The future of Destination Management essay
Destination management is an activity aimed at developing the various components of a local tourist destination to ensure its economic profitability. The issue of destination management has arisen due to the constant development of tourism and high competition in this sector. That is why to attract tourists and ensure their constant flow it is necessary to ensure the competitive position of a destination in the international market.
In this paper it is necessary to consider the essence of destination tourism and its economic value; to consider factors that increase the attractiveness of a destination for tourists, as well as the problems that may hinder the development of destination tourism in a particular region. The paper covers the concept of destination management and its importance, which is considered on the relevant examples of different destinations. At the end of the paper it is stressed the necessity for innovations in the destination management to ensure competitive position of the destination in the light of a rapid development of the tourist market.
- Tourist Destination
Tourists usually travel to certain destinations. Destinations are places which have real or imaginary borders, such as physical boundary of the island, political border, or even market boundary (it can be created by a tour operator, which, for example, includes only Australia and New Zealand in a tour of the South Pacific). For example, Central America is inhabited by seven nations, but the usual tour of Central America consists of two or three countries, such as Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama. Others are excluded because of political instability and poor infrastructure. (Laws, 1995)
Although American tourist often visits Australia and New Zealand in a tour of the South Pacific, Australia for many years persistently seeks to become an independent destination. In turn, some destinations of Australia, such as the State of Western Australia, Perth or Adelaide, seek to develop a reputation of a separate destination, and not just a place to stop for the night. But desire to become a recognized and well-known destination is a difficult marketing challenge. For example, the city of New Bern in eastern North Carolina has several attractions. Another part of the state can not offer much interesting, but local authorities want to profit from tourism in the whole state. Under political pressure from tourism officials, Craven County began to be promoted as a destination, giving it priority over New Bern. Promotion of a relatively unknown city has serious problems, but promotion of the district even increases the difficulty.
Large destinations such as the United States, has thousands of small destinations, including regions, states, cities and towns, and even places of destination within the city. Nobody will be surprised if tourists consider destination Kahala Hilton in Hawaii, or Hawaiian Village in Honolulu, and rarely attempt to leave the territory of these resorts. Thousands of visitors fly to Orlando and go directly to Disney World, where they spend most of their vacation. These tourists find their destination is not Florida or Orlando, but rather Disney World.
In order to understand the significance of destination for tourism development, for example, in a certain region, it is necessary to consider what benefits tourism brings to the economy of destination. The most obvious advantage of tourism is jobs creation in hotels, restaurants, retail shops and transport. The second, less obvious advantage, is support of the industry and the professionals (such as consultants in effective management, tourism and university teachers), many of which bring much more revenue than the obvious jobs, such as restaurant staff. A third advantage of tourism is the multiplier effect, as the costs of tourism are processed the local economy. Governments use economic impact model to assess how tourism has increased the number of jobs in sphere of consumption of goods and services. The fourth advantage of tourism is federal and local revenue – tax revenue from tourism. With the tourism tax burden is transferred to non-residents. For example, more than half of the proceeds from a currency exchange and tax revenues in Bermuda come from tourism. This is one of the few developed countries where there is no income tax. (Vanhove, 2005)
Another example is a tax on hotel rooms, which in New York brings more than $ 300 million a year. The same tax exists in Dallas, Los Angeles and Houston. More than 40% of both the public and the county tax collection are from tourism of Hawaii. Taxation of tourists has become a popular, although hidden tax, which in the United States brings more than $ 2.5 billion from taxes on airline tickets, hotel rooms and other types of fees. Critics of such taxation argue that such a scheme of taxation is not representative, and leads to reckless spending of money by the government or spending that have little to do with tourism and growth of the hospitality industry. Managers of hospitality and tourism managers need to make sure that their taxes and other taxes related to tourism, will be invested in tourism promotion and development of infrastructure to support tourism. (Vanhove, 2005)
The fifth advantage of tourism for particular area (destination) is that it stimulates the export of local products. According to the estimates, the costs of a tourist on gifts, products and souvenirs ranges from 15 to 20% of all his costs. The extent to which these products are manufactured in this particular area, has an economic impact on local economies. (Vanhove, 2005)
The problem is that destination are not equally attractive to the tourists, because of location, climate, limited resources and the size of the cultural heritage; and some places do not have much opportunities for economic activity. It is important to say that not all destinations are equally interested in tourism. For example, the population of Bali is concerned that tourism destroys its culture, as the countryside becomes a resort, and new professions destroy family values. Bali’s Dilemma is that, on the one hand, it faces destruction of culture, and on the other hand, rapid economic growth because of the income from more than 500,000 tourists a year. Another example are citizens of the European capitals, who prefer to leave the city to avoid the summer flow of tourists.
That is, some destinations benefit from tourism (both people and business), while others don’t. Although tourism can benefit the economy of destination, people sometimes believe that inconvenience, loss of cultural and social values are not worth that economic benefits.
Among the issues that attract public attention, is how much hospitality actually gives to the city’s economy. According to the estimates of the Department of Commerce of California, San Francisco (where 32,500 people are associated with the hospitality industry) in 1986 earned $ 47 million. In addition, the city’s budget got $ 78 million of taxes from tourists. And according to the Bureau of conferences and meetings of the city, these figures should be doubled. (Ashworth 1988)
With the importance that tourism has to the economy of San Francisco, the critics are concerned about the loss of financial services, general movement to the suburbs and the relative decline of cargo transportation and other businesses of the industrial era. San Francisco has to choose between three options: first, to more actively develop tourism business, since the physical and historical beauty of the city gives it a competitive advantage in the hospitality industry; second, to hold tourism at current levels and to more actively invest in other industries, to build a balanced between tourism and other industries. This is not an easy decision, because it touches the interests of different blocks. (Ashworth 1988)
- Destination tourism management
Management of destination tourism is important for several reasons:
1) First, the need to develop management policies in the field of tourism in the region is determined by the capabilities of the industry to solve a wide range of socio-economic problems. World experience shows that with the help of tourism is possible to overcome the uneven development of individual territories in the region, revitalize the regional economy by attracting investment, bring additional revenues to local budgets, improve infrastructure, provide employment and to prevent the external migration of the population, support the local business and industry, to increase demand for products of local producers, improve the environment due to additional funding for environmental programs.
2) Second, it provides opportunities for tourism companies and entire regions (with their unique tourist and recreational potential) to improve competitive positions. With respect to the destination tourism these opportunities include:
– development of regional infrastructure, the introduction of various technologies, including informational, recreational and transport;
– development of facilities and geography of the Tourist Centers;
– to ensure interaction of all stakeholders in the tourism sector in the region;
– implementation of new technologies.
It seems that the new management instruments should be embodied in a systematic regional strategies for the creation and development of competitive tourism destinations.
In this strategy one of the main roles has creation of a positive, attractive and individual image of a destination. Individual image is very often a major factor in attracting tourists. Some places of tourist destination appear spontaneously, that is, neither individuals nor tourism organizations are not taking actions to attract tourists. Attention to such destinations can be caused by its picturesque area or place, for example, rich in mineral and hot springs with curative properties. (Morgan, 2002)
Other factors that may attract to not well-known places may be associated with exceptional event that attracts attention of the public. Finally, there are many places that are places of tourist destination because of the value of their cultural heritage, or religious shrines (for example, Jerusalem and other places in Israel, which attract thousands of pilgrims and religious people). And based on that appeal to tourists, such destinations are then developed as tourist centers. (Morgan, 2002)
An important elements of the destination may be its geographical location. Sometimes the very geographical location may be the motive for tourist trips: the climate, flora and fauna. In such places development of infrastructure should be very carefully, so as to save the nature. (Morgan, 2002)
Lets consider the problems that may hinder the development of destination tourism in a particular region. First, a serious risk to tourism have destinations with poor infrastructure. For example, the Adriatic coast of Italy became unpopular because of adverse public opinion associated with the growth of brown algae, which prevented swimming. Another example is increased levels of pollution in the Grand Canyon and the crowds in Yosemite Valley that may significantly reduce the appeal of these great national parks. (Beerli 2004)
The attractiveness of the destination can be reduced due to political instability, natural disasters, environmental problems and overpopulation. For example, national treasure of Greece was once white marble Parthenon in Athens, which now stands as a symbol of the neglect of the environment, suffered from severe pollution. Also some excellent beach resorts and castles in Thailand suffered very serious damage from pollution and non-sanitary standards. Another example is India, which due to the sectarian and caste violence, and a plane crash was declared unsafe destination be Western countries, including the United States and Japan. (Beerli 2004)
Destinations that do not cope with management of their products, won’t win in the competitive struggle. But destination with a solid infrastructure can increase their business, expanding a seasonal product to multiseasonal or expanding the geographical base of their products. For example, Aspen (Colorado) is not only a ski resort, but now also a summer recreation center with educational and cultural programs. Also West Virginia is popular in the summer-autumn season, but it is also engaged in aggressive promotion in the spring and winter seasons. (Pike 2008)
A very effective tool for promotion of destinations are cultural events that allow to attract thousands of tourists every year. Thus, the Canadian Shakespeare Festival, which began as a small regional event in Stratford, Canada, became an event for all of the United States and Canada. Similarly can be mentioned music and cultural festivals in Europe, such as in Salzburg, Edinburgh and Spoleto. European Arts Festival presents more than 50 music festivals from Norway to Spain, dozens of dance contests, summer art and theater exhibitions – from London’s West End to Berlin festival weeks. The entire European continent in summer competes for the attention of tourists.
Promotion of destination can be the task of a travel agencies, called national tourist organizations, that are often owned by central government, state government and local authorities. For example, the European Commission on Tourism, which includes 24 countries, works to attract tourists from the United States to Europe, is responsible for coordination of promotional programs in the United States.
Some cities divide responsibilities for the promotion of tourism and hospitality industry: the promotion gets public support, and hospitality -of tourism. But the budget, revenue sources and marketing programs of tourism organizations vary considerably. The decisive role in the revitalization of tourism belongs to chambers of commerce, which help organizations to develop tourism products and services, in marketing and advertising of destinations. They are required to protect the tourism industry, negotiate with government officials and agencies.
It is important that tourism businesses and agencies work together to promote the destination and to ensure that the expectations of tourists are met. State tourism organizations should work with national and local organizations, hotels and airlines should help to organize family trips, sponsor travel organizations. Local business must send their managers to business trips and sales visits, presenting their destination at the regional, national and international conferences. Promotion of the destination required joined efforts of the organizations, state authorities, local business and publics.
- Innovations and future of destination management
The future of traditional destinations is largely dependent on tourism policy, focused on innovation. Such a policy should help to extend the life cycle of tourist products and services and to achieve constant growth rates. New technologies enable to organize holidays more effectively, individually. In place of the mass, standard and integrated tourism come new types, which are based on demand and individual needs.
Innovative policy of destination tourism development involves the use of the Internet and introduction of e-business, which allows:
– a more cost-effective channels of communication with businesses and target markets;
– consumers can easier and faster find necessary tourist product, which leads to an increase in turnover of tourist services;
– to provide a higher level of service and customer loyalty;
– reduce costs through more efficient internal operations and simplify procedures for business transactions.
Tourism businesses have always been and now are active supporters of the new technologies. As already noted, recent advances in telecommunications and electronic marketing provide new opportunities for tourism businesses and significantly affect the model. The latest technologies help to promote e-tourism, e-travel and tourist information systems.
Innovations in tourism is often composed of a series of small steps that lead to the gradual development and improvement. In the leading tourist companies, innovations are programmed and are a standard component in decision-making about future development, since innovations can help to develop and remain competitive in the tourism market, which is fast growing and developing.
