Destination marketing: Promoting a dream

Destination Marketing Organizations or Convention and Visitor Bureaus/Tourism Boards promote the long-term development and marketing of a destination, focusing on convention sales, tourism marketing and service. The organizations are the masterminds behind campaigns marketing an “entire” destination to meeting professionals, business travelers, tour operators and individual visitors. They represent the hotels, facilities, attractions, restaurants and other providers serving travelers. Nowadays, many countries are launching their destination as a genuine brand in order to keep up with the high competition in the tourism industry. The tourism industry is known for selling "dreams", because they sell an experience and an intangible product.

Spain is operating on the Dutch market for years and is the number two holiday destination of the Dutch. They are highly investing in their marketing campaigns in order to create a fresh and diverse image of the country. It wants to show the tourists to not only be a party and sun destination (think of Ibiza, Mallorca, Marbella, Costa del Sol), but a destination with a rich culture and beautiful flora, fauna and architecture (think of Sevilla, Madrid, Andalucia and the other, mostly unknown sides of Mallorca and Ibiza). Below you can find one of their campaign ads.


Another destination that is investing in their international marketing activities is Jordan. Jordan is one of the most peaceful and stable countries in the Middle East, but the number of inbound tourists is not as high as they want it to be, due to a bad image that has been created years ago. Therefore, they increased their marketing budget rapidly. Below one of their ads.


Of course, a country can promote itself very well, but if a destination is going to be popular, it depends on the willingness of tour operators to offer the destination including the package (flight, transfer, hotel) to the consumers. In order to do so, tour operators are invited to the destination to visit several sites, hotels, venues and to participate in excursions. Furthermore, good press can give a destination a boost as well. Also organizing (sport)events such as the Olympic Games will benefit a destination in terms of tourist arrivals. South Africa is organizing the World Cup 2010 and is promoting itself as the ultimate holiday destination and as the adventure capital of the world. Adventurous it is, because the country has one of the highest crime rates in the world. The message South Africa is trying to put out there, is a little ambiguous. On the one hand the country is known for its rich culture, heritage and wildlife, which they are definitely emphasizing in their communication. On the other hand, notwithstanding government anti-crime efforts, violent crimes such as carjackings, muggings, "smash and grab" attacks on vehicles and other incidents are regularly reported by tourists. Not to speak about the slums which are dominating several areas of the country. There's a major gap between rich and poor. It can be said that South Africa is selling a dream, by ignoring the ugly side and stressing the beautiful side of the country. Why shouldn't they, it just a matter of impressive marketing. A question that can be asked is: is destination marketing an honest and transparant way of communicating or is it misleading and just a unrealistic dream?