eWOM

It is difficult to find a traveler who has not written and/or read an online review at any stage of their travel. Most people will not book a hotel if this has no reviews and/or will not choose a destination before reading some opinions from other users. Tourism professionals can gain a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic relationships and key influential factors which are relevant to online reviews. A single business can have thousands of reviews. This creates a situation of information overload for hotel managers, who encounter themselves with increasingly larger numbers of information to analyze and act upon. The ability to effectively analyze data, using in occasions dedicated software becomes a crucial aspect of hotel management. The chapter ends with a reflection on how eWOM is leading to the generation of a new approach to business management.

The Role of Tour Operators in Destination Tourism Marketing in Malawi

Destination marketing is one of the tools used by tour operators to gain a tourism competitive advantage. Tourism is one of the biggest businesses in the global village. It is a business in a very competitive market environment that marketing tourism destinations cannot be done by destination management organizations (DMOs) alone but also intermediaries like tour operators. Marketing tourism destination nowadays is highly driven by technology which enhances tourists' destination knowledge prior to their visits. However, the downside of technology cannot be underestimated on the business environment. While there is a growing importance of technology usage which creates challenges for destination competitiveness, tour operators use their marketing strategies to help building positive destination images. These images are created to influence tourists' travel decision making and visits. This chapter, therefore, has examined the present tourism marketing strategies, activities, and approaches used by tour operators in creating positive images for tourism destination using 20 cases of Malawian tour operators.

Perceived Destination Image

The perceived destination image is a strategic weapon that provides a competitive advantage for the tourism destinations. Perceptions are the elements that give meaning to destinations. In this respect, it is important for the destination marketers to know how tourists perceive the destination. It can be seen that tourists with different demographic and cultural backgrounds who visit the same destination can perceive its image differently. The tourism marketplace is highly competitive. Because of this, destination management organizations (DMOs) need to understand the actual and the desired perception of their destinations in order to take necessary measures. In this chapter, the concepts of destination and perceived destination image are emphasized. Secondly, the political environment, cultural attractiveness, social environment, and natural environment factors affecting the perceived destination image will be examined. Finally, the perceived destination images of domestic and foreign tourists visiting the Gallipoli in Turkey will be examined comparatively.

Is the Tourism Destination a Core Attribute in the Choice of Cruise Consumers?

In the last 10 years, cruise tourism has been frequently analyzed in the academic literature on leisure tourism. However, analysis of consumer behavior and the consumer-buying process is still limited, especially if the European market is taken into consideration. To address this gap in the literature, the authors analyzed how different attributes are evaluated by consumers in their decision-making process. In particular, the authors identified the role of the tourism destination among the different attributes that influence cruisers' choices. Using primary survey data from a sample of 4,002 German, Spanish, Italian, and French consumers, the analysis identifies the existence of consumer segments that give different levels of importance to the numerous attributes, including the tourism destination.

A Strategic Framework for Managing the Challenges of Developing Rural Tourism Destination Branding

This chapter explores the importance and challenges of branding for rural tourism destination. In the wider context of destination branding construct, empirical studies on the strategies to manage the identifiable challenges have received fewer academic interests. In this chapter, triangulation of data sources was used in the collection of data that included in-depth interviews with 31 multiple stakeholders in Bario, Miri, and Kuching in Malaysia. Findings show destination branding is important and there are several factors inhibiting rural tourism destination brand development. In terms of contributions to the existing knowledge, this study has produced a strategic framework for managing the challenges of rural tourism destination branding. Implications for practice, host community, and directions for future studies are discussed.

Communication Technologies in E-Tourism

Information-intensive and technology-driven environments like e-tourism need to be constantly oriented towards improvement of their communication strategies and infrastructure considering their immediate impact on user experience and customer behavior. The full range of available technologies is rapidly stretching from sophisticated website features to personalized services based on recommender systems that associate user preference with destinations and hospitality services. Despite the development of these technologies, many challenges remain in designing, applying, and evaluating the web-based services in their critical role between visitor and destination experience. This chapter addresses the problem of how to support management decisions on information technology solutions that best promote destination brands, support visitors' decision-making process, and enhance user experience of a place, service, or destination.

The Use of Differential Pricing in Tourism and Hospitality

Due to the widespread adoption of revenue management strategies within the hospitality business, pricing has become more and more a central topic both for academics and practitioners. In particular, pricing has evolved towards value-based approaches, dynamic and customized through the use of price differentiation. “Rate fences” are the criteria that hotels adopt to separate customer segments whose service values may differ. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the academic literature as well as the business practices relating to this subject. The authors propose a logical link between rate fences and the hedonic pricing approach. Main topics are 1) rate fence classifications and 2) the effectiveness of rate fences and their impacts on perceptions of fairness. Overall, this contribution suggests that time-based rate fences are fundamental at the destination level, and they are strictly connected to seasonality. Destinations' policymakers and firms can consider strategies and tools for overcoming seasonality, including special events that may take place in a destination.

Impacts of the Tourist Activity and Citizens' Evaluation About the Necessity for Resting Periods

Tourism's interactions with local communities and natural environments originate economic, social, and environmental impacts both positive and negative. The local community's assessment of these impacts is key to guarantee their support for tourism development since the planning process is subject to their opinion. Tourism seasonality can intensify these effects due to the influx of tourists during peak periods and generate periods of rest and recovery during the off-peak season. In this research, the locals' opinions on the need for a period of seasonal rest is studied, even if this period interrupts the economic activity linked to tourism. Using a group of Spanish touristic destinations shows that the residents in coastal destinations prefer the annual continuity of the activity and that they are much more critical of the environmental effects than social ones. On the contrary, the inhabitants of urban and rural destinations would rather enjoy resting periods.

How Foreign Tourist Intermediaries Perceive and Sell a Destination

Research on tourist destination images is vast and embraces many destinations, approaches, and methods. More attention has been given to the perspective of final customers, instead of the ones who sell the tourist products to them. This chapter aims to understand how foreign tourist intermediaries, from the top outbound countries, perceive and sell Portugal as a tourist destination. It aims also to analyze the travel motivations they expect Portugal can satisfy and the information sources used to collect information to create tourist products regarding this destination. Foreign tourist intermediaries have a very positive image of Portugal as a destination, associating it to a set of cognitive attributes and psychological motivations.

Buxton and the Peak District

This chapter is designed to analyze and interpret the demand from a new and anticipated international visitor market to the small market and spa town of Buxton, Derbyshire. It offers an audience development plan for the newly renovated Crescent Hotel and Spa (CHS). The hotel is currently in the final stages of re-development following a major refurbishment to a culturally important, both environmentally and socially sensitive, icon in Buxton. Benefits to the town include heightened awareness of tourism's contribution, through income from staying visitors and a resultant boost to the incomes of a range of stakeholders in the supply chain. A secondary analysis of two case studies, best practices of Harrogate and Bath, has been considered as these are both similar spa towns. The chapter concludes with several recommendations for the CHS to encourage international tourists to visit and stay a while.