3(i) Communication methods used to raise awareness of the
destination’s brand identity.
Brand communication is essential in order to let people know what is on offer within a
destination, especially within such a competitive market.
Many destinations feel that they need a huge advertising budget in order to produce great
marketing communication materials. However, research evidence shows that today’s
customers actually place low trust in advertising messages and that many tourist do not
take much notice of the aggressive attempts to interrupt their television watching, radio
listening whilst driving or newspaper/magazine reading habits by advertisers.
Tourists today have become accustomed to bypassing things that have little interest to
them, hence it is much more difficult for travel and tourism providers to send subliminal
marketing messages to potential customers.
Digital competencies means you can fast forward and skip the adverts or disable pop ups on
your computer screen. Therefore advertising has had to become much more creative in
order to gain a customer’s attention. This has given rise to a number of new communication
methods to raise awareness of a destination’s brand.
 Websites, especially that of the NTO.
Now a significant proportion of the population is computer savvy and has continuous access
to the internet, an increasing number of tourists choose to make their own travel and
holiday arrangements.
Once the decision has been made about the type of destination a customer might like to
visit, the next part of the process is a visit online to search the websites of providers in those
countries that offer the type of tourism experience being sought.
Therefore the websites of national tourism organisations (NTOs) play a very important role
in communicating a destination’s brand identity to potential visitors. These should be the
central hub for visitors, media, and trade partners and should provide easy access to
information, enquiries and feedback from others’ experiences within the destination. The
NTO website is the most cost effective and vital tool in reaching customers and in
representing the destination brand. The website should include a search engine and provide
hyperlinks to key, associated webpages. It should contain links to social media platforms,
include electronic brochures and provide a public relations (PR) information via a newsroom
of press releases and other related PRactivity.
 Publicity materials.
In destination branding, publicity materials can relate to any type of promotional materials
issued to raise the attention of potential customers.
It can include printed brochures, press releases, sales literature and other publications.
Despite the advances in online communications, publicity materials continue to play a part
in communicating brand messages to customers.
Publicity generally refers to notice or attention that is given to something by the media. In
marketing terms this has broadened to encompass any form of giving out information about a
product, person, or company for advertising or promotional purposes.
 Use of social media.
People have online connectivity through an ever-broadening range of digital platforms, with
large numbers of the population owning smartphones, tablets and laptops. This provides
them with broadband connectivity virtually everywhere they go. As a result of this increased
mobile technology it is hardly surprising that tourism providers have recognised the power
and potential of social media in communicating with customers. Therefore many tourism
authorities have their own social media accounts so that they can reinforce destination
brand messages using this communication method. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and
Instagram are common social media tools used to engage with potential customers.
Social media also plays a crucial part in the digital ‘word of mouth’ process.
 Email marketing.
This is a powerful communication tool if used appropriately by travel and tourism
organisations. Once someone subscribes to newsletters or email marketing, they become a
captive audience. Destinations can take advantage of this by contributing regular press
releases to online travel news agencies, such as eturbonews or Travelmole. This ensures
that subscribers to such channels will receive updated brand messages.
When customers sign up to an organisation’s email marketing facility, it provides the
organisation with an opportunity to make use of subject lines, the email content itself,
special offers, editorial voice, personalisation, and so on. There are some of the many tools
that an organisation can utilise to coerce the recipient to open up an email and engage with
it in order to gain awareness of a destination brand.
 Public relations (PR).
Public relations (PR) play a really important role in brand development and enhancing the
reputation of a destination by building relationships to advance, promote and benefit the
destination. It can lead to strong community and business partnerships and may even bring
financial benefits for the destination and its marketing campaign. Customers nowadays are
more likely to trust a first-hand account of a destination by a trusted source than they do
paid advertising, because of the implied sense of marketing bias that advertising carries with
it. PR includes press releases, media visits, a press toolkit, media briefings, bids, speeches
and sponsorship. These all designed to improve the goodwill of the public towards the
destination and are particularly important in brand activation activities.
PRs can be cost effective as it can increase a destination’s visibility and exposure to
potential customers. It will generate interest and cost a fraction of the price for paid
advertising.
 Advertising.
There are many different forms of advertising that a travel and tourism organisation can use
in order to promote a destination. But advertising has lost some of its impact, given how
much exposure a customer has to different adverts during a typical day.
Advertising itself comes in many different forms; print advertisements are still used in
newspapers and magazines; broadcast advertisements are still to be found interrupting our
television viewing and online advertisements pop up when we least want them to. However
annoying we may find advertisements, and however mistrustful of them we have become,
advertising is still considered to be one of the most important communication methods that  Signage.
a destination can use in raising awareness of its brand.
There are many other examples of signage used to communicate a destination’s brand. An
example of Amsterdam’s is ‘I amsterdam’ statue. Another is Las Vegas (shown below).
 Sales promotion.

Sales promotion: can be defined as the process of persuading a potential customer to buy the
product. Sales promotion is designed to be used as a short-term tactic to boost sales – it is rarely
suitable as a method for building long-term customer loyalty. Some sales promotions are aimed
at customers. Others are targeted at intermediaries and travel trade partners, such as incentives
or bonuses.

When trying to entice tourist to visit a newly branded destination, sales promotions are
sometimes used. If targeted at customers, there may be a discount coupon offered or a
loyalty reward scheme introduced. A prize draw or a competition may be set up as a way of
luring customers to subscribe to online newsletters and similar devices, thus giving tourism
providers access to customer’s details. An offer to book for ten nights and get two nights
free is another example of a sales promotion technique that providers in the destination
might use to attract customers.
Travel trade partners, namely travel agents, may be offered similar incentives for helping to
promote destination brand, with the promise of a free gift, a prize draw or a familiarisation
trip as a means of enlisting their support in ‘selling’ the destination. Welcome to Las Vegas branding
Signage allows a destination to reinforce its brand messages, using taglines, logos and
 Word of mouth. specific colour schemes to attract the attention of visitors.

Word of mouth recommendation has always been a powerful communication method for
the travel and tourism industry. Given the intangible nature of the tourism experience and  Destination environment.
the high cost of the holiday product, many customers like to seek the recommendations of A destination’s sense of place and how it functions as a tourism environment is also
others in helping make a decision over which destination to visit. Traditionally, advice and important in creating awareness. A destination’s appearance sends clear messages to
recommendations were sought from a travel agent as the professional with expert product visitors to the place. It provides a glimpse of what visitors will experience within the
knowledge. However, with the decline in number of customers using the face to face destination and will influence their perceptions of the destination brand.
services of a travel agent and the increase in interactive digital media, word of mouth
recommendations have taken on a new lease of life. More and more people now use It is a good idea to ensure that all key guardians of the brand spend time in public spaces
customer comments, reviews and feedback online (‘digital word of mouth’) as a key source within the destination, checking out the facilities and amenities that visitors will experience
of information in determining their travel plans. within the destination environment. Hopefully this will create a favourable and lasting
impression and a positive sense of welcome.
Websites such as TripAdvisor, trippy.com and travelpost.com have become powerful tools in
raising customer awareness of tourism products and services. Similarly social media such as
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram encourage customers to post comments on their
experience – both positive and negative feedback is easily accessible to any potential visitor
to a destination. This can pose a significant challenge to tourism authorities, as they have
limited control over this form of word of mouth promotion.

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