Digital Marketing for Tourism Destinations

This assignment delves into the digital marketing challenges faced by tourist destinations. It focuses on understanding how content creation and co-creation strategies impact destination branding. Using Portugal as a case study, students analyze relevant academic articles to evaluate the effectiveness of these approaches in shaping positive perceptions and driving tourism.

Tourist Destinations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Analysing tourist destinations and generators of the world in terms of tourist numbers......1
1.2 Analysing the statistics information which identify tourist destinations and future trends. .3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Analyse cultural, social and physical features of tourist destinations explaining their
appeal to tourist...........................................................................................................................4
2.2 Compare features of leading and developing tourist destination..........................................5
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Covered in PPT ..........................................................................................................................7
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
4.1 Analyses problems that effects popular and famous tourist destination...............................7
4.2 Potential duties of tourist which raise host community at worldwide destination................8
CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Travel and tourism sector plays an essential role and duty for developing Economic
growth. It provides attention and recognition towards the particular industry (Tourist destination,
2017). They adopt different types of techniques and tools which help in advertising services. It
attracts million number of clients and other business customers in a quick way (Beritelli,
2011).Current investigation has been analysed and examine the entire scenario of traversing in
main of the developed and developing countries in past three years at similar period of time.
This report is based on Virgin Holidays Limited which provides tour and travel services
to tourists. Main purpose of this company is to arrange trips and holidays for different
destinations including Caribbean, South Africa, Canada, United States, etc. This business entity
offers cruise, luxury, villa holidays and multi-destination as well as sandals, honeymoons and
weddings abroad. It also gives travel insurance, airport lounges, attraction tickets, car hire and
others. This project discussed about the meaning and comparison about physical, social and
cultural characteristics of popular destination. There are different issues which affect the famous
tourist destination which is also determined in this study. At last, potential responsibilities of
visitors which enhance host country in all over the world destination, it is also shown in this
report.
TASK 1
1.1 Analysing tourist destinations and generators of the world in terms of tourist numbers
Virgin Holidays Limited is a service provider and tour operator industry in the United
Kingdom. It was established by Sir Richard Branson's in 1985. It is the largest tourism industry
worldwide with having millions of employees. Main role of this sector is to arrange trips for
different places including the Indian Ocean, South Africa and other famous destinations. In the
last two to three years, it has been ascertained that living standard of United Kingdom person is
improved contiguously and it will help in developing tourism agency in an accurate manner. In
these sector, tourist have been maximise because an individual outlay maximum money in
acquiring facilities of tourism sector (Chen, Shang and Li, 2014). There are various popular
destinations where a large number of travellers like to visit such as Spain, Italy, France, UK and
Europe. Maximisation in tourist number is directly increasing the income level and generating at
similar period of time. It will assist in developing different other countries in an effective and
1

efficient manner. As per the investigation, it can be noticed that in year 2014, million number of
tourists come to visit in the country. In the year 2013, there are maximum 32.6 million persons
who travel in 2014. Above information identified that United Kingdom is one of the main and
famous destinations among tourists.
It will assist in offering different facilities to service users in an effective and systematic
manner. For the above mentioned data, it is clearly described about the different number of
travellers are travel in UK are maximised in comparison to Thailand, Mexico and China. The
level of country revenue mainly increasing, if a person are spend maximum resources and
income for using travel and tourism services. It is evaluated that United Kingdom earns
maximum profits in equivalence to other countries.
There are several popular places which are determined as below:
France: It is identified as the famous place for international tourists. They mainly prefer
to visit to France for perceiving ancient historical places and beauty (Choi, Tkachenko and Sil,
2011). There are approx. 12 million persons who travel to this famous terminus and it will be
increasing in the year 2014 by 55.4 million person visited in the specific country.
Thailand: It is a famous place because there are million number of travellers who come
to visit in 2013, approx. 41.8 million people. In 2014, number of tourist is almost 38.4 million
travelled in this place. It will generate maximum revenue for Virgin Holidays Limited (Žabkar,
Brenčič and Dmitrović, 2010).
Hong Kong: It is identified as a marvellous and amazing destination which highly
attracts different number of tourists to visit in this location. In 2013, approx. 41.2 million and
2014, almost 32.5 million visitors are travel in this country.
United Kingdom: It is also an attractive and popular destination for the visitors to visit
this country. In the year 2013, there are different numbers such as 177.9 billion international
visitors are travel and decrease in 2014 by 177.2 billion tourist were come in these destination
(Chon, 2015).
Europe: It is also a famous and popular destination for the visitors to travel in this
country. Tourism number of this country is fell in year 2008 by 0.6% and in year 2009, number
of visitors fell by 2.0%.
2

1.2 Analysing the statistics information which identify tourist destinations and future trends
Virgin Holidays Limited is a service provider agency in the UK. One of the main aim
and objectives of this industry is to arrange safety trips and holidays to the visitors. Main
attractive destination is the United Kingdom. In this country, large number of famous places are
present which highly attract million number of clients (Fernández-Cavia and et. al., 2014).
Trends in Incoming tourism to the United Kingdom between 2006 to 2016 are as follows:
Year Different
Number of
tourist (million)
Expenditure
(Billion)
Average
spends per
visit
Average
nights cost
per stay
International cost
balance (billion)
2006 23.15 € 14.35 €401 8.4 -€ 16.13
2007 26.23 € 25.33 € 424 8.1 -€ 13.53
2008 28.45 € 12.46 € 455 8.2 -€ 14.12
2009 24.25 € 52.22 € 501 7.3 -€ 14.66
2010 31.12 € 25.12 € 522 7.3 -€ 14.47
2011 32.36 € 52.33 € 564 7.2 -€ 20.22
2012 31.55 € 96.11 € 590 7.7 -€ 21.26
2013 32.55 € 12.13 € 611 7.6 -€ 22.16
2014 32.95 € 45.22 € 622 6.2 -€ 14.53
2015 33.11 € 52.15 € 632 6.5 -€ 15.69
2016 36.86 € 12.22 € 655 6.2 -€ 18.96
2017 37.77 € 45.24 € 687 6.8 -€ 20.58
As per above mentioned table that evaluate trends of last ten years, it is observed that in
few years there are million number of travellers are visit, so it maximise the income and growth
of the country effectively and efficiently. The numbers of visitors in year 2006 is 23.15 million,
it is maximise after that year in regular basis. It is identified as two popular places such as
Australia and USA take top list destination in marketplace (Di Pietro, Di Virgilio and Pantano,
2012). In this market are evaluated in term of their development and values which take an
effective place in international tourism industry. This will assist in calculating entire emerging of
3

marketplace that give better destination to their clients in an effective and efficiency way. In past
five year, increment in Gross domestic product rate by maximise by 10% which support in
providing better employment to four million person in an accurate and proper manner. France
represent around 11 to 12 percent of the inbound tourist, where two countries such as Germany
and United States constitutes approx 20 % travellers to UK.
TASK 2
2.1 Analyse cultural, social and physical features of tourist destinations explaining their appeal to
tourist
Virgin Holidays bridges the gap between travellers and their needs. They provide
information about new places and destination. It helps in knowing pros and cons of different
places. Nepal and United Kingdom are good example for visiting for all age group. These places
are globally known for their excellence (Beritelli, 2011). These destinations consist of many
good places to see. Virgin Holidays provide many attractive package to public. Virgin Holidays
works as sponsor for different hotel, they provide customer to these customer. Nepal is not so
develop in tourism but people are prefer that place for difference. UK is known for its luxury.
There are some places such as: British Museum, Palace of Westminster, River Thames. Whereas
Nepal is known for religious temples. There are many temples in Kathmandu. Nepal is also
known for its beauty and peace (Content Marketing for Travel, Tourism and Hospitality, 2017).
Tourist industry gives many advantage to country as well such as employment generation,
foreign exchange, growth in GDP, etc. Cultural: The culture of Nepal is very religious. In Nepal there is valley region. It is
known for its peace. Thinking about Nepal it gives the idea of purity and nature love.
People residing in Nepal are not in favour to spend much time in festivals, etc. Bana
Devi, Gana, etc are the goddesses are worshipped there. In UK there is lavish lifestyle.
People are more concern about festivals, occasions. There are chances of wrong deeds,
crime. As comparison to Nepal UK have outward culture (Hultman and et. al., 2015). UK
is known for its nightlife, pub, disco,etc. In Nepal there are historical places such as:
Bhaktapur Durbar Square, 55 Windo Palace, Patan museum,etc. In UK people who visit
there is scope to visit beach life such as South Yorkshire. Oxford university situated in
New York is well known in all over world.
4

 Social: Society is one of the important aspect in any country. Society makes a nation. In
case, country does not make good society it cannot give good impression in the world. As
in case of UK there is modern society as comparison to other countries (Chen, Shang and
Li, 2014). This is the country whose economy can effect the economy of other
developing countries. In terms of tourism UK is much developed and hence there is more
money regulation through tourism business. In Nepal society is more towards ritual
things. In mind, Nepal is placed at sensitivity while UK is in view of ruggedness. In
Nepal people are more engage in government sector and their life is more smooth. While
in UK people are busy in running and completing their needs (Choi, Tkachenko and Sil,
2011). There 80% mothers are working hence child know how to tackle challenges their
own. There children are earning and learning simultaneously which makes them
independent. There is weak relation between children and their parents. Labour of UK is
expensive all over the world. These days UK and Nepal are most wanted travelling
destination. It helps in generating revenue for their country and its helps in all over
growth of the economy.
2.2 Compare features of leading and developing tourist destination
It is the responsibility of Virgin Holiday to analyse all the features of growing and
leading tourist destinations so that they can frame good strategies for the country (Kim and et.
al., 2013). If there will be a basic comparison between the countries then it will help the people
to make their decisions regarding choosing a tourist destination for going for holidays. It is very
essential because place should be good as people will come to spend some quality time with
family and they do not want to face any such issue (Tortella and Tirado, 2011). Leading tourist
destinations and developing tourist destinations are very different from each other and do not
have anything in similar. So, it becomes very important to understand both these concepts so that
appropriate judgements can be made by people while choosing tourist destinations (Chon, 2015).
UK is considered as one of the leading tourist destination as it is having so many destinations
that are loved by people to visit where as Nepal and China are considered as Developing tourist
destinations as they are now trying to make themselves attractive so that people can come and
visit them. Government of UK is also providing appropriate support so as to develop tourism in
country.
The difference between leading and developing tourist destinations are :-
5

Leading Tourist Destination
(UK)
Developing Tourist
Destination (CHINA)
Developing Tourist
Destination (NEPAL)
UK is equipped with several
beaches which helps the in
becoming more attractive and
thus gaining more no. of
visitors every year.
From last few years , china is
growing themselves
continuously in Tourism
sector. They are having so
many attractive destinations
like Great Wall of China,
Forbidden city, LI river etc.
they are attracting so many
travellers and have become 4th
attractive tourist destination.
Nepal is also famous for its
tourist destinations like
Annapurna Mountain Range,
Pokhra which is also
considered as foot of
Himalayas.
They have designed their
infrastructure very properly so
as to deal with people of other
countries and it helps them in
maintaining good relations as
well.
They are maintaining a culture
which is not being followed in
any other country so this
brings an excitement in people
to come and experience such
places at least once in life.
They are maintaining good
relation with other countries as
well but because of shortage of
funds they are not able to
purchase high technological
infrastructure (Lee and et. al.,
2014).
If any person likes to visit
historical spots or natural spots
then UK is a must visit for
them as they will get so many
options to visit here.
China is very famous for
wonderful attractions which
includes antique sites and
relics, splendid cultural
heritage etc. like Terracota
Army, Beijing etc.
After the earthquake incident,
many tourist spot has got
damaged due to which they
have lost some of their beauty.
It is also known worldwide
that Britain is having the best
transportation network so it is
a benefit for them as the
tourists who will be coming to
China have improved
themselves in transportation
sector as well which is helping
in attracting large no. of
tourists . Their beautiful cities
They are also having good
transportation system but not
better than UK so in this sector
they ned to improve
6

UK for travel will not face any
difficulty in travelling (López-
Toro, Díaz-Muñoz and Perez-
Moreno, 2010).
like Hongkong , Shanghai, etc.
are major reasons why people
come to China.
themselves more and more.
TASK 3
Covered in PPT
TASK 4
4.1 Analyses problems that effects popular and famous tourist destination
Tourism is considered as a largest source of foreign exchange earnings specially, country
like UK where revenue from tourism sector contribute handsome amount in GDP of our
country. Natural beauty and the opportunities to explore historical places, monuments,
adventurous destination attracted tourist towards that country (Oliveira and Panyik, 2015). There
are different factors and elements which play significant role in the decision making process in
selecting the tourist destinations for visiting purpose. Some of the factors that highlighted the
issues that affect the popularity of tourism destinations in respect to Virgin Holiday Limited:-
Climate:-
Climatic condition of every country is different. Most of the tourist prefer to visit in
favourable climate which is neither hotter or nor cold. In country like UK where temperature is
always in minus degree in respect to winter. So those visitor who want moderate temperature
rarely visit in cold climate (Oppewal, Huybers and Crouch, 2015). This factor can related to the
age group of a particular person which lead to affect the popularity of tourism.
Natural disaster:-
One of crucial element that affect the tourism business. Unpredicted disaster like flood,
cyclone and any uncertain calamities which create a problem of food, house and shelter. Further,
this factor affect those visitors which inclined towards the adventurous destination like
mountaineers, rock climber and adventure seekers.
Political factors:-
Issues related current political condition can impact on the destination popularity among
the visitors in that particular country. These issues negatively influence the tourist experience to
7

the destination. Considering the countries in UK like England, Scotland the famous tourist
destination because of the places which known for their special art, culture but they are facing
issues for past years (Pandža Bajs, 2015). Though such countries has potentiality to become top
most destination especially Virgin Holiday Limited but visitors considered this place as threat
because lack of political concern in security and safety related factors.
Economist:-
Change in the components of economy affect the tourism revenue earned during the year.
Change in prices, exchange rates,increase in unemployment rate, problem of inequality creating
barriers in the development of the destinations. The rising prices of tourism products in UK have
been impacting the visitors of middle and lower levels (Prayag and Ryan, 2011). So lot of issues
in economy influence revenue generated from tourist destinations and lack of finance affect the
maintenance factor of tourist destinations.
Terrorism:-
This issue considered as hazardous to human life. Government spend large amount of funds
to protect the country from terrorist attack. But sometime due to carelessness attitude of armed
forces attacks are occurs in particular country. Every visitor plan to visit some place after
considering all the factors that affect their life (Prayag, 2010). So those places where there is a
chance of terrorist attack is influenced the popularity of tourism for example jammu and
kashmir.
Sustainability:-
The principle of sustainability said “Protect the environment from harmful effects that diluted
natural beauty of atmosphere”. Further it tells about all the harmful gases that negatively
influence the historical monuments, forts that famous for their artistic effects. Diluted in natural
beauty because of green house effect affect the popularity of tourism.
Virgin Holiday Limited has to considered all the factors like climatic conditions, security system
against terrorist attack, sustainability factor and control in economic issue for future growth and
to become top most tourism destination.
4.2 Potential duties of tourist which raise host community at worldwide destination
One of the main factor that rise the tourism in all over the world because it give safety
and security to United kingdom (Reza Jalilvand and Samiei, 2012). The main focus of tourism
sector is on emphasising participation of all the stakeholders in improvement of tourism. There
8

are mainly three impacts on planning and development of tourism and those three factors are
economical, environmental and social impact. Responsible tourism involves responsibility
regarding society and measures taken for the upliftment of society and specially the local people
who are highly involved in tourism activities. Therefore, it can be stated that needs are being met
by responsible tourist development along with host region and at the very same time creating
platform for future opportunities. This leads to effective management of all the resources so that
need of tourist can be fulfilled and along with that cultural integrity, biological diversity and
environmental balance (Rodríguez-Molina, Frías-Jamilena and Castañeda-García, 2015). There
are certain benefits which are given to UK by responsible tourism and they are described below:
 Satisfaction level of tourism has been improved.
 Reducing the chances of negative economical, social and environmental impacts.
 Various benefits to the local people who are residing who can directly enhance the
products and services which are being offered to the tourists.
 Contribution needs to be done with the help of tourist destinations for mainly heritage
places and thus developing long term sustainability (Sartori, Mottironi and Corigliano,
2012).
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that understanding is being gained regrading
UK and other destinations and apart from that various other features like cultural, social and
physical features of tourist destinations. Moreover, how the characteristics of destinations impact
their request to tourists and interpret issues likely to impact the popularity of tourist destinations
will also be discussed. There are various things which are being discussed like social and
physical features of tourist destinations which needs to be discussed and therefore the facilities
and services along with infrastructure needs to be modified with appropriate elements for
essential features of tourist destinations.
9

10

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beritelli, P., 2011. Cooperation among prominent actors in a tourist destination. Annals of
Tourism Research. 38(2). pp.607-629.
Chen, Y. C., Shang, R. A. and Li, M. J., 2014. The effects of perceived relevance of travel blogs’
content on the behavioral intention to visit a tourist destination. Computers in Human
Behavior. 30. pp.787-799.
Choi, J. G., Tkachenko, T. and Sil, S., 2011. On the destination image of Korea by Russian
tourists. Tourism Management. 32(1). pp.193-194.
Chon, K. S., 2015. Traveler destination image modification process and its marketing
implications. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference (pp. 480-482). Springer, Cham.
Di Pietro, L., Di Virgilio, F. and Pantano, E., 2012. Social network for the choice of tourist
destination: Attitude and behavioural intention. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism
Technology. 3(1). pp.60-76.
Fernández-Cavia, J. and et. al., 2014. Web Quality Index (WQI) for official tourist destination
websites. Proposal for an assessment system. Tourism management perspectives. 9.
pp.5-13.
Hultman, M. and et. al., 2015. Achieving tourist loyalty through destination personality,
satisfaction, and identification. Journal of Business Research. 68(11). pp.2227-2231.
Kim, Y. G., Eves, A. and Scarles, C., 2013. Empirical verification of a conceptual model of local
food consumption at a tourist destination. International journal of hospitality
management. 33. pp.484-489.
Lee, B., Lee, C. K. and Lee, J., 2014. Dynamic nature of destination image and influence of
tourist overall satisfaction on image modification. Journal of Travel Research. 53(2).
pp.239-251.
López-Toro, A. A., Díaz-Muñoz, R. and Perez-Moreno, S., 2010. An assessment of the quality
of a tourist destination: The case of Nerja, Spain. Total Quality Management. 21(3).
pp.269-289.
Oliveira, E. and Panyik, E., 2015. Content, context and co-creation: Digital challenges in
destination branding with references to Portugal as a tourist destination. Journal of
Vacation Marketing. 21(1). pp.53-74.
Oppewal, H., Huybers, T. and Crouch, G.I., 2015. Tourist destination and experience choice: A
choice experimental analysis of decision sequence effects. Tourism Management. 48.
pp.467-476.
Pandža Bajs, I., 2015. Tourist perceived value, relationship to satisfaction, and behavioral
intentions: The example of the Croatian tourist destination Dubrovnik. Journal of Travel
Research. 54(1). pp.122-134.
Prayag, G. and Ryan, C., 2011. The relationship between the ‘push’and ‘pull’factors of a tourist
destination: The role of nationality–an analytical qualitative research approach. Current
Issues in Tourism. 14(2). pp.121-143.
Prayag, G., 2010. Images as pull factors of a tourist destination: A factor-cluster segmentation
analysis. Tourism Analysis. 15(2), pp.213-226.
11