69821 - Destination Marketing and Management

Learning outcomes

Learning Outcomes: At the end of the course the student: knows the relevance of the destination management for the tourism sector; is able to identify and critically evaluate the marketing tools available for tourism destinations; knows how to interpret and evaluate the organizational models of coordination, control and marketing implemented by the destination authorities to effectively manage the tourism activities.

Course contents

It is often argued that tourism destinations are increasingly competing within an international challenging scenario. Similarly, the economic growth of many individual countries is being understood in relation to the success of different types of destinations in national and domestic tourist markets. Marketing and branding have rapidly emerged over the last decades as widely adopted business philosophies at disposal of destination managers willing to raise the profile of the tourist places they are developing.

The application of commercial marketing and branding to the spatial realm of tourist places, however, brings with it questions and problems that regard the applicability of marketing principles and the specific ‘translation’ required. The course aims at illustrating the challenges and the opportunities disclosed by a sustainable adoption of marketing and branding within cities, regions and nations. Furthermore, the course intends to enable participants to critically relate the principles of marketing and branding to empirical examples of successful (and unsuccessful) destinations in Italy, Europe and from around the globe.

The course will cover the following subject areas:

· The objectives, benefits and problems of destination marketing

· The structure and main characteristics of a DMMO (Destination Marketing and Management Organisation)

· Developing the destination marketing mix

· The role of branding in destination marketing

· Participatory approaches to destination branding and marketing and the role of citizens

· Traditional marketing communications and promotions in destination marketing

· The use of the Internet and social media in destination marketing

· Contemporary issues in destination marketing and management (e.g. sustainability)

Readings/Bibliography

Prescribed readings include:

Giovanardi, M. (2022). DESTINATIONS: Songs for place and tourism management. Mimesis Edizioni.

Charters, S., & Spielmann, N. (2014). Characteristics of strong territorial brands: The case of champagne. Journal of Business Research, 67(7), 1461-1467.

Giovanardi, M. Lichrou, M & Kavaratzis, M. (2018). Critical Perspectives on Place Marketing. In Tadajewski, M., Higgins, M., Denegri-Knott, J, & Varman, R (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Critical Marketing, Routledge.

Goulart Sztejnberg, R., & Giovanardi, M. (2017). The ambiguity of place branding consultancy: working with stakeholders in Rio de Janeiro. Journal of Marketing Management, 1-25. DOI: 10.1080/0267257X.2017.1319404

Hassen, I., & Giovanardi, M. (2017). The difference of ‘being diverse’: City branding and multiculturalism in the ‘Leicester Model’. Cities. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.06.019

Hudson, S. (2008). Tourism and Hospitality Marketing: A global perspective. Sage Publications.

Medway, D., Warnaby, G. and Dharni, S. (2011) Demarketing places: Rationales and strategies, Journal of Marketing Management, 27(1–2), pp. 124–142.

Rabbiosi, C., & Giovanardi, M. (2017). Rediscovering the “Urban” in Two Italian Tourist Coastal Cities. In Pasquinelli, C & Bellini, N. Tourism in the City (pp. 247-258). Springer International Publishing.

Y. Wang Abraham Pizam (2011) Destination Marketing and Management Theories and Applications, CABI International, available for free on ResearchGate at https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Y.+Wang+Abraham+Pizam+%282011%29+Destination+Marketing+and+Management+Theories+and+Applications&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=fsvXWbC9D6jc8Aeo56S4BQ

Please note that additional reading materials will be communicated to the course participants before and after the lectures.

Teaching methods

To enable participants to achieve the above objectives, a combination of traditional lectures and more participatory/interactive sessions will be used for this course. The language of instruction for all teaching and learning activities is English.

Lectures

Topics will be introduced during lectures and readings suggested. Students are expected to do some of the prescribed readings before lectures, as the lecturing method for this course is a two-way interactive presentation, including students’ verbal participation in terms of their views/opinions of the information being presented.

Interactive sessions

Interactive sessions provide a means for students to verify their understanding and mastery of information presented in the preceding lecture. To that end, interactive sessions will be conducted in the form of group/class discussions, case study, question and answer sessions, and whenever possible a short project group presentation for classroom evaluation so as to engage all attendees. This will enable the tutor to diagnose students’ challenges and help to focus participants’ efforts on critical ideas and techniques to assimilate lecture content.

Assessment methods

In order to pass this course students, are expected to deliver a written market report that investigates a specific destination and its main challenges. A detailed brief will be illustrated during the first lecture.

Students can qualify as either attending or non-attending students. Attending students have a chance to collaborate with other students and develop the asssignment in the form of a group project. Non-attending students are expected to carry out the same task but are expected to work and submit individually.

Office hours

See the website of Massimo Giovanardi