FRANCISCO Teixeira Pinto DIAS · 2 nd International Conference of Tourism, Hospitality and...

2 nd International Conference of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation

19th – 21st May, Poznan, Poland

FRANCISCO Teixeira Pinto DIAS

GITUR – Tourism Research Group

Polytechnic Institute of Leiria, Portugal

Editor-in-Chief EJTHR - European Journal of

Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation

THE DESTINATION CHOICE SET:

A conceptual tool for the

DESTINATION BRAND INDEX model

2 nd International Conference of Tourism,

Hospitality and Recreation, Poznan, Poland

FRANCISCO DIAS - GITUR / EJTHR

A) THE DESTINATION BRAND CONCEPT

1. A problematic concept…2. … a mental and subjective category…3. … to be considered from both sides: demand and supply…4. … a product-specific category…5. Tourism destination as a BRAND

B) HOW TO ASSESS THE VALUE OF THE DESTINATION BRANDS

1. Country Brand Index2. Nation Brand Index and City Brand Index3. Country Brand Ranking4. Destination Brand Index – our proposal




1. Destination - a problematic (mental) category




WHAT IS A TOURISM DESTINATION ?




In the tourist’s mind, a destination is a mental category




If we don’t recognize a given destination, itdoesn’t exist for us.

And it doesn’t matterwhat the DMO is doing,

because this tourismdestination doesn’t exist

in our minds…




Vanuatu is a Melanesian Island nation, whichoccupies the islands of the New Hebrides. It hasmaritime borders with Salomon Islands in the northof the French territory of New Caledonia, and the FijiIslands to the east. The capital is Port Vila.

The first Island in the Vanuatu group to be discovered was the “Island of the HolySpirit” in 1606, when Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós, saw it andthought it was a Southern continent. The Europeans did not return to the islandsuntil 1768, when the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville rediscoveredthe islands.

The Vanuatu Islands




Now you know that this imagecorresponds to... Vanuatu




Do you know where Ciudad del Este is?




Ciudad del Este, in Paraguay.An amazing tourism destination with Foz doIguaçú, in Brazil and Puerto Iguazu, inMisiones, Argentina.

The Iguazu FallsOne of 7 Natural Wonders of the world




A view of the Iguazu Falls




A destination can be a country




A destination might include a set of countries




A destination can be a region,a province or an island




A destination can be a city




A destination can be a specific resort




Continent

Set of

countries

Country

Region

City

SpecificPlace

All these categoriescan be mixed in theconsumer’s mind, regardless of theirdifferent geographicscales.




In the consumer’smind

a destination is a brand

2. In the marketing, a mental category is a BRAND…




The brand exists to brand the

people´s mind

All organizationsare trying to

achievedistinctiveness




Different tourism products, different geographic scales, and different mental images… can generate a very confusing brand identity




Stereotyped versus mutant visual identities

In the modern changing world, the brand identity can also be versatil, changing or mutant




Doodles of Google – maybe the most famoust mutant brand




The doodlesation of toursim destinationsThe mutant brand concept applyed to tourism destinations




The mutantbrand ofColombia

The doodlesation of toursim destinations




But in destination brandingthe crucial factor is not the logo, the slogan

or other elements of visual identity

The crucial factor is the destination image, orthe brand equity

- Do you know the logo of Barcelona? - No…- Do you have a positive or negative image of Barcelona as a tourism destination? - No…- Have you already been in Barcelona? - No…




What institutions really do Consumer response

The 2 faces of Janus in the branding process

Brand identity Brand equity




From the DMO’s point of view: From the consumers’ point of view:

Destination is a territory withadministrative borders, createdby territorial differentiations, bygeographic or historical andpolitical factors, and not by thevisitors’ perception or their use ofthe area.

A destination is a mental category(a name) which refers to a place to bevisited.

Like any kind of categories, it encompasses 3 aspects:

- Cognitive- Evaluative- Emotional / affective

Laws (1995:24)

3. Destination is a coin with to faces: demand and supply




Shortly, we can approach the destination concept from two sides:

From the DMO’s point of view: From the marketing point of view:

TRADITIONAL conception: Mental category

=

Place brand

A territory with more or lessdefined borders

Complex adaptative system.

Intense collaborative network ofstakeholders, sharing knowlwdgeand resources

MODERN conception:




a) In some cases, tourism destinations are well delimited geographic areas,as countries, islands or cities;

b) In other cases, the destination is a more subjective concept, dependingon the visitor’s itinerary, of his cultural experience, of the motivation forvisiting, of level of education and of previous experience.

In the case of cruise tourism:

- some tourists conceive the ports and the cities in the cruise itinerary as thedestination.

- for other tourists, the destination is the cruise voyage itself.




There are so many tourist products…– and each tourism product corresponds to a specific territorial configuration

4. Destination is also a product-specific category




In the DMO staff’s mind set: In the tourist’s mind set:

Hundreds or thousands: all competitors! – if the DMO staff is competent

The mental processor can deal at the sametime only with 7 + or – 2 categories

HOW MANY DESTINATIONS ONE CAN CONSIDER AT THE SAME TIME ?

Only one – my own destination!– if the DMO staff is egocentric and incompetent

Considering that there are hundreds orthousands of destinations in competition, onlya few of them – the winners – have the right to exist in the consumers’ minds.




The cognitive processor of destinations is known in the

tourism literature as the destination choice set




1) tourism consumers, once they recognise having a decision problem, start out by making a broad selection of (acceptable) alternatives from among the many available alternatives.

2) This activity continues until they have gathered sufficient information, after which they spend time inspecting more closely the alternatives selected in this consideration set.

3) After making their final trade-offs, decision makers choose what alternative to purchase.

TRADITIONAL DESTINATION CHOICE-SET APPROACH




Woodside and Lysonski’s

General Model of

Destination Choice (1990)




Um and Crompton’s model (1989)




The new choice set conception - Decrop Model (2010)




Number of destinations in the mental sets




Tourism Destination is…

… a complex adaptive system, that is represented in the consumers’ mind in many different ways as a category or place brand

The way tourists represent a destination depends on tourism promotion but also on many other factors, namely:- cultural and socio-psychological context;- motivations and preferences of tourist products;-- etc…




The state-of-art in the assessment of destination brands




The measurement of competitiveness of place brands has led to the creation of annual rankings.

All these rankings are focused on the country brand or city brand concepts (not on the destination brand concept)

- COUNTRY BRAND INDEX (by FutureBrand in partnership with the BBC)

- NATION BRAND INDEX- CITY BRAND INDEX (by Anholt-Gfk Roper)

- COUNTRY BRAND RANKING (by Bloom Consulting)




Methodology:

people products government cultureeducation tourist attractions lifestyle

1. Outputs – 50 countries in 7 rankings:




The respondents evaluate 50 countries:

Angola Czech Republik Germany Mexico South Korea

Austria Colombia Hungry New Zealand Spain

South Africa Cuba Indonesia Peru Switzeland

Argentina Dinamarca Iran Poland Taiwan

Australia Equador Irleland Quenia Thailand

Belgium Emirates India Romania Netherlands

Brazil Egypt Italy Russia United Kingdom

Canada Estonia Japan Saudi Arabia USA

Chile Finland Lithuania Scotland Sweden

China France Malaysia Singapura Turkey

3. Countries assessed in the online questionnaire

Methodology:




Why only 50 countries are evaluated? There are around 200 in the world

Why were just these specific 50 countries choosen?Small countries like Estonia and Lithuania are in the list, but other countries like Morocco, Portugal, Greece, Norway are missing…

Why is the sample limited to 20 specific countries?People from Sweden, Norway, Chile, Greece, Portugal, The Netherlands, etc…, etc… have no opinion?

The methodology used in the Nation Brand Index is based on arbitrary criteria:




Nation Brand Index is a combination of seven top 50’s countries:

The country performance is the position of the country on these 7 specific rankings: people, products, government, culture, education, tourist attractions, lifestyle.

This index is not useful for any DMO

it just can give a very generalized idea about the relative popularity of 50 countries, that are given a priori

The outputs have low pertinence for tourism:




Methodology




More than 1.500respondents, aged 21 – 65




More than 2.600 respondentsfrom 7 countries, aged 21 – 65

Expert opinions of more than50 international travelindustry rofessionals




Rankings ofcountries byfollowingcategories




What can we say about the validity of this “index”?

It is based on intentional samples that don’t represent the heterogeneityof consumers existing in the world:

- Around 3.000 respondents from 7 countries;- Around 50 experts

It doesn’t give to DMOs useful information to manage their branding politicsand to decide their strategies




Country Brand Index and Nation Brand Indexhave the following similitudes:

Very serious shortcomings concerning the sampling

A specific focus on the “Country” category during the data collection

But an ilegitimate attempt to interpret the results in a broader context ofthe “destination” category.

These indexes are in fact just tools for selling(just get customers with a fish-hook)




Methodology




Furthermore, the Bloom Consulting produces 3 different country rankings:

Attraction of Tourism Attractions of Talent Attraction of Trade

Methodology




Comments on the Country Brand Ranking

These rankings are based on tangible and comparable data economic receipts, economic growth, culture, leisure, nature, sports, niche markets, brand strategies assessment and oficial website and social media performance

3 different Country Brand Rankings are produced1. attraction of talents; 2. attraction of trade; 3. attraction of tourists

In comparison with the other indexes (CBI and NBI) this is a much more appropriate methodology for country brand assessment.

But, once again, the country concept is very rigid to encompass the very fluid concept of tourism destination




DESTINATION BRAND INDEX

DBI




DESTINATION BRAND INDEX - DBI

Our approach is a collaborative network of tourism researchers which are interested in the monitoring of the tourism destinations’ performance,

not just one more tool for selling consulting services to the governments




Our basic assumptions :

1. Each tourism destination includes a mix of specific tourist products

2. Each tourism product is distributed or spacialized in the territory in a specific way.

3. Depending on costumers’ personal experience, motivations, interests, knowledge, nationality, etc., each person organizes in his/her mind a hierarchy of destinations.

4. In people’s mind, the cognitive networks of destinations can mix destinations of differentgeographic scales.

5. Our task is how to extract from people’s minds the information about destinations, withoutimposing them an a priori system of geographic categories, like countries, cities or regions.




What are the best sea & sun destinations? For the atributes “prestige”, “value for money”, “safety”, etc.

What are the best wellness destinations? For the atributes “prestige”, “value for money”, “safety”, etc.

To identify the consumers’ mental structure of tourism destinations for eachtourist product

Our methodological approach:

Our enquiry must focus on questions like these:




Example of a questionnaire question for the product“wellness tourism”




Example for the product “wellness tourism”

Data collection matrix:




Results of all tourist product rankings will be integrated in a complex matrix




To organize an international network of researchers motivated to participate in theempirical implementation of this methodology:- One researcher per country

1) online questionnaire for experts:- Academic experts (for each specific tourism product)- Experts from trade (tour operators, tourism professionals)- Travel and tourism journalists

2) Online survey for customers

As a coordinated network, the group of researchers will invite experts from allover the world to answer an online questionnaire:

The new methodological approach is designed…

The next steps are:




The main concepts and indicators of DBI are:

1) Destination

2) Brand and Brand Equity

3) Tourism products

4) Awareness of destinations for each tourism product

5) Relevant attributes for each tourist product

6) Brand Equity based on the evaluation of attributes of tourist products

7) Clustering of rankings of tourism products as brand destination índex.




STEPS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF DBI

Step 1: Pilot test with a multilingual research procedure

Step 2: Involving worldwide tourism organizations as partners

Step 3: Achieving consensus among the core-team

Step 4: Achieving consensus on the main aspects of the methodology

Step 5: Creating the International Collaborative Research Network for DBI

Step 6: Creating the Multilingual DBI Online Platform




臺灣日本中國 Taiwan Japan China

埃及大陸印度 Egypt Chinese mainland India

北京雅典倫敦 Pequim Atheans London

日本關島英國 Japan Guan Grait Britain

英國倫敦法國巴黎義大利米蘭 London Paris Milan

義大利西班牙中國 Italy Spain China

日本中國法國 Japan China France

歐洲美洲北極 Europe America Artic

埃及日本中國 Egito Japan China

日本欧洲中国 Japan Europe China

埃及金字塔中国故宫法国巴黎 Egyptian pyramids Beijin Forbiden City Paris

埃及金字塔台北故宫北京故宫 Egyptian Pyramids Taipei Palace Beijin Forbiden City

中國泰國印度 China Thailand India

印度法國非洲 India France Africa

法國巴黎西班牙吳哥窟 Paris Spain Angkor Wat

The best “Cultural Tourism” destinations, from the PRESTIGE point of view:




Continent

Region

Country

Specific location




0,0

10,0

20,0

30,0

40,0

50,0

60,0

continent region country specific

Geographic categories related to Sun & Sea Tourism Product – Chinese Sample:




Research principles and methods:

Universality: People of all country will be invited to answer in their own mother tongue

Transparence:An independent scientific council consisting of some of the most reputable researchers in the world will assess and validate the methodology




Research principles:

Equidistance:

To ensure its impartiality in relation to the various interests, no one researcher committed with consulting firms will be invited to participate in the International Collaborative Research Network.





Objectivity or impartiality:

Trying to not discriminate any culture or nation, the questionnaire will be customized in 14 linguistic versions and addressed to 159 countries of the world. This way each destination will receive a more reliable picture about the way it is represented in the consumers’ mind.




Questionnaire for consumers – adapted for each relevant linguistic group

Questionnaire in English for English-speaking countries Анкета на русском для русско-говорящих стран Cuestionario en español para los de hispano-hablantes问卷调查中国对中国，台湾，澳门及香港 Questionnaire en français pour les pays francophones Kwestionariusz w języku polskim dla Polaków한국인을위한한국어설문지 االستبيان في العربية للدول العربية

Questionario in lingua italiana per il popolo italiano日本人のための日本でのアンケート Анкета на українському пункті для українського народу Enkät i Sverige para för Sveriges folk Kérdőív a magyar a magyar nép Klausimynas lietuvių Lietuvos žmonėms Chestionar în limba română pentru cei Romanianan भारतीय लोगों के ललए ह िंदी में प्रश्नावली





Quality and usefulness of the information:

The accurate consideration of the destination concept as a complexadaptive system, that is represented in the consumers’ mind in manydifferent ways, will allow to avoid the reductionism of the existingcountry rankings, and will provide very useful and multifacetedinformation to be used in the marketing decision support systems ofall the DMO existing in the world.




Thank

you

for

your

attention!




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