1. The document discusses key concepts in destination management, including definitions of tourism, destinations, and destination management organizations (DMOs). 2. A destination is defined as a geographical space containing a cluster of tourism resources that provide visitor experiences. Destinations have physical and administrative boundaries and are marketed competitively. 3. DMOs work to promote economic and social benefits of tourism, access government funds, and highlight environmental and sociocultural impacts. Their roles include integrated marketing, disaster response planning, and performance metrics to manage destinations effectively.

1. 1
Destination Management
Lecture 1
Key concepts, definitions and approaches
in destination management

2. 2
Geographical elements
of tourism: Destinations
• Most tourism activities take place at destinations.
• Destinations:
– the fundamental unit of analysis in tourism (WTO, 2002).
– They are a pillar in modelling the tourism system
DEMAND SUPPLY

3. 3
Definitions
of tourism

4. 4
Tourism: Holiday or business travels?
Business travels : M-I-C-E
Meetings, Incentives, Conferences/congresses, Exhibitions
Tourism motivations:
• business travel, attendance at conferences, exhibitions, trade fairs
• attendance at sporting events, the arts and entertainment
• visiting friends or relatives (VFR)
• sex and romance, 4S
• gambling
• educational field trips
• adventure sports , hunting and fishing
• spiritual events and pilgrimages
• day excursions.

5. 5
Destinations
• A destination is a geographical space in which a cluster of
tourism resources exist, rather than a political boundary.
• A cluster is: ...an accumulation of
– tourist resources and attractions,
– infrastructures, equipments,
– service providers, other support sectors and
– administrative organisms whose integrated and coordinated activities
provide customers with the experiences they expected from the
destination they chose to visit.

6. 6
Definition of a destination
A local tourism destination is
• a physical space
• in which a visitor spends at least one overnight.
• It includes tourism products such as support services
and attractions and tourism resources within one
day’s return travel time.
• It has physical and administrative boundaries defining
its management, and
• images and perceptions defining its market
competitiveness.
• Local destinations incorporate various stakeholders,
often including a host community, and
• can nest and network to form larger destinations.
(WTO)

7. 7
Why to ‚manage’ destinations?
Purposes of destination management
• promote the economic and social benefits of tourism to a
community
• access to government funds for destination promotion
• promote the scale and growth of tourism-related
business investments
• highlight potentially negative environmental impacts
of tourism development
• report negative sociocultural impacts at a destination.
CONFLICTING INTERESTS OF STAKEHOLDERS !

8. 8
Marketing orientation
• Tourism supply vs tourism demand
• The supply-side is the travel and tourism industry
• The demand-side represents consumer - travellers
• Marketing is an exchange process between supply and
demand.
The three stages of marketing orientation in tourism:
1. Production orientation (-1950s): a shortage of available goods and
services, a seller’s market. Main problem: to increase output.
2. Selling orientation (in the 1960s and 1970s) : Technological progress
enables mass production, leading to increased competition, and supply
in excess of demand, a buyer’s market (supply of wide-bodied jets and
large hotels )
3. Marketing orientation. Increased competition, the necessity to identify
consumer needs, as the starting point for what is produced.
4. Societal marketing orientation: matching destination resources with
environment opportunities, with the wider interests of society in mind.

9. 9
Destination Management Organisations (DMOs): Key
concepts
• Multidimensional nature of destination competitiveness
• Reasons for the establishment of DMOs
• Structure, roles, goals and functions of DMOs →the shift in thinking
• key opportunities, challenges and constraints facing DMOs
• complexities of marketing multi-attributed destinations as tourism
brands
• philosophy of integrated marketing communications
• design, implementation and monitoring of effective destination marketing
communication strategies
• the potential for visitor relationship management
• necessity of disaster response planning
• destination marketing performance metrics
It is easy to downgrade a product or allow it to
deteriorate;
but it is the devil’s own work to upgrade a low-image
product.

10. 10
Levels of destination
marketing/management organisations
• National tourism office (NTO):The entity with overall
responsibility for marketing a country as a tourism
destination.
• (State tourism office (STO):The organisation with overall
responsibility for marketing a state (e.g. USA), province (e.g. Canada)
or territory (e.g. Australia) as a tourism destination, in a country that
has a federal political system. )
• Regional tourism organisation (RTO):The organisation
responsible for marketing a concentrated tourism
area as a tourism destination.
• Local tourism association (LTA): a cooperative
association of local tourism businesses.