternative set Destinations that are not prioritized by the vacationer. These
include spare destinations (“one never knows . . .”) or
opportunistic destinations.
Awareness set Destinations the vacationer knows but does not express any
affection with. This set reveals knowledge but not intention.
Dream set Destinations that are considered as ideal places for traveling or
vacationing but are permanently unavailable because of enduring
structural inhibitors.
Evoked set Destinations considered spontaneously by the vacationer for
future (but not especially the next) summer vacation.
Excluded set Destinations definitely rejected by the vacationer (“I would never
stay there”).
Unavailable set Destinations considered by the vacationer that are temporarily
unavailable because of particular situational constraints.
the time this is the result of a general lack of interest (“New York does not
interest me at all”) or from an excessive weakness of the destination on
particular attributes (climate, nature, culture) that are highly valued by
informants. Motives and activities may also be the reason for excluding
particular destinations (e.g. a few informants avoid any “beach” destina-
tion, like Spain). Variety seeking and emotional factors also come into
play. Note that the excluded set may vary according to vacation motives
and definitions. The following quote illustrates how destinations like
Poland and Russia are excluded for vacationing (relaxing) but would not
be rejected for traveling (visiting):
In contrast with the excluded set, the unavailable set is composed of tem-
porarily and unwillingly rejected destinations. Findings show that this set
strongly depends on situational factors, which are concerned with a par-
ticular decision situation and become more important when the summer
vacation approaches. Time (related to occupation), money and children are
the major ones. It is not surprising that the unavailable set is less stable
than the excluded set. It also proves to be far less stable than the dream
set. The difference between the unavailable and the dream set is a reflec-
tion of the difference between situational, that is time and/or space-bound,
variables and enduring structural influences.
188 A. Decrop
Size of destination evoked sets
The evoked set is either composed of alternative destinations, in the sense
of one or the other, or of combined destinations, that is, a combination of
more destinations in the same vacation plan. In the data, the number of
evoked destinations ranges from zero to four. Most of the time, only one
or two destinations are evoked. It never happens that the informant spon-
taneously gives more than four alternative destinations. This is in line with
findings of previous studies presented above. Our data further show that
the number and evolution of evoked destinations is a function of involve-
ment (the higher involved, the larger and the less stable the evoked set),
and decision timing (the earlier the decision, the smaller and the more
stable the evoked set). Two emerging factors explain the limited size of
destination evoked sets. First, destination is not always the major vacation
choice criteria; as a result, informants do not process that item in much
depth. Second, destination proves to be a hyper-complex product. Belonax
and Mittelstaedt (1978) show that having more choice criteria leads to
larger evaluation costs and hence to smaller CS. When being asked whether
they had thought of other destinations than three evoked places (i.e.,
Turkey, Prague and Saint Petersburg), the parents of a large family
answered:
Louis: No, it’s already complicated enough to think about three. I don’t
think we thought about another one.
JacQueline: It’s already complicated enough! And after all, we don’t have
any other desires: it’s always the same ones that come back. Prague,
we will go there too, but maybe one time at Easter, for a week or . . .
We realize that maybe there are less tourists if we go in the off-peak
season, outside the main summer vacation time. It’s easier, it’s closer.
No, we haven’t thought of other things.
Other destinations are mentioned but these fall into the other sets described
above. However, these other sets are smaller than the evoked set, confirm-
ing Woodside and Lysonski (1989). When looking at the evolution of
evoked sets over time, there is a relative stability between the first (mean
t1 = 1.93 destinations/DMU or 1.62/Plan) and second series of interviews
(mean t2 = 1.96/DMU or 1.58/plan), and a slight reduction in the third
series (mean t3 = 1.72/DMU and 1.29/plan). Four groups can be
distinguished:
Unawareness set
All existing
destinations Excluded set
Awareness Final
set Surrogate choice
set Available set
Dream set
CONTEXT:
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Formation of destination choice sets 193
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15 Risk perceptions and risk
reduction strategies as
determinants of destination
choice
Arie Reichel, Galia Fuchs and Natan Uriely
Introduction
The destinations that backpackers choose to visit and their typical routes
of travel are considered, among other things, as seminal characteristics that
distinguish them from mass tourists (Cohen, 1972; Elsrud, 2001; Maoz,
2005; Noy, 2004; Uriely, Yonay & Simchai, 2002). However, the literat-
ure lacks a systematic comparison of backpackers who travel to different
destinations. Such an inquiry appears to be useful, for example, in light of
the tourist destination’s conventional development process, in which a des-
tination that was initially associated with backpacking might be trans-
formed over time into a commercialized location associated with mass
tourism (Butler, 1980; Smith, 1978; Westerhausen, 2002). In this regard,
one might assume that the segment of backpackers who travel to less
developed destinations that are exclusively associated with backpacking
would differ in terms of attitudes and activities from backpackers who
travel to destinations that they perceive as more developed or commercial-
ized. Note that this assumption receives support in the segmentation of
backpackers’ within Australia (Loker-Murphy, 1996). In an attempt to
advance this line of inquiry further, the current study examines differences
between Israelis who went backpacking in South and Central America and
their counterparts in Southeast Asia in terms of destination risk percep-
tions and risk reduction strategies.
Previous research suggests that the imagery of the “Far East” (Southeast
Asia) among Israeli backpackers has been that of spirituality, involving the
activities of periods of sojourn in ashrams, passive relaxation on tropical
beaches and the use of drugs (Mevorach, 1997; Maoz, 2006, 2007; Noy &
Cohen, 2005). In contrast, South and Central American destinations share
an image of adventure-related sites that involve risky activities and extreme
sports in natural settings, such as jungle trekking and mountain climbing
(Noy & Cohen, 2005). In congruence with the prevailing orientation of
most backpacking research to rely mainly on qualitative methods, these
observations rely predominantly on the researchers’ impressionistic
interpretations derived from interviews and ethnographic data. Thus, a
196 A. Reichel et al.
systematic quantitative comparison between Israeli backpackers who
traveled to Southeast Asia vs. those who traveled to South and Central
America appears to be useful in an attempt to validate these observations.
Furthermore, such a comparison would shed light on the role of destina-
tion choice as a discerning factor and segmentation basis within the back-
packing population.
Literature review
The study area of backpacking was initiated with the conceptual differenti-
ation between institutionalized and non-institutionalized tourist roles
(Cohen, 1972). The two categories were further classified by Cohen (1972)
into organized-group and individual mass tourists within institutionalized
tourism, and into explorers and drifters within non-institutionalized
tourism. The term “organized-group mass tourists” refers to the least
adventurous kinds of travelers, whose excursion is entirely planned within
the “environmental bubble” provided by the tourism industry. Conversely,
the term “drifters” refers to the most spontaneous and unconstrained kinds
of travelers who tend to shun regular tourist routes and use a minimum of
tourism facilities in trips that are mostly unplanned. Tourists who comply
with either the explorer or the drifter tourist roles were referred to in the
literature by various terms: nomads (Cohen, 1973); youthful travelers
(Teas, 1974); wanderers (Vogt, 1976); hitchhikers (Mukerji, 1978); tramp-
ing youth (Adler, 1985) and long-term budget travelers (Riley, 1988). Since
the 1990s, however, most studies on non-institutionalized tourists tend to
address their subjects of research as backpackers (Elsrud, 2001; Loker-
Murphy, 1996; Loker-Murphy & Pearce, 1995; Noy, 2004; Noy &
Cohen, 2005; Maoz, 2006, 2007; Muzaini, 2006; Pearce, 1990; Scheyvens,
2002; Sørensen, 2003; Teo & Leong, 2006; Uriely et al., 2002).
The issue of travel risk is an integral part of the backpacking experience
(Elsrud, 2001; Gibson & Jordan, 1998a, b). In general, the tourism experi-
ence is prone to influence by specific factors, such as bad weather,
unfriendly locals, airport strikes, distasteful local food, terror, crime, polit-
ical unrest, disease and natural disasters that raise the level of tourists’ per-
ceived risk (Fuchs & Reichel, 2004, 2006; Mansfeld, 1992; Pizam &
Mansfeld, 1996; Reisinger & Mavondo, 2005; Roehl & Fesenmaier, 1992;
Seaton & Bennett, 1996; Sönmez, 1998; Sönmez & Graefe, 1998a; Tsaur,
Tzeng & Wang, 1997; Witt & Mountinho, 1995). Reisinger and Movando
(2005) utilized 13 travel risk perceptions ranging from cultural to equip-
ment/functional, financial, health, physical, political, psychological, satis-
faction, social, airplane hijacking, bomb explosion, biochemical attack,
and time.
Tourists’ perceived risk is also identified in the literature as a determi-
nant of visitation patterns in various destinations. In this respect, Sönmez
and Graefe (1998b) examined types of risk associated with international
Determinants of destination choice 197
travel. Fuchs and Reichel (2004) found destination risk perception to be a
multidimensional concept that varies across nationalities and cultures.
Reisinger and Mavondo (2005) demonstrated that travel risk perception
was a function of cultural orientation and psychographic factors. Studies
in the field of consumer behavior indicate that as soon as the consumer has
experienced a certain level of risk, his/her behavior changes, from delaying
the purchase, to using strategies designed to reduce the level of risk to “tol-
erable” (Mowen & Minor, 1998; Roselius, 1971). Among mass tourists,
Fuchs and Reichel (2004) found risk reduction strategies ranging from col-
lecting information from travel agents, friends and relatives, the Internet,
to making short trips and choosing popular destinations.
The issue of travel risk particularly associated with the backpacking
experience was the focus of several studies. For example, Elsrud (2001),
and Gibson and Jordan (1998a, 1998b), found that risk and adventure are
central to the construction of backpacker identity. In this context, it can be
assumed that searching for information on the selected destination from
various sources or consulting with peers would serve to reduce risk percep-
tions. These practices may boost confidence in the decision to travel in
general and about a choice of destinations, in particular.
Note that none of the studies on backpackers has yet employed quanti-
tative research methods to compare backpackers in a specific destination
with their counterparts in another destination in terms of behavioral pro-
files. The only exception is Locker-Murphy’s study that briefly mentions
destination choice within Australia. In addition, taking into account the
relatively limited empirical and quantitative research on the risk perception
of the backpacker experience, the current study attempts to identify the
various dimensions of backpacking experience risk perceptions. Given
recent indications of the growing heterogeneity within backpacking in
terms of motivation, risk perceptions, attitudes and personal characteristics
(Cohen, 1972, 1973, 2004; Maoz, 2005; Reichel, Fuchs & Uriely, 2007;
Riley, 1988; Uriely et al. 2002), it is assumed that the risk perceptions as
well as risk reduction strategies associated with the backpacking experi-
ence would be heterogeneous as well. Specifically, the study examines pos-
sible variations in risk perception of backpackers whose destination was
South America vs. the Far East. Moreover, it is assumed that risk reduction
strategies will also vary according to the destination of choice. The afore-
mentioned two destinations are the prime choice of Israeli backpackers
(Maoz, 2005).
In sum, the purpose of this chapter is to compare Israeli backpackers
who chose the Far East as their preferred destination vs. those who chose
to travel in South America. The comparison is conducted in terms of desti-
nation risk perceptions and the ensuing risk reduction strategies.
198 A. Reichel et al.
Methodology
To explore backpackers’ risk perception and risk reduction strategies, a
questionnaire was applied. The risk perception part of the questionnaire is
based on Fuchs and Reichel’s (2004) questionnaire, which measures tourist
destination risk perception. The questionnaire was adapted to the back-
packer segment through a series of in-depth interviews conducted by the
authors with 12 backpackers who at the time attended two major universi-
ties in Israel. The interviews were semi-structured, focusing on the back-
packing experience and on risk perception toward the trip and destination
chosen.
The final questionnaire begins with a clarifying question as to whether
the respondent has had a backpacking experience during the last three
years. This part of the questionnaire deals with motives for visiting the
last backpacking destination, such as visiting new sights, new experiences
and meeting local people. The next part of the questionnaire includes
questions about planning the trip and actual implementation, including
fellow travelers and modes of transportation and accommodation. Next,
the aforementioned questions about the risk perception of the backpack-
ing trip before it took place were included. The respondents were asked
about perceptions prior to their trip in order to assess their level of risk
prior to the experience, i.e., before risk reduction strategies were utilized.
The questionnaire also included information about past experience and
socio-demographics.
The backpacker-adapted questionnaire was tested for clarity on a group
of 16 students with backpacking experience. After minor modifications,
the final version of the questionnaire was ready for distribution. A group
of six tourism and hospitality management students were trained in admin-
istering questionnaires as part of a senior year seminar. The students were
closely supervised by the authors. The sampling method was similar to
snowball effect. The core group of backpackers was identified through a
call for participation in a study on backpackers posted at the authors’ insti-
tutions. At an early stage of data collection, it became apparent that back-
packers form a special bond that enabled us to contact numerous subjects
based on recommendations of fellow backpackers. Moreover, approxi-
mately half of the subjects were approached on the train, while on their
way to school. This informal non-random method yielded hundreds of
responses, as most of those who identified themselves as having backpack-
ing experience were ready to cooperate. The informal Israeli culture, as
evident during inter-city train rides, makes it simple to approach people
and ask for cooperation without a sense of intrusion. Note that the
response rate is impossible to estimate, as it was not clear who did not
agree to respond based on lack of motivation or lack of backpacking
experience. Nevertheless, the unusually large sample, total of 579 usable
questionnaires, gives a certain level of parametric statistic comfort. Out of
Determinants of destination choice 199
the total sample, 223 backpackers chose to travel to the Far East and 179
chose to travel to South America. These two destinations are the most
popular choice for Israeli backpackers (Maoz, 2005). Other destinations
included Africa and Europe.
Discussion of findings
Out of the 579 respondents, 302 (52.2 percent) were male and 277 (47.8
percent) were female. The average age was 25. The youngest was 19 and
the oldest 39. The respondents averaged 14 years of formal education.
Most of the respondents (94.6 percent) served in the mandatory military
service in Israel. Among those who served in the military, 204 (37 percent)
served in combat units. As noted above, 223 chose the Far East while 179
chose South America. These two groups of backpackers were compared
and contrasted regarding the issues of perceived risk and risk reduction
strategies.
According to χ2 tests, no significant gender differences were found
between the two segments. Among those who traveled to the Far East,
there were 120 men (51.5 percent) and 113 women (48.5 percent). Among
those who traveled to South America, 95 were men (53.1 percent) and 84
(46.9 percent) women. In terms of military service, 95 percent of those
who traveled to the Far East served in the military, compared to 97 percent
of those who traveled to South America. Accordingly, χ2 tests showed no
differences between the two groups. Similarly, examining military combat
experience indicates no significant differences: 37 percent of the Far East
group served as combat soldiers, compared to 43 percent of the South
America group. In terms of age, the average age in the Far East group was
25.2 with a standard deviation of 2.0, and the average age in the South
American group was 25 with standard deviation of 2.3. Clearly, the two
groups are almost identical age wise. The results also reveal that for 32.7
percent of those who traveled to the Far East, it was the first trip as back-
packers compared to 21.7 percent of those who traveled to South America.
Accordingly, the χ2 test results were not significant.
To examine differences between the two groups in terms of risk percep-
tion, a two-step analysis was carried out. First, risk perception dimensions
were identified by means of factor analysis. The second step involved a dis-
criminant analysis of the two groups. As noted earlier, risk dimensions
were measured based on Fuchs and Reichel’s (2004) destination risk per-
ception questionnaire. Specific questions related to the backpacking experi-
ence originating from in-depth interviews with backpackers were added to
this questionnaire. To extract perceived risks of the backpacking experi-
ence, a factor analysis was utilized, employing the method of Principal
Component with Varimax rotation. The treatment of the missing values
was done according to the Listwise option. A summary of the results of the
factor analysis are presented in Table 15.1. The cutting point of variable
Table 15.1 Backpackers’ risk perception: factor analysis results Varimax rotation
Factor 1
“Site-related physical” 10.53 0.81 –
Q37 Food safety 0.78
Q45 Food taste 0.70
Q38 Cheating 0.62
Q51 Acceptability of facilities 0.60
Q46 Crime 0.56
Q56 Diseases 0.55
Factor 2
“Socio-psychological” 9.18 0.72 –
Q57 Self-image 0.73
Q50 Way family thinks 0.69
Q44 Negative impression in the future 0.66
Q62 Way friends think 0.66
Q43 Effect on future success 0.61
Factor 3
“Physical harm” 8.92 0.77 –
Q41 Car accidents 0.73
Q61 Natural disasters 0.66
Q58 Injury 0.65
Q48 Terrorism 0.58
Factor 4
“Expectation” 8.13 0.79 –
Q66 Meet expectations 0.77
Q60 Dissatisfaction 0.77
Q67 M ake a mistake in choosing the 0.74
destination
Q55 Waste of time 0.56
Factor 5
“Socio-political” 7.96 0.72 –
Q52 Political unrest 0.69
Q54 Hostile natives 0.67
Q49 Strikes 0.63
Factor 6
“Financial” 7.38 0.64 –
Q40 Unexpected extra expenses 0.77
Q47 Impact on financial situation 0.70
Q66 M ore expensive than other 0.62
destinations
Factor 7
“Mass” 5.87 – 0.53
Q59 Commercialized 0.81
Q64 Crowded 0.77
Factor 8
“Behavioral” 4.67 – 0.24
Q63 Side effects of drugs 0.66
Q42 Negative impressions on locals 0.62
Determinants of destination choice 201
inclusion in a particular factor was above 0.5. Accordingly, 25 variables
were grouped into eight factors.
Factor 1, “site-related physical,” includes the questions that measure
food safety, food taste, cheating, acceptability of facilities, crime and dis-
eases. This factor reflects the risk perception that stems from visiting par-
ticular destinations and accounts for 10.53 percent of the variance. Factor
2, “socio-psychological,” includes questions that measure the compatibility
of the trip with the self-image, the backpacker’s image in the eyes of his/
her family, backpacker’s conduct during the trip and the way it might
affect his/her future, the way friends think of the backpacker and the
effects of the academic or professional delay on future success due the
backpacker’s trip. This factor accounts for 9.18 percent of the variance
and reflects the socio-psychological risk stemming from the backpacker’s
decision to take the trip.
Factor 3, “physical harm,” includes the questions that measure car acci-
dents, natural disasters, injury and terrorism. This factor reflects the risk
perception of possible physical harm and accounts for 8.92 percent of the
variance. Factor 4, “expectations,” includes questions about expectations
that haven’t been fulfilled, dissatisfaction with the trip, mistaken choice of
the destination and the trip as a “waste of time.” This factor reflects the
fear that the trip would fall short of the expectations, and accounts for
8.13 percent of the variance.
Factor 5, “socio-political,” includes questions that measure political
unrest, hostile natives and strikes. This factor reflects the fear of danger
that stems from the socio-political condition of the destination and
accounts for 7.96 percent of the variance. Factor 6, “financial risk,”
includes questions that measure anticipated extra expenses, impact on the
financial situation and the fear that the chosen destination would be more
expensive than other destinations. This factor reflects the financial risk per-
ception in selecting a particular destination, and accounts for 8.13 percent
of the variance.
Factor 7, “mass risk,” reflects the risk stemming from commercialized
and crowded sites. It accounts for 5.87 percent of the variance. Factor 8,
“behavioral risk,” contains the questions that measure the apprehension of
the backpacker related to drug abuse side effects and to the negative
impression his/her conduct might make on locals. This factor reflects the
fear of the possibility of danger due to the backpacker’s behavior. This
factor accounts for 4.67 percent of the variance.
The above eight factors account for 62.65 percent of the variance and
were utilized for the comparison between the backpackers who chose
South America vs. those who chose Far East (see Table 15.2). The compar-
ison between the risk perception profiles of each group of backpackers,
based on their destination choice, was carried out by means of discrimi-
nant analysis. The profiles provided by discriminant analysis serve as pre-
dictors of group membership. Specifically, a particular risk perception
202 A. Reichel et al.
Table 15.2 Discriminant analysis results of Far East vs. South America backpackers’
risk dimensions
“Mass” 0.49
“Socio-psychological” 0.46
“Socio–political” –0.28
“Financial” –0.27
“Expectation” 0.21
“Behavioral” 0.20
“Site-related physical” –0.08
“Physical harm” –0.02
1 – Far East backpackers N = 233 Centroid 0.18
2 – South America backpackers N = 179 Centroid –0.24
Table 15.3 Discriminant analysis of Far East vs. South America backpackers – risk
reduction strategies
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16 Identification of important service
factors in group package tours
Yu-Shan Lin, Shu-Hui Chou and
Ya-Fang Hung
Introduction
In recent years, overseas travel in Asia is experiencing eye-catching growth.
From around the world, the number of Asian tourists is increasing, such as
Australia (Reisinger & Turner, 2002) and Guam (Iverson, 1997). Also, the
growth in Asia’s tourism population has also enhanced the attention of
scholars and tourism operators on Asian tourists’ travel behavior, espe-
cially the issues surrounding the travel behavior of group package tourists
and tour leaders (e.g., Lo & Lam, 2004; Quiroga, 1990; Wang, Hsieh, Yeh
& Tsai, 2004; Wong & Kwong, 2004; Wong & Lau, 2001; Yu, Weiler &
Ham, 2004).
Group package tour (GPT) implies that the tourist pays a certain price to
the tourist agency prior to the tour and the agency arranges all travel related
services, including those provided by tour leaders and local guides (Morri-
son, 1989; Sheldon & Mak, 1987; Wang, Hsieh & Huan, 2000). The
tourism business in Asian countries is fiercely competitive, and travel prod-
ucts’ service quality is one of the most important considerations when cus-
tomers choose among GPTs (Heung & Chu, 2000; Lo & Lam, 2004; Wong
& Kwong, 2004). The key to business success is intricately connected with
whether businesses can provide the notions of high service quality (Berry,
1986). Therefore, the travel industry’s dedication to raising service quality is
helpful toward sustaining existing customers and expanding new businesses.
Over the past two decades, the concept of service quality has been
widely applied and explored by scholars. In the research generated by
numerous leading experts, the most widely cited concept has been the
service quality scale (SERVQUAL) developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml
and Berry (1988). SERVQUAL was applied to different industries but
some scholars proposed that service quality scales should be modified
according to industry differences (Bowers, Swan & Koehler, 1994; Dab-
holkar, Thorpe & Rentz, 1996).
Meanwhile, the discussion of service quality has become popular in
tourism business, such as the travel industry, restaurants, hotels, airlines
and travel destinations (Albrecht, 1992; Fick & Ritchie, 1991; Lee &
208 Y.-S. Lin et al.
Hing, 1995; Ryan & Cliff, 1997; Saleh & Ryan, 1991). However, the scale
dimensionality of SERVQUAL appears to have a weak standing and the
five dimensions are not as distinct and independent as one would wish
(Llosa, Chandon & Orsingher, 1998).
In fact, incorporating the service quality theory into travel products is
difficult. Past literature on service quality only saw a part of the service
process (Swan & Bowers, 1998), but travel is a process filled with many
interpersonal interactions. Travel experience influences satisfaction and
service quality, the interaction between group members and tour leaders/
local guides would also affect satisfaction. Morover, GPT service puts
emphasis on totality, long processes and rich details. It requires the input
of many people in different industries such as hotels, airlines, restaurants
and transportation, to complete the task. An error in any one segment is
enough to break a tour.
Literature review
Reviewing the literatures about service quality, there are three kinds of
assessment scales for measuring in the past – SERVQUAL by Parasuraman
et al. (1988), SERVPERF by Cronin and Taylor (1992) and Non-Difference
by Boulding, Kalra, Staelin and Zeithaml (1993). The argument of
performance-based and perceptions-minus-expectations measure of service
quality has been last for two decades. Researches support that difference
scores should be avoided and conclude that there are serious problems in
conceptualizing service quality as a difference score (Babakus & Boller,
1992; Babakus & Mangold, 1992; Peter, Churchill & Brown, 1992).
However, the contributions made by Parasuraman et al. to figure out the
five dimensions of service quality have been widely applied in plenty of
service industries (Lam & Zhang, 1999; LeBlanc, 1992; Ryan & Cliff,
1997). As a result, this study adopts the views of Cronin and Taylor (1994)
to assess service quality with customers’ actual recognition.
The last decades have spawned a number of studies on customer satis-
faction. A key motivation for the growing emphasis on customer satisfac-
tion is that highly satisfied customers can lead to a stronger competitive
position resulting in higher market share and profit (Fornell, 1992). Cus-
tomer satisfaction is also generally assumed to be a significant determinant
of repeat sales, positive word-of-mouth and customer loyalty (Homburg &
Rudolph, 2001). When measuring the satisfaction, there are generally two
methods: (1) single item, i.e., having a single item to assess the overall sat-
isfaction, according to Day (1997), which supports the overall satisfaction
results after customer experience a product or service and (2) multiple
items, i.e., measuring individual satisfaction of products with a general
scale and summing up for the overall satisfaction. We agree with the views
of Day (1997) to take customers’ satisfaction as an overall concept and
such a variable will be used to assess customer satisfaction in this study.
Group package tours 209
Marketing managers routinely use purchase intentions to predict sales.
When managers and academic researchers rely on purchase intentions, they
hope, and implicitly assume, that these measures will be predictive of sub-
sequent purchases. This notion is a cornerstone of many theoretical models
of consumer behavior. Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) wrote, “If one wants to
know whether or not an individual will perform a given behavior, the sim-
plest and probably the most efficient thing one can do is to ask the indi-
vidual whether he intends to perform that behavior.” Intentions constitute
a willful state of choice where one makes a self-implicated statement as to
a future course of action. For measuring the repurchase intention, inten-
tion to recommend to others and further buying are suggested by previous
studies (Homburg & Rudolph, 2001; Parasuraman, Berry & Zeithaml,
1991; Sweeney & Soutar, 2001).
In order to conquer the measurement problems associated with GPT
service quality, Wang, Hsieh, Chou and Lin (2007) developed an instru-
ment called GPTCCC (customer comment card for GPT). They were the
first to develop and empirically validate an instrument (scale) that meas-
ures the group package tour service by six factors including hotel, trans-
portation, shopping arrangement, optional tour, tour leader and local
guide. However, little attention has been paid to the development of an
informative and straightforward perspective that helps managers under-
stand what GPT tourists regard as the components of a satisfactory service
experience. How these elements can be better managed to improve satis-
faction and repeat businesses have received inadequate attention.
Customizing products according to consumer needs and improving on
the areas that tourists consider important are beneficial toward product
development and design. According to the investigation of this study, ten
of Taiwan’s major travel agencies launched a total of 1,810 GPT products
between September and October of 2006. This statistic highlights the wide
assortment of travel product categories. From the managers’ standpoint, to
identify where the customers are and what they want is vital. Only effect-
ive market segregation can ensure the more effective utilization of market-
ing resources. When carried out properly, segmentation can actually
enhance sales and profits.
Customer satisfaction is an important topic both for researchers and
managers because a high level of customer satisfaction leads to an increase
in repeat patronage among current customers and aids customer recruit-
ment by enhancing an organization’s market reputation. Proper customer
satisfaction research is likely to produce information on service attributes
that are considered important by customers, the relative importance of the
attributes in customer decision making and how well an organization is
currently meeting its customer needs.
To date, there have been limited studies on service quality evaluation
variables and their effect on satisfaction and repurchase intention. The
majority of past studies on GPT service quality focused in discussing
210 Y.-S. Lin et al.
service attributes. However, managers are interested in the attributes that
significantly influence tourists’ satisfaction and repurchase intention. These
issues are profoundly linked to marketing and questions to which manag-
ers are urgently seeking answers.
Despite the importance of GPT service in the tourism industry, there is a
lack of empirical support regarding its effectiveness. For this reason, this
study applied GPTCCC with the purposes of (1) understanding how GPT
tourists assess service quality, (2) segmenting group package tourists in
Taiwan and (3) further analyzing what service attributes in GPTCCC
would significantly influence satisfaction and repurchase intention.
Methodology
The questionnaire consisted of three parts. In the first part, respondents
were required to rate the performance of 22 items in the six dimensions
proposed by Wang et al.’s (2007) GPTCCC scale. A 7-point Likert scale
ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) was used. More-
over, six additional items (e.g., I am satisfied with the hotel arrangements
of my recent GPT) were used to measure the satisfaction of each GPT
sector (hotel, transportation, shopping, optional tour, tour leader and local
guide).
In the second part, to evaluate satisfaction and repurchase intention,
additional questions derived from literature were added. One item (overall
evaluation: I am satisfied with my recent GPT) was included to measure
the overall satisfaction (Homburg & Rudolph, 2001; Parasuraman et al.,
1991; Sweeney & Soutar, 2001). Moreover, as suggested by prior studies,
items such as intention of recommending the travel agent to others and
intention of purchasing future tours from the same travel agent were
included to examine repurchase intention. In the third part, several ques-
tions were incorporated to capture respondents’ demographic attributes
and travel behaviors such as departure date, travel agency, destination, fre-
quency of GPT travels, as well as dissatisfied GPT experiences.
The data were gathered over a period of three months. Adults aged 18
and above, spanning major cities of Taiwan, including the capital Taipei as
well as eastern, western, southern and northern cities were solicited to give
responses. According to client lists gathered from major travel agencies,
respondents were screened to ensure they had GPT experiences. A total of
2,600 questionnaires were sent out and 833 were found useable for reanal-
ysis (response rate was 32 percent). According to Fodness (1994), a
common heuristic in marketing research is to use at least five cases per
factor analysis item. The use of 833 cases to confirm a 22-item scale fell
comfortably in excess of this parameter. Results showed that among the
833 usable samples, 68 percent were female and 32 percent male. Most
respondents were between 21 and 40 years old (56.9 percent) and 38
percent of respondents were college graduates. Destination countries and
Group package tours 211
the GPT travel agencies that the respondents used were fairly well
diversified.
Discussion of findings
Exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation was conducted to create
correlated variable composites from the original 22 attributes and identify
a smaller set of dimensions, or factors, that explained most of the vari-
ances between attributes. The factors were retained if they had eigenvalues
greater than or equal to 1.0 and items were retained only if they had factor
loadings greater than 0.6. The eigenvalues suggested that the six-factor
solution with 22 items explained 80.63 percent of the overall variance,
which validated the findings of Wang et al. (2007).
In the second step, for verifying the reliability and construct validity of
the scale, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with maximum likelihood
estimation was then employed for parameter estimation (Jöreskog &
Sörbom, 1993). The results, together with some additional information on
reliability and validity, are summarized in Table 16.1.
A two-stage cluster approach was adopted (Punj & Stewart, 1983).
First, the Ward’s minimum variance method was applied to choose an
appropriate number of clusters and acquire the means. Second, K-means
clustering was used to cluster respondents into groups. As a result, the
most distinctive and optimal solution was derived from the two-cluster
solution. The first and second cluster accounted for 37.1 percent and 62.9
percent of the respondents, respectively.
To delineate the differences in GPTCCC items between the two clusters,
means and standard deviation for each cluster were calculated (Table
16.2), which provided summary information about the importance of each
service evaluation dimensions perceived by GPT tourists for each cluster.
For each of these evaluations, the mean scores of Cluster I were consist-
ently lower than those of Cluster II. Cluster I was labeled “easy traveler”
and Cluster II “quality traveler.”
The main use of discriminant analysis is to predict group membership
from a set of predictors. Discriminant function analysis consists of finding
a transform that gives the maximum ratio of difference between a pair of
group multivariate means to the multivariate variance within the two
groups. Accordingly, SPSS stepwise discriminant analysis was used to
identify and delineate the GPTCCC items that most effectively discrimi-
nated between Cluster I and II. Table 16.3 illustrates the results of the
summary statistics using 22 GPTCCC items as predictors. It indicated that
12 items were significant (p < 0.05). The variables that differentiated the
clusters the most were “The tour leader has professional ability,” “The
hotels have a sanitary environment” and “Duration in shopping stores is
appropriate.” The variables that differentiated the clusters the least were
“Appropriate arrangements for those who did not participate in the
Table 16.1 Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (N = 833)
Notes
a 1 = strongly disagree and 7 = strongly agree.
optional tours” and “The tour leader has an interpretive ability.” Overall,
96.9 percent of the group cases were correctly classified.
A series of cross-tabulations were performed to provide a complete
demographic profile for each of the two clusters. Chi-square statistical
analysis was then used to determine whether significant demographic dif-
ferences were present between the two clusters. Results revealed that age,
income and travel experiences differed significantly between Cluster I and
II. “easy traveler” (Cluster 1) consisted of 46 percent of travelers younger
than 30 years of age and their personal income per month lower than
C500 (44 percent). In fact, 35 percent of respondents in this group were
214 Y.-S. Lin et al.
Table 16.3 Summary statistics of discriminant analysis using service quality evalu-
ation items as predictors
Notes
Eigenvalue = 1.921; canonical correlation = 0.811; Wilks’s lambda = 0.4798; df = 12;
significance level = 0.000.
students and their frequency of travel experience was less than three times
(66 percent). A total of 57 percent had travel experiences in Southeast
Asia, such as Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia. In “quality traveler”
(Cluster II), 46 percent of travelers were aged between 31 and 39 years old
and 27 percent were older than 40. In addition, 56 percent had a monthly
personal income between C1,000 and C2,000 and 16 percent higher than
C2,000. Among these, 43 percent had traveled more than three times and
53 percent had traveled to Europe and America.
A series of stepwise regression analyses were then performed to predict
overall satisfaction by the six factors. Beta weights for individual factor
scores showed that all of the factors were significant predictor variables in
the regression model. The regression equation characteristics of overall satis-
faction (p < 0.000) indicated an R2 of 0.51, which suggests that the resulting
dimensions are, in fact, highly related to consumers’ perceived satisfaction.
Following this, this study also submitted 22 items to regression analyses
for further understanding the significant predictor items. Beta weights for
individual item scores revealed that when all items were regressed together
Group package tours 215
on overall satisfaction, eight out of 22 items were significant in the regres-
sion; the weight in ranking included “The tour leader has an ability of
coordination within group members,” “Duration in shopping stores is
appropriate,” “The hotels have a comfortable staying environment,”
“Local guide is skillful in group leading,” “The grade of hotel arrangement
is appropriate,” “Safety of the bus is reliable,” “The tour leader has a good
presentation ability” and “Appropriate arrangements for those who did
not participate in optional tours.”
This study also applied discriminant analysis on repurchase intention.
Given the large number of GPTCCC items, a stepwise method was used to
select items that demonstrated better discriminance. Then, general linear
discriminant analysis was adopted to derive the discriminant function. As
a test of equality of group covariance matrices, Box’s M (Box’s M = 77.41,
F = 5.113, and p < 0.000) indicated that the covariance was equal. After
calculation, one discriminant function reached significance; Wilks’ lambda
value was 0.63 (p < 0.000), and 81.3 percent of the original grouped cases
were correctly classified. Five out of 22 items were found to be significant
in discriminant analysis; the weight in ranking included “Tour leader’s
coordination ability,” “The grade of hotel arrangement is appropriate,”
“Shopping stores fit in with the needs of group members,” “Appropriate
arrangements were made for those who did not participate in the optional
tours” and “The tour leader has a good presentation ability.”
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Part V
Introduction
The Balearic Islands are one of the most important holiday tourism resorts
of the Mediterranean. They are an archipelago composed of four major
islands, Mallorca, Menorca, Eivissa and Formentera. According to the
Spanish Tourism Studies Institute (Frontur, 2006), the Balearic Islands
attract 17.3 percent (approximately 9.6 million) of the total international
visitors that travel to Spain. Mallorca is the largest island and attracts the
highest share of international arrivals. Specifically Mallorca welcomed 79.1
percent of the international visitors to the Balearics. Germans (approxi-
mately 40 percent), followed by British citizens (35 percent) are the two
largest markets. International visitors have been increasing lately at average
rates of 1 percent yearly.
International visitors are classified by official tourism bodies according
to tourist motivations into four categories: “leisure/entertainment,” “work/
business,” “personal (such as health or family)” and “other motivations.”
This classification is rather poor and not very suitable and efficient when
we deal with resorts basically orientated to holidays such as Mallorca, a
tourism destination where, according to the local tourism ministry, 93
percent of its visitors have as a basic motivator leisure and holidays
(Inestur, 2007). Therefore, given the importance of tourism in Mallorca
and the importance that the island has on the overall Spanish tourism
industry, it seems reasonable to analyze deeply tourist motivations for vis-
iting the island, instead of simply grouping them under the rather obvious
and “low information” heading of “leisure.”
This research has therefore two basic goals; first to identify and classify
the motivations of tourists visiting Mallorca, and second to analyze how
these motivations influence their satisfaction levels. This research has been
conducted in a specific tourism resort, Mallorca (Spain). Some research
such as the one conducted by Kozak (2002) or the one by Nicolau and
Más (2006) analyze tourism motivations of Spanish visitors; however, they
do not take into account the relationship between motivations and one
of the most important long-term resort performance indicators – tourist
222 S. Campo and J. B. Garau-Vadell
satisfaction. We believe that in order to discover why tourists travel on a
certain holiday, it is crucial to identify first what the visitors are looking
for there. Also, through the analysis of the existing relations between
expected and obtained satisfaction, it may be possible to find out whether
the tourists have fulfilled their expectations. This information is basic to
tourism managers in order to point out what is to be improved and pro-
moted to favor a better and profitable image of the tourism destination.
Literature review
Tourist motivations have been referred to as “psychological/biological
needs and wants, including internal forces that arouse, direct and integrate
a person’s behavior and activity” (Dann, 1981; Peace, 1982; Uysal &
Hagan, 1993; Yoon & Uysal, 2005). These motivations are the first step in
the tourism buying decision process (Crompton & Mckay, 1997), since
they constitute the internal and external forces that drive a potential tourist
into action (Schiffman & Kanuk, 1978) and influence the destination elec-
tion (Eymann & Ronning, 1997; Fesenmair, 1988; Nicolau & Más, 2006).
Although tourism literature asserts that tourists have multiple motiva-
tions (see for example the literature review conducted by Kozak, 2002),
and authors such as Witt and Wright (1992), Uysal and Hagan (1993) or
Kozak (2002) state that tourism motivations vary depending on the differ-
ent segments of individuals and on the destinations they have chosen, it is
generally accepted that there exists a set of internal and external forces that
drive tourists to travel. These travel motivations were classified by Cromp-
ton (1979) into two main categories: push and pull. Push motivators refer
to internal individual forces such as escaping from routine, entertainment
or relaxation, and pull motivators refer to specific characteristics of the
destination, such as the environment, landscape, monuments, that may
attract the potential tourist. Push motivations are therefore related to
tourist desires, while pull motivations are related to destination attributes
(Cha, McCleary & Uysal, 1995; Dann, 1981; Oh, Uysal & Weaver, 1995
cited by Yoon & Uysal, 2005). Crompton’s model (1979) has been also
used to classify tourism motivations in the works of Bansal and Eiselt
(2004), Kozak (2002), Lundberg (1971) or Shoemaker (1994).
In a very similar way, Gnoth (1997) states the existence of two types of
motivations that drive tourists to travel: internal and external ones. Inter-
nal motivations are related to impulses, feelings and instincts, while exter-
nal motivations derivate from mental representations such as knowledge
and beliefs (Yoon & Uysal, 2005).
Crompton’s and Gnoth’s classifications start from the premise, largely
shared in the literature, that tourist motivation is a multidimensional
concept (McCabe, 2000). The first has been used by several authors in
order to analyze and generate a set of motivational factors that drive the
purchase of tourism products of different characteristics (see Guzman,
Visitor motivations and satisfaction 223
Lenes, Tapia, Wong & Castro, 2006; Kozak, 2002; Swanson & Horridge,
2006; Yoon & Uysal, 2005). Nevertheless, research that analyzes tourist
motivations has not obtained a set of common factors that could be gener-
alized to different tourism destinations; they have rather obtained factors
highly dependent on the specific characteristics of the analyzed tourism
product.
The existence of different motivational factors may be explained
through the findings of certain authors such as Eymann and Ronning
(1997), Fesenmaier (1988) or Kozak (2002). These authors state that
certain variables such as the characteristics of the destination and cultural
and personal characteristics of the individuals influence motivation. In this
respect, and based on their results, this research proposes that tourist moti-
vation is a multidimensional concept, whose dimensions depend on the
characteristics of the tourist. From the point of view of tourism destination
management it seems essential to analyze and classify tourists’
motivations.
This analysis will allow the identification of what tourists expect from
the destination and also what is the relationship between the different
motivations and the satisfaction level of the tourist. This information, as
stated by Kozak (2002), can be extremely useful in order to target and
retain certain typologies of tourists with motivations that are associated
with higher satisfaction levels.
A large set of specialized literature in tourism has presented evidence
that motivation influences tourism destination selection (Eymann &
Ronning, 1997; Fesenmair, 1988; Nicolau & Más, 2006), tourist satisfac-
tion (Fielding, Pearce & Hughes, 1992; Mannell & Iso-Ahola, 1987; Ross
& Iso-Ahola, 1991) and loyalty (Yoon & Uysal, 2005). These two varia-
bles, satisfaction and loyalty, are good indicators of economic results for
the destination (Anderson & Sullivan, 1993). Altogether it gives an idea of
how important it is to have a clear understanding of tourism motivations
and their relationship with tourist satisfaction.
Tourist satisfaction can be defined as “the consumer’s fulfillment
response . . . it is a judgment that a product or service feature, or the
product or service itself, provided a pleasurable level of consumption-
related fulfillment” (Oliver, 1996, p. 87). Among the tourism literature, an
assessment of tourism satisfaction has been attempted using various per-
spectives and theories (see literature review by Yoon & Uysal, 2005).
Specifically, one of the most shared definitions of the term “satisfaction”
is the one contributed by Oliver (1980) in which satisfaction is “an overall
assessment of a service received in relation to what was expected.” This
definition describes how consumers evaluate their purchases through a
comparison between what they received and what they expected. This
model, known as expectation/disconfirmation has been used to measure
satisfaction on tourism related studies conducted by authors such as
Bowen (2001), Chon (1989) and Millán and Esteban (2004). Therefore,
224 S. Campo and J. B. Garau-Vadell
subsequent purchase evaluations will depend on what the consumer
expected or on the motivation that drove their action.
In this respect, authors such as Witt and Wright (1992) or Uysal and
Hagan (1993) affirm that consumer motivations differ from one individual
to another, and this may cause a problem at the time to quantify satisfac-
tion globally. This is due to the fact that the satisfaction obtained from the
trip is related to the perceptions of motivation before the experience (Ross
& Iso-Ahola, 1991 cited by Bansal & Eiselt, 2004). This is to say that the
motivations are related to tourists’ expectations generated before the trip,
since they represent a prediction of the results that tourists will obtain at
the destination (Gnoth, 1997).
The relationship between tourist motivations and their satisfaction has
also been verified by several authors (e.g., Fielding et al., 1992; Mannell &
Iso-Ahola, 1987; Ross & Iso-Ahola, 1991). Other authors such as Yoon
and Uysal (2005), explored the direction of the relationship, by carrying
out a classification of push and pull motivations and obtaining those moti-
vations that do not always influence satisfaction levels in the same direc-
tion, while push motivations had a positive influence on satisfaction, pull
motivations had a negative influence.
Therefore, the classification of tourist motivations and the analysis of
their relationship with satisfaction, will lead us to identify which motiva-
tions are the ones that generate higher levels of tourist satisfaction. In this
respect, this chapter, following the results obtained by Yoon and Uysal
(2005), aims to obtain and grade the tourist motivational factors that exert
influence on the tourists’ satisfaction level. In this way it is hoped that the
different motivation factors have a distinctive influence on the tourist’s
level of satisfaction (Yoon & Uysal, 2005).
Methodology
Specific research was conducted in one of the most popular tourism resorts
of the Mediterranean, the island of Mallorca. Following the works of
Guzman et al. (2006), Kozak (2002), Lundberg (1971), Nicolau and Más
(2006), Servert, Wang, Chen and Breiter (2007), Shoemaker (1994) and
Yoon and Uysal (2005), and in depth interviews with local tourism
experts, a list of 20 motivators was developed that may have driven the
tourist to choose the island of Mallorca as his/her destination.
This lists includes relaxation (M1), escape from daily routine (M2),
escape from home climate (M3), discovering nature (M4), sports activities
(M5), spending time with the family (M6), getting to know the island (M7),
nightlife entertainment (M8), special trip offers (M9), visiting monuments
and historical places (M10), discovering local gastronomy (M11), going
shopping (M12), getting to know different things (M13), cheap drink prices
(M14), taking care of health (M15), resting (M16), meeting other people
(M17), being entertained (M18), having an erotic flirt (M19) and escaping
Visitor motivations and satisfaction 225
from pollution (M20). These motivations include push factors (such as relax
or escape), pull factors (such as getting to know the island or visiting mon-
uments and historical places) and specific characteristics of the destination
that might be attractive to a large set of tourists such as nightlife entertain-
ment, gastronomy or drink prices.
Second, in order to classify the motivations of the visitor to Mallorca,
empirical research was conducted. A random sample of 585 tourists who
visited Mallorca in January, February, March and April 2004, were given
a personal interview before leaving the island. The interviewees were ran-
domly selected at the airport boarding gate prior to their departure. In
order to avoid a possible bias arising from interviewees with a common
geographical origin, no more than six interviews were conducted per flight.
Once the questionnaires had been collected and checked to see whether
they had been correctly filled in a total number of 529 valid questionnaires
was obtained, with a sample error of 4.3 percent and a significance level of
95.5 percent.
The questionnaire was structured into three parts. The first one included
the 20 identified motivation items at the exploratory stage of the research.
These items were measured on a 10-point scale from 1 (very little importance)
to 10 (extremely important). The second part included one question aimed to
measure the overall global tourist satisfaction that was also measured on a
10-point scale from 1 (very unsatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied). Finally a section
with classificatory socio-demographic variables was included.
Discussion of findings
The first stage of the analysis consisted of refining and classifying the moti-
vation scale of the tourist. In this respect a principal component factorial
analysis (PCFA) was conducted with the answers to the 20 items men-
tioned above. The PCFA allowed us to summarize the original variables
into a reduced set of factors lineally independent of each other and then we
were able to delete those items not explained by any of the obtained
factors. Following Hair, Anderson, Tatham and Black’s (1999) recommen-
dations, items with communalities lower than 0.5 were deleted. These
items were: M3, M5, M6, M9, M10, M12, M14 and M20. Once the scale was
refined, four principal factors were obtained explaining 69 percent of the
overall variance (Table 17.1).
The four factors obtained are basically push type: factor 1, is made up
of motivations related to fun and entertainment included in variables M8,
M17, M18 and M19, factor 2 comprised items related to relaxation and
escape research (M1 and M2), factor 3 that included motivations such as
health or nature enjoyment, is composed of variables M4, M15 and M16 and
factor 4 consisted of items such as the knowledge and research of new
experiences included in variables (M7, M11 and M13. Composite means of
each factor (Table 17.1) indicate that the most important motivational
226 S. Campo and J. B. Garau-Vadell
Table 17.1 Factor analysis findings
Factor 1: Entertainment/partying
Nightlife entertainment (M8) 0.82
Meet other people (M17) 0.70 25.27 3.80
Entertainment (M18) 0.80
Have a flirt (M19) 0.76
F2: Relax
Relax (M1) 0.82 19.97 7.41
Escape from daily routine (M2) 0.81
F3: Health and nature
Nature (M4) 0.68
Health (M15) 0.71 11.54 5.84
Rest (M16) 0.71
F4: Knowledge
Get to know the island (M7) 0.81
Discover local gastronomy (M11) 0.67 8.75 5.64
Discover new things (M13) 0.65
Notes
Extraction method: principal components analysis.
Rotation method: normalized varimax.
* 1 = Not at all important; 10 = very important
Factor 1
Entertainment/ Nightlife entertainment (M8) 0.82 0.32
partying Meet other people (M17) 0.69 0.52 0.86 0.60
Entertainment(M18) 0.80 0.35
Have a flirt (M19) 0.76 0.41
Factor 2
Relax Relax (M1) 0.82 0.32 0.80 0.67
Escape from daily routine (M2) 0.81 0.34
Factor 3
Health and Nature Nature (M4) 0.68 0.54
Health (M15) 0.71 0.50 0.74 0.50
Rest (M16) 0.71 0.49
Factor 4
Knowledge Get to know the island (M7) 0.81 0.34
Discover local gastronomy (M11) 0.67 0.55 0.76 0.51
Discover new things (M13) 0.65 0.58
Notes
a Li: standardized loading.
b Ei: error variance.
(ΣLi)2
c CR: composite reliability = _______________
(ΣLi) + Σvar(Ei)
2
ΣL2i
d AVE: average variance extracted = _____________
ΣL2i + Σvar(Ei)
of GFI, AGFI and CFI are above 0.9 and close to 1 and finally the RMSEA
statistic is lower than the critical value 0.05.
The relationship model shows that the satisfaction variable depends on
the four motivational factors. As such, the study’s proposal regarding the
multidimensional nature of the tourists’ motivations is confirmed. In the
same way the results confirm that these factors have a different relation-
ship on the tourists’ satisfaction level obtained at destination.
The first factor F1, named “entertainment/partying” is composed of
motivations related to nightlife entertainment, fun, flirting and getting to
know other people. The tourists’ average motivation level toward enter-
tainment is currently low (3.8 out of 10) and has a negative and significant
effect on the tourists’ satisfaction. This may indicate that the tourists visit-
ing the island are not very motivated by these entertainment needs.
However, if the number of tourists visiting the island induced by these
motivators increased, or the importance of this motivation among current
visitors increased, it would probably cause a decrease in the satisfaction
levels obtained by tourists.
However, destination managers should be aware that if more tourists
with these types of motivations are attracted they will probably be
228 S. Campo and J. B. Garau-Vadell
F1
�0.17*
F2 0.06(ns)
0.02(ns) Satisfaction
F3
0.38*
F4
frustrated and their satisfaction level will be low. Although some other
Spanish destinations may be characterized by better entertainment facilities
and therefore have a partying reputation, this is not the case of Mallorca,
mostly characterized by family, rest and relaxation environments.
The second factor F2, named “relaxation” is composed of the internal
needs of the tourist linked to relaxation and escape from daily routine.
Related to this, factor F3 named “health and nature” was obtained. F3 is
formed by motivations such as enjoying nature, health care or personal
recovery. Although the motivation level of tourists with respect to F2 and
F3 is high, the relationship model indicates that they do not significantly
influence tourist satisfaction. This finding may be a good indicator that
there are different consumer behavioral patterns with respect to the confir-
mation/rejection of their expectations. It means that those tourists that visit
Mallorca motivated by relaxation and health/nature expect to find these
characteristics at the destination.
However, their travel experience may drive some of them to confirm
their expectations and to another set of tourists to reject theirs, causing the
overall result not to be significant on satisfaction. We can therefore con-
clude that there is a need to go deeper into the analysis of the relationship
between these motivations and the obtained satisfaction, taking into
account the personal characteristics of the individuals.
Finally, a fourth factor F4 was identified and named “knowledge” and is
composed of motivations such as getting to know the island and its people,
Visitor motivations and satisfaction 229
enjoying its gastronomy and discovering new places. This factor is the moti-
vational factor with the strongest positive influence on the satisfaction level,
meaning that those tourists visiting Mallorca with motivations such as
getting to know the island and its people and discovering its local gastron-
omy and new things are the ones that obtain a higher level of satisfaction.
These results show that the motivational factors that drive tourists to
choose Mallorca as a holiday destination are principally internal or push
factors, rather than external or pull. Push motivational factors have been
grouped into four, with different effects upon tourist satisfaction. While
Yoon and Uysal (2005) found that push factors exert a positive effect on
the tourist’s satisfaction and pull factors a negative effect, this work has
obtained differences in the effect on tourist satisfaction depending on the
type of the tourist push motivator. The “knowledge” motivation exerts a
positive and strong effect on satisfaction, while the “entertainment/party-
ing,” “relaxation” and “health/nature” motivations exert respectively a
negative and nonsignificant effect upon satisfaction. These differences may
be due, as stated by Eymann and Ronning (1997), Fesenmaier (1988) or
Kozak (2002), to the specific characteristics of the destination analyzed.
This confirms the need to adapt Crompton’s (1979) classification to the
different types of destinations.
These are very useful findings for tourism destination managers since it
highlights the areas to focus on for resort promotional policies and strate-
gies toward emphasizing the destination attributes that have been tested to
fulfill tourist expectations. In the specific case of Mallorca, it may be of
interest to promote, apart from the traditional features of the island such
as the quality of its beaches or landscape, the island’s ability to surprise the
tourist with features such as the relationship with locals or the quality of
local gastronomy. In the same sense, it may be meaningful to focus mar-
keting strategies on attracting tourists with a “knowledge” motivation,
since these tourists are the ones that show a higher level of satisfaction and
therefore have a higher probability to develop loyalty patterns toward the
island (Yoon & Uysal, 2005). Therefore, the motivational classification
allows destination managers to identify and manage different tourism
market segments according to their motivations (Beh & Bruyere, 2007;
Young, Leland & Feigin, 1978).
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18 Building a tourist typology based
on motivations for visiting a
cultural city
Miguel Ángel Gómez-Borja,
Carlota Lorenzo Romero,
Alejandro Mollá Descals and
Juan Antonio Mondéjar Jiménez
Introduction
In recent years, the cultural tourism market has been a major growth market
worldwide (World Tourism Organization, 2005). This growth has been even
more acute in cities or historical landmarks declared as “World Heritage
Sites” by UNESCO. These cities are being considered as reference points for
the tourist as well as serving as the growth framework of urban tourism,
where this kind of tourism has a promising future (Troitiño, 2000). Tourism
is considered a way for accessing culture that, in turn, attracts tourism. This
growing interest in cultural aspects of the tourism products and services has
induced a fierce competition between potentially cultural destinations to
attract cultural tourists (van der Ark & Richards, 2006).
Under these premises, this research has two main objectives: first, to
conceptualize and measure the tourists’ motivations for selecting a particu-
lar destination and, second, to propose a cultural tourist’s typology based
on these motivational dimensions. To achieve these objectives we build
upon a theoretical base including the definition of cultural tourism and dif-
ferent conceptualizations of motivations in a tourism setting. The research
methodology is based upon two survey studies with data from different
years. Both studies show similar results regarding motivation dimensions
and tourists’ typology.
Visitors’ motivations
If motivations define the essence of cultural tourism, the conceptualization
and measurement of cultural motivations becomes a main research subject
Building a tourist typology 235
in this area. A relevant part of literature recognizes that many tourists are
more highly motivated to participate in cultural tourism activities than
others. In fact, different studies show that the desire to participate in activ-
ities related to cultural aspects is the main reason to visit a destination by
many tourists. However, for many others, cultural tourism plays a smaller
role in the decision to visit, and even for other people – who go to the des-
tination attracted by other motivations – these cultural dimensions do not
influence their destination choice at all.
Different reasons and motives have been identified as the basis for visit-
ing historical cities, demonstrating different kinds of behaviours and con-
sumption. Similarly, big differences have even been detected between the
“specific” and the “general” cultural tourist (McKercher, 2002; McKercher
& du Cros, 2003). We must highlight the evolutionary process experienced
by the tourist as consumer, from a “traditional” behaviour (e.g. homogen-
eous, gregarious, inexpert, sun–beach and price concerned) to constitute
nowadays other types of “new” behaviours clearly differentiated from the
traditional ones. Specifically, tourists are heterogeneous, spontaneous, sin-
gular, knowledgeable, pursuing other activities different from “sun and
beach” and worried about quality/price trade-offs (Esteban, 2005). This
evolutionary behaviour has supposed that the most traditional tourist clas-
sifications are turning into a wider and a more complex picture of the cul-
tural tourism market.
Within this complex picture, tourists’ motivations play an important
role in tourists’ perceptions and evaluations of destination sites. Recent
research has highlighted the importance of motivations (Andreu, Kozak,
Avci & Cifter, 2005; Bansal & Eiselt, 2004; Correia, Oom & Moço, 2007;
McKercher, Wong & Lau, 2006).
Extensive research on tourist motivation has come up in the last years
(e.g. Bansal & Eiselt, 2004; Correia et al., 2007; Gnoth, 1997; Kozak,
2002; Todd, 1999). Much of this research has been directed to conceptual-
ization while other research addresses measurement topics and tools (e.g.
Fodness, 1994; Todd, 1999). Other research analyses the effects of motiva-
tions on other cognitive and affective dimensions of tourist behaviours,
such as destination image (Beerli & Martín, 2004; Correia & Crouch,
2003; Correia et al., 2007). Most of these works have recognized that
motivations have a multidimensional nature and the fact that cultural tour-
ists have multiple motivations and could be classified and segmented
according to these differences (Andreu et al., 2005; Kozak, 2002). This
variability of motivations is due to the fact that motivations are context
dependent to specific destinations.
Andreu et al. (2005) propose different theoretical approaches to explain
tourists’ motivations that provide useful insights to conceptualize and
measure motivations. Two interesting ideas emerge from these theories.
First, based on general motivation theories and other research, motivations
can be split in two categories: social motivations, where vacation is mainly
236 M. Á. Gómez-Borja et al.
stimulated by social or interaction drives and personal motivations, which
refer to self-recognition or self-actualization needs such as self-esteem, need
for knowledge or fulfilment. Second, since Crompton (1979), many
tourism researches (e.g. Correia et al., 2007; Kozak, 2002) have identified
what they call intrinsic and extrinsic (or push vs pull) factors or motiva-
tors. Push factors are originated and are referred to as psychological or
social motives that reflect intrinsic needs and desires of the tourist. Push
factors are related to destination benefits that constitute the global attrac-
tiveness of a given site. In this research we consider mainly a push
approach identifying dimensions related to psychological and social
reasons that drive tourist perception, attitudes and behaviours both regard-
ing social and personal needs.
Methodology
All research phases and activities were conducted in Cuenca, Spain. The
Historic Walled Town of Cuenca was declared as “World Heritage Site”
by UNESCO in 1996. Cuenca’s population was about 50,000 inhabitants
in 2006. Since 1998, tourist numbers visiting Cuenca have shown a signi-
ficant growth. In this sense, the evolution from 166,774 visitors in 1997 to
almost 350,000 in 2006 represents more than doubling the visitors during
this ten-year period. The city as a cultural resource can be defined as a
small cultural city where museums, monuments and heritage play an
important role. Beside this “cultural heritage”, the city possesses a privi-
leged natural environment and exceptional natural landmarks. In 2004,
the Observatorio Turístico de Cuenca (OTC) (Tourist Observatory of
Cuenca) was created. The project develops research on touristic activities
in Cuenca by analysing tourists’ behaviour as well as overseeing the poten-
tial of the tourism sector.
The data used to elaborate this work come from two sets of surveys to
visitors in different tourist information points in the city. Questionnaires
were auto administered in the tourist office and any doubt about the ques-
tionnaire was solved by the office staff. To elaborate this study the per-
sonal surveys were done during 2004, 2005 and 2006. For this research,
two different data sources were used. First, we developed an initial survey
where our main objective was to define and evaluate a large set of motiva-
tional variables. Second, we used data from a shorter and more general
survey that has been administered during the past three years as part of
marketing research activities of the OTC. For the initial survey, a final
sample of 300 visitors was used. Surveys from the OTC programme for
2004, 2005 and 2006 were merged and we obtained a final sample of
3,028 visitors. From now on, we will refer to the first one as Prestudy and
as Tostudy to the second one.
Building a tourist typology 237
Discussion of findings
In the Prestudy, the main objective was to evaluate an initial set of poten-
tial motivations that the visitors could have when visiting the city. After
some interviews with professionals and local tourism managers along with
a literature review, an initial set of motivators was identified. A motivator
was defined in this case as a reason expressed by the visitors as relevant to
come and stay in the city. The first task was to reduce these variables to a
more manageable and meaningful set of dimensions. To achieve this objec-
tive an exploratory factor analysis was applied to the initial set of motiva-
tors. The results of this analysis can be seen in Table 18.1.
In the same way, motivators in Tostudy were considered. In this case,
the OTC used a shorter survey than in Prestudy research. They included
only seven motivators more related to their main managerial objectives at
this time. The results of the exploratory factor analysis for this set of vari
ables are showed in Table 18.2.
In both cases, motivation strength was measured using a 0 (total disa-
gree) to 10 (total agree) scale for each motivational statement. In accord-
ance with Table 18.1, seven motivational dimensions were obtained for
Prestudy data. The first component has been labelled as “experience of local
culture”. These dimensions represent the more cultural specific motivations
including local gastronomy, visit typical villages, watch landscapes and
interest for history. All those motivators are highly ranked too by visitors
and represent the highest percentage of explained variance. The second
dimension can be labelled as “physical/active entertainment” and it is
related with concepts such as night entertainment, doing exciting things,
doing physical activity or living adventures. It is worth noting that social
recognition is included in this dimension. The third factor is similar in moti-
vations to the second one but with more emphasis on social relationships,
which is why we have called it “social entertainment” in the sense that
includes aspects such as “enjoy with friends”, “meet people” and, at the
same time, the idea of enjoyment, entertainment and doing different things.
The fourth dimension is more general and related to depth experiences such
as expanding knowledge and discovering, and has been labelled “know-
ledge discovering”. The fifth dimension is related to other important city
attractions, i.e. its natural environment. In this case, “nature” represents the
important role that the natural environment has as a motivator base. The
sixth dimension, represents what has been called “quiet observation”. It
includes visiting monuments as an important motivator along with a quiet
form to escape from routine. Finally, a general motivator emerges related
with quietness and stress release that we have called “release stress”.
By the other side, based on data from Tostudy, three motivators have
been identified. The first one is “active entertainment”, including physical
activity and night entertainment. This dimension can be comparable to the
second dimension in Prestudy. The second factor is similar to “experience
Table 18.1 Factor loadings for Prestudy
Import Component
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Notes
Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy: 0.877.
Bartlett’s test of sphericity: approx. chi-square 2710.32, sig. 0.000.
Extraction method: principal component analysis.
Rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalization.
Building a tourist typology 239
Table 18.2 Factor loadings for Tostudy
Import Component
1 2 3
Notes
Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy: 0.648.
Bartlett’s test of sphericity: approx. chi-square 1191.03, sig. 0.000.
Extraction method: principal component analysis.
Rotation method: varimax with Kaiser normalization.
local culture” in the first study, to the extent that the same denomination
has been maintained in this case. Visiting monuments represents an import-
ant part of this dimension that was not integrated in its homologous factor
in Prestudy. Nevertheless, we think that the idea of specific cultural moti-
vations is present within this dimension. The third dimension could be
comparable to a mix of “relax” and “nature”. Considering the importance
of natural environment in this situation, this dimension has been defined as
“relaxed nature”.
Taking into consideration the above explanations, two main ideas
emerge. First, although Prestudy includes a larger set of motivational vari-
ables, both analyses are quite compatible, and similar driving motives for
visitors can be found. Second, although dimensions are conceptually differ-
ent, they are neither incompatible nor exclusive for specific visitors. Tourist
profiles including two or more of these dimensions as important motiva-
tors for their actions can be found too. In the next part of the chapter, a
visitor’s typology using these dimensions for the two proposed studies will
be proposed.
Once some descriptive data and motivations have been defined, the
focus will be on the analysis of the cultural tourist profile. The main
purpose is directed to obtain a segmentation of cultural tourists who visit a
specific “World Heritage City”, considering these motivational variables.
Using the previously calculated factor scores for the motivational dimen-
sions in the two studies, different clustering strategies and procedures were
run to see if we could obtain homogeneous groups of visitors.
As factor analysis, separate cluster analyses were run for the data from
the two studies. To assure as much comparability as possible, similar
240 M. Á. Gómez-Borja et al.
procedures to both samples were applied. That is, first hierarchical cluster
analysis procedure was performed to decide the number of clusters to
retain. Results were not clear. A high percentage of both samples fall in a
broad “macro cluster”. On the basis of this information a K-Means Cluster
and a Two Step Cluster procedure were run. In both cases, the motivation
factor scores were used as clustering variables and a starting point of two
groups was selected. Results on cluster membership were similar, that is
because we used results from the K-Means cluster procedure to analyse vis-
itors’ typology and to compare both studies. Table 18.3 shows the cluster
sizes for both studies.
In Prestudy, cluster one (i.e. big cluster) represents visitors that scored
above the average on the interest of experiencing cultural traditions, phys-
ical entertainment and releasing stress. Cluster two, are above the average
on almost all motivational factors except social entertainment. Jointly with
motivational factors, we considered additional descriptive characteristics
to see if there was some specific profile for each cluster. In this sense, we
use some descriptive variables. Thereby, we did not find any clear relation-
ship between cluster membership and descriptive variables, except that
cluster two represents a higher percentage of first-time visitors. Tostudy
shows similar results. In this case, the big cluster is above the average on
“experience local culture” and “relaxed nature” factors, whereas cluster
two is located below the average on these factor scores. There was not any
significant difference on “physical/active entertainment”. Regarding demo-
graphic and behavioural variables significant relationships between cluster
membership and number of previous visits and stay duration were found.
Cluster two had a higher relative percentage of first-time and short-stay
visitors.
Prestudy Tostudy
Note
n.s. means that factor loadings are not significantly different for both groups.
Building a tourist typology 241
Considering both studies, we can conclude that cluster one may repre-
sent “cultural tourists” and implicated searching for local and cultural
experiences with higher scores in almost all motivational factors. This
could be the more “uncontaminated cultural tourist” group. By the other
side, cluster two in both studies represents individuals that do not have any
particular outstanding motivation beyond general entertainment or enjoy-
ment. We can denominate this cluster as “incidental tourists”. Although
these visitors of course could have similar motivations, we think they are
not so strong as for “cultural tourists”.
Acknowledgements
We thank all the staff of the Cuenca Tourism Foundation and especially to
the executive director, Claudia Sevilla Sevilla, for her useful comments and
for providing data and other resources.
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19 Effect of complaint management
on loyalty versus probability of
ending relationship
Leticia Suárez-Álvarez,
Ana María Díaz-Martín and
Rodolfo Vázquez-Casielles
Introduction
Since Berry (1983) introduced the term “Relationship Marketing” more
than two decades ago, customer retention has become a fundamental ques-
tion both in the marketing literature and for managers. Previous studies on
this topic have focused primarily on analysing behaviours oriented to
developing and maintaining relationships, but little empirical research has
been done on how an already established relationship dissolves. In this
study, we seek to extend the existing relationship dissolution literature by
investigating the impact of complaint management and trust on the proba-
bility of ending a relationship and customers’ attitudinal loyalty. In addi-
tion, the study also examines whether trust mediates the relations between
complaint management and these two outcome variables.
To achieve these objectives, we analyse the relationships that retail
travel agencies establish with their customers. An investigation of these
issues in the tourism industry is important for various reasons. First, the
tourism industry is of increasing importance in all developed economies.
Second, tourism services are heavily people based and may require various
interactions with the consumers and/or the coordination of different service
providers. Thus although tourism firms try to offer a high level of quality
in their activities, they are unlikely to be able to eliminate all service fail-
ures. Consequently, complaint management is an important part of their
daily routine. Third, complaint management is of strategic relevance as an
effective customer retention instrument (Johnston & Mehra, 2002;
Maxham, 2001; McCollough, Berry & Yadab, 2000; Stauss & Seidel,
2004). In the following, we define the key variables included in the study
and formulate specific hypotheses regarding the abovementioned
relationships.
Literature review
Establishing a relationship marketing strategy requires that firms consider
the creation of stable links as a long-term process that must be constantly
Effect of complaint management 245
monitored and managed. This is the only way successfully to develop and
maintain relationships, since one bad experience with a firm can encourage
customers to change their supplier and terminate their current relationship,
given the numerous alternatives available in today’s markets. Strengthen-
ing a relationship, transforming indifferent customers into loyal ones and
serving them individually, are not easy tasks. In the first place, the process
that leads to the establishment of relationships requires – if it is to result in
significant benefits – that both parties actually want such a relationship. At
the beginning of a relationship customers will be relatively uninvolved, and
will pay attention to their global satisfaction with the vendor to determine
their future participation in the relationship. As the exchanges between the
parties progress, the customers’ degree of involvement may increase, with
trust and commitment taking on central roles as mediating variables for
establishing future exchanges with the firm (Garbarino & Johnson, 1999).
According to Dwyer, Schurr and Oh (1987) the relationship formation
process is gradual and dynamic, and following Levitt’s (1983) marriage
analogy, three broad stages in the development of a relationship can be
identified:
Gremler and Brown (1996) define loyalty as the extent to which cus-
tomers manifest repurchase behaviour with the same supplier, to which the
customer may show a positive attitudinal disposition and which, at the
same time, is the only supplier the customer considers when he/she needs
this service. Moreover, these authors distinguish between what they term
“behavioural loyalty” and “attitudinal loyalty”.
Behavioural loyalty is seen as the part of loyalty linked only to the pur-
chase behaviour. This type of loyalty equates with the repurchase act
(Tranberg & Hansen, 1986). On the other hand, attitudinal loyalty com-
prises, apart from the repurchase act, customers’ preferences and disposi-
tions with respect to a particular supplier. If this loyalty is present,
246 L. Suárez-Álvarez et al.
favourable word of mouth about the supplier is generated (Dick & Basu,
1994; Oliva, Oliver & MacMillan, 1992). Thus attitudinal loyalty can be
incorporated into a behavioural model as a result variable in opposition to
the probability of relationship termination, since attitudinally loyal cus-
tomers are fully convinced that the service provider chosen is perfectly sat-
isfactory for their interests, and do not contemplate defection.
The alternative to loyalty – relationship dissolution – has the opposite
meaning to it and can be defined as a condition resulting from relational
instability, where a number of characteristics come together to contribute
to an unsatisfactory evaluation, either anticipated or current, of the bene-
fits by the buyer or seller (Goods & Evans, 1999). Either of the parties
involved can terminate the relationship. In the current work we aim to
improve our understanding about how an existing relationship can turn
into a dissolved one after the customer makes a complaint.
Relationship dissolution has been related to the existence of service fail-
ures (Duck, 1981a; Halinen, Havila & Salmi, 1999; Keaveney, 1995), but
the link between a problem and relationship exit is not direct, since most
customers strive to get their problems resolved. Thus terminating a rela-
tionship is conceivably not a casual response to a single problem (aban-
doning relationships in the tertiary sector tends to involve the appearance
of more than one problem). Moreover, it is not the problem itself that
leads to dissolution (most consumers accept that things can sometimes go
wrong), but rather the service provider’s indifference or lack of response to
the failure that raises the customer’s propensity to terminate the relation-
ship (Duck, 1981b; Halinen et al., 1999).
Recovery strategies are, therefore, crucial to avoid relationship termina-
tion, and firms should ideally offer a solution before the customer even
notices the problem. But proactive strategies are less frequent than reactive
strategies, and hence complaint management has clearly become a key
concept in the analysis of relationship dissolution. In other words, an
effective complaint management system can be very beneficial for the firm,
since it positively affects customers’ trust in the company and it makes
consumers less likely to terminate an existing relationship (Fram & Calla-
han, 2001; Mittilä, Järvinen & Järvelinm, 2002; Smith, Bolton & Wagner,
1999; Tax, Brown & Chandra Shekaran, 1998).
Based on this evidence and on the results of a qualitative study carried
out through focus groups with frequent users of the services of retail travel
agencies, the conceptual model tested in this chapter (see Figure 19.1) pro-
poses that complaint management directly affects customers’ loyalty and
relationship termination probability, and that trust mediates the relations
between complaint management and these two outcome variables.
It is crucial for sellers to solve customers’ problems if they are to build
stable relationships over time with them (Tax et al., 1998). Morgan and
Hunt (1994) stress the complementary nature of the resolution of such
problems and the relationship strategy, given that in both cases interest
Effect of complaint management 247
H1a (�)
Attitudinal
H2a (�) loyalty
Complaint H1c (�)
management Trust
Likewise, Hart, Heskett and Sasser (1990) state that firms should be
able to learn from their mistakes to be able to implement actions that
avoid them in the future. This will consequently contribute to improving
customers’ trust in the organisation. Tax et al. (1998) propose that satis-
faction with the complaint management is also a determinant of trust. On
the basis of these arguments, we hypothesise the following:
Trust is one of the key variables for relational success. Indeed, much
research has analysed this concept as a fundamental element for maintain-
ing satisfactory relationships (Fullerton, 2005). Specifically, Parasuraman,
Zeithalm and Berry (1985) introduce the notion of trust as a critical factor
in successful relationships in the service industry. These authors suggest
that to gain customers’ loyalty and hence avoid exits, customers should
trust their service providers, feel confident in their dealings with them and
248 L. Suárez-Álvarez et al.
be sure that the information they provide will be treated confidentially.
Consequently, we formulate the following hypotheses:
H2a: The greater the customers’ trust in a firm, the greater their atti-
tudinal loyalty to it.
H2b: The greater the customers’ trust in a firm, the less likely they
will terminate their relationship with it.
Methodology
To test the above hypotheses, information was gathered from regular retail
travel agency users by means of a carefully structured questionnaire. Data
collection was carried out by personal interviews upon leaving establish-
ments with a convenience sample of 750 individuals in three medium-sized
cities in northern Spain. A total of 741 valid cases were obtained after
screening. The selection of the participants was conducted upon leaving
the travel agency offices: a filter question was first asked to exclude indi-
viduals who were not frequent users of tourism services. The majority of
the respondents visit travel agencies once or twice a year (35 per cent and
25 per cent, respectively), generally to organise trips in Spain rather than
abroad (54 per cent of the respondents). Likewise, the distribution of the
sample relative to the consumers’ loyalty towards the travel agency reveals
similar numbers of totally loyal customers and those not loyal to a single
travel agency.
With regard to the socio-demographic characteristics, 53 per cent of the
respondents are women, 32 per cent belong to the age group 25–34 and
the most frequent interval regarding declared family income is
C1,201–1,800 per month.
The measures used in the investigation were sourced from a combina-
tion and synthesis of past studies and adapted to the specific context under
study – retail travel agencies – by means of in-depth interviews with
experts in the tourism industry and through focus groups with travel
agency customers.
Propensity to terminate the exchange relationship was assessed adapting
the scales proposed by Ping (1997, 1999), Mittal and Lassar (1998), Ala-
joutsijärvi, Möller and Tähtinen (2000), Elangovan (2001) and Mittilä et
al. (2002). To measure attitudinal loyalty a scale was elaborated based on
Young and Denize (1995), Garbarino and Johnson (1999), Price and
Effect of complaint management 249
Arnould (1999), Beckett, Hewer and Howcroft (2000), Yoon and Kim
(2000), Lee and Cunningham (2001), Lee, Lee and Feick (2001), Mattila
(2001) and Sirdeshmukh, Singh and Sabol (2002). The trust scale was built
upon the research of Gwinner, Gremier and Bitner (1998), Selnes (1998),
Price and Arnould (1999) and Sharma and Patterson (1999). Finally, the
complaint management scale is an adaptation of the scales proposed by
Tax et al. (1998), Smith et al. (1999), Fram and Callahan (2001) and
Mittilä et al. (2002).
Before estimating the causal model we evaluated the unidimensionality,
reliability and validity of the measurement scales. Throughout this process
we used the statistics packages SPSS/PC version 13.0 for Windows and
EQS version 5.7a for Windows. To confirm the unidimensionality of the
scales we first conducted a principal components factor analysis with
varimax rotation. In all cases we detected the existence of a single dimen-
sion, as expected. In the case of trust we took into account the two dimen-
sions, credibility and benevolence, to build the measurement scale, and we
opted to use a single latent variable, in accordance with the exploratory
factor analysis results.
As a first step in evaluating the scale reliability, we calculated an index
to measure the reliability of each factor (composite reliability index). In all
cases this exceeded the minimum level of 0.60 recommended by Bagozzi
and Yi (1988). The scales employed in the present study were developed
using already validated scales, and the results of a previous qualitative
study were also taken into account to adapt them to the tourism environ-
ment. Thus the scales have content validity. To confirm the convergent
validity we calculated the lambda parameters that relate each observed
variable with the latent factor. In all cases these parameters exceed 0.5,
and are significant at the 5 per cent level. Finally, we estimated the confi-
dence intervals for the parameters indicating the correlation between the
latent factors, and confirmed the absence of 1 within them, thereby con-
firming the discriminant validity of the measurement scales used. In addi-
tion, the composite reliability coefficients (ρ), the squared correlation
between all pairs of constructs and the standardised lambda parameters (λ)
were also examined. Together, these tests provided evidence of reliability
and convergent and discriminant validity (Bagozzi & Yi, 1988).
Discussion on findings
The relations between the latent variables that appear in Figure 19.2 are
analysed by means of a structural equations system, using the EQS
program, version 6.1 for Windows. Results regarding the goodness-of-fit
indexes of the suggested model (see Table 19.1) are adequate, considering
the well-known clarification about the sample size in the chi-square test.
The null hypothesis of this test argues that the deviation of the estimated
variance-covariance matrix of the sample is due only to the sample error,
250 L. Suárez-Álvarez et al.
0.21*
Attitudinal
0.60* loyalty
Complaint 0.79*
management Trust
�0.47* Relationship
termination
0.03 probability
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Index
alternative set 187, 190–2 consumer behaviour 7–9, 11, 12, 197
American Marketing Association 3 contemporary destination management
Annals of Tourism Research 3–8, 10 18
arts tourism 234 content analysis 5
attitudinal loyalty 245–8, 250, 251 culinary heritage 100
Australian Government Regional cultural tourists 233, 235, 239, 241
Tourism Program 144, 146 culture: destinations 233; environment
available set 190, 191 234; heritage 120, 236; identity 234;
awareness set 184, 186, 187, 190, 191 motivations 234, 239; tourism 234–5
customers: comments cards 209;
backpackers 195–9, 201, 203, 204 experience 208; loyalty 30, 159,
backpacking: destination 198; 244–7; relationship marketing 91;
experience 197–9, 203; identity 197 retention 244; satisfaction 4, 157,
behavioural loyalty 245 159, 208–10, 214, 216, 222–4, 227,
behavioural risk 201, 203 230, 247; trust 247, 250, 251
booking trends 16
‘bottom up’ approach 20, 21, 122 decision making 4, 16, 158, 165, 183–5,
brands: awareness 184; choice 191; 188, 191, 209, 222; networks 102;
positioning 96 process 121, 157, 159, 187; system
25, 148; strategies 184
choice process 183 demand analysis 8
choice set 183–6, 188, 189, 191, 192; Department of Infrastructure and
types 186, 187 Natural Resources 147, 148
choice set (consideration) models 184 destination brand licensing 88, 90,
Cilento National Park 118, 119 92–7
cluster analysis 92 destination management organizations
co-branding 81, 100 15, 17, 19–25, 40, 89, 93, 96, 99,
cognitive distance 185 103, 108, 215
collaborative decision making 18 destinations: branding 29, 88–92, 95–7,
combined brand strategy 95 99, 100, 107, 108, 116; choice 183,
commercial positioning 52 190, 196, 197, 203, 222, 223;
competitive advantages 27, 32, 37, 40, competitiveness 115, 116;
41, 46 distinctiveness 16; image 89, 90, 157,
competitive disadvantages 27 230, 235; networks 117; positioning
competitive performance 50, 51 29
competitive position 208 Development of State and Regional
complaining behaviour 4 Development 147, 148
complaint management 244, 246, 247, direct effects 181
249–52 distribution channels 8, 181, 192
256 Index
dream set 187, 190 multidimensional development 114,
122
e-commerce (online commerce) 171,
174, 176, 177, 181, 182 national government organizations 115,
economic networks 140 117
ecotourism 114 national tourism organizations 90, 91,
environmental heritage 114 93
evoked set 184–8, 190–2 network analysis 127, 131–4, 139
excluded set 187, 190 network centre 120, 121
network constructs 79
family brand strategy 95 network economy 15
festival networks 75, 80 network elements 128
film-induced destination 70 network governance 120, 121
film-induced tourism 60, 61, 70 network models 127
film tourism 61, 70 network participation 74
financial risk 201–3 network system 133
network theories 138
geographic positioning 43 North-West Regional Development
grounded theory 77, 186 Agency 20
group package tour 207, 209–11, 213, Northern Rivers Regional Development
215, 216 Board 146, 148
Northern Rivers Tourism 146, 148
heritage tourism 234
hierarchy of effects 183 optimal networks 75
holiday decisions 158–60, 165 outdoor sports 103
overall satisfaction 208, 210, 214, 215
incidental tourists 241
indirect effect 176, 181 perceived risk 196, 197
individual brand strategy 95 policy networks 139
inept set 185 Porter’s competitive diamond 115
inert set 185 pricing 8
information: exchange 75; sharing 32–7 proactive strategies 246, 252
intermediate products 101 production networks 74
products: decisions 183; design 209;
Journal of Marketing 6, 101 development 209
pull motivations 222, 224, 225, 229,
knowledge exchange 31, 34, 37 236, 241
purchase behaviour 245
local environment plans 148–50 purchase intentions 209, 210, 215, 216
local networks 80 push motivations 222, 224, 225, 229,
local tourism organizations 43, 53, 99 236, 241
longitudinal observations 4, 5, 139
qualitative methods 9, 134, 195
market analysis 8 quantitative methods 9, 11, 63, 77,
market segmentation 209, 210, 216, 134, 197
229, 242
marketing: channels 203; environment reactive strategies 246
6–8, 11; functions 6–8, 11; research recovery behaviour 4
7, 8, 11, 210; strategy 8, 9 recovery strategies 246
mass risk 201–3 regional development agency 17, 18,
mass tourists 196, 197 20, 62
Matese National Park 118, 119 regional environment plans 148
motivation, types of 222, 235, 236 regional tourism organizations 93
motivational dimensions 233 regional tourist boards 18
Index 257
relationship dissolution 246, 251 territorial management 116
relationship marketing 4, 88, 244 territorial network 125
repeat business 209 territorial parks 118
resource acquisition 79 ‘top down’ approach 21, 23, 122
risk: dimensions 200–2; perceptions Torbay Development Agency 20
195–201; risk reduction strategies tourism: information centres 64;
195, 197–9, 202, 203; types of 196 journals 4, 7; networks 27–33, 36,
rural destinations 100 37, 120–2; segmentation 159, 160
tourism distribution system 181
sales promotion 8 Tourism South East 20, 23
service attributes 210, 212–15 tourist gaze 60, 103
service failure 246, 251 tourists: behaviour 235, 236;
service quality 207–10, 213, 214, 216 motivations 221–30, 233–5, 237,
SERVQUAL 207, 208 239; roles 196; typology 196, 223
ski corporations 40–3, 45, 47, 53 traditional commerce 171, 173
small- and medium-sized enterprises 41, travel behaviour 207, 210
91–3, 96 travel decisions 170
social network 74, 75, 127, 130, 131, travel risk 196, 197
134, 140 TV-induced tourism 61
social responsibility 12
South Warwickshire Tourism Company unavailable set 187, 190–2
20, 22–5 unawareness set 190, 191
Spanish Foreign Tourist Expenditure UNESCO world heritage list 119
Survey 172 urban tourism 233
Spanish Tourism Studies Institute 172
strategic positioning 41, 44–6, 50 vacation decisions 160, 164, 165
summer destinations 103, 190 value chain 100, 101, 117; model 101
supply chain 29 value constellation model 101
sustainable development 114, 122, 144 value creation 100, 101, 116, 117, 120
sustainable management strategies 27 Visit Brighton 20
sustainable tourism 114, 117–19, 120, Voss Extreme Sport Festival 102
122, 138 Voss Municipality Tourist Office 99
SWOT analysis 18
winter destinations 103
technological network 130, 131 Winter Olympic Games 103
territorial competitiveness 113–15, 120, world heritage city 239, 241
122 world heritage sites 233, 236
territorial development 114 World Tourism Organization 18
territorial governance 117, 118, 120,
122 yield management 30