Destination Marketing Report: Analysis of Dublin, Ireland

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of destination marketing strategies for Dublin, Ireland. It begins with an abstract highlighting the importance of tourism and the need for effective destination marketing to differentiate Dublin from competitors. The report then delves into various aspects of destination marketing, including an environmental analysis using PEST factors, competitor analysis, and an examination of market factors influencing destination marketing. The TALC and 10As models are applied to analyze Dublin's tourism landscape, followed by a discussion of promotional activities and branding objectives. A brand audit using a five-stage brand pyramid is conducted, alongside market segmentation, target market identification, and stakeholder analysis. The report also outlines an integrated marketing communication strategy, an action plan for Dublin, and risk management considerations, culminating in a conclusion that summarizes the key findings and recommendations for enhancing Dublin's brand and tourism appeal.

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ABSTRACT
Tourism has evacuated itself for being the world’s fastest growing economic sector or business
in the recent years. Around the world government and the other private sectors are recognizing
the power and importance of tourism in order to boost their nation’s prosperity and development.
The more the tourism destination, more is the competition for the visitors and this competition
becomes intense. Therefore, it becomes important to create destination’s ability so as to project
them on the stage of world and further differentiate itself from the other destination. The paper
briefly explains the factors influencing destination market. The use of brand pyramid 10As
model and TALC model to define destination market in Dublin. Strategic Planning has been
done to in order to enhance and strengthen the identity and brand of Dublin, Ireland.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
Destination Situation Analysis.....................................................................................................5
Environmental Analysis of Dublin..........................................................................................5
Competitor Analysis................................................................................................................7
Market Factors Influencers over Destination Market..................................................................8
TALC, 10 As model and Promotion............................................................................................9
Branding Objective for Dublin, Ireland.....................................................................................12
Brand Audit...........................................................................................................................15
Market Segmenting and Target market......................................................................................15
Stakeholders in Dublin, Ireland.................................................................................................17
Integrated Market Communication............................................................................................17
Action Plan for Dublin, Ireland..................................................................................................18
Risk Management in Dublin, Ireland.........................................................................................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20

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Introduction
The tourism industry is growing rapidly, tourism is considered as the major social,
economic and cultural phenomena which require movement of people to outside destinations
from their normal places like residence or work. The aim of the paper is to understand the
destination marketing and its scope. The paper seeks a brief analysis of Dublin, Ireland by
Destination Management Organization. The analysis involves market analysis, destination
analysis by using TALC model and 10As. The paper also involves promotional activities audit
such as advertisement, publicity, public relation, sales promotion, trade shows and events. This
paper also discusses about the brand audit using the five-stage brand pyramid. In the second of
the paper has conducted research based upon strategic plan in order to enhance and strengthen
the identity and brand of Dublin, Ireland and hence developing tourism in a sustainable manner.
The paper will focus on achieving the proposed brand objective and developing new brand and
its positioning for tourism. Integrated marketing communication is aimed in order to deliver the
set of brand objectives and to increase the appeal of Dublin, Ireland as a destination. An action
plan is designed detailing the key task required to achieve the proposed brand and promotional
strategies.

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Discussion
Nowadays, tourism has become the major source of income for many regions of the
country. The main aim of the tourism is to bring considerable economic benefits to local
residents and communities. Tourism helps to protect and conserve the natural environment and
also ensures respect of traditions, customs and cultural heritage. The following factors like
location, product, accessibility, community experience and service determine the experience of
the visitors.
The Republic of Ireland rapidly continues to experience great growth in the tourism
business market, but it is analyzed that the growth has been seen to be slowed down since 2002.
Dublin is focusing on growing business tourism destination (Ababneh, 2018). Dublin Tourism
aims to continue enhancing the positioning in the international market as “A separate and distinct
brand that appeals to business and leisure travellers alike”. The destination marketing is a
concept of marketing which promotes a destination (town, region, country or city) which aims to
increase the number of visitors. In simple words it can be said that destination marketing is
nothing but tourism advertising for a specific location (Arguedas et al, 2018). It is basically a
promotional activity and gives a brief market analysis in order to promote destination that where
the tour will take place (Blakeman, 2018). The key idea is to attract the customer through various
unique features of a particular location in order to sell their service and to increase the economy
and enhance the social prospect of a particular place. According to the recent study, it shows that
Ireland had a total of 3.8 million visitors from abroad with more number of tourists from North
America with a gradual increase of 12.4 per cent and mainland Europe 12.3 per cent (Costello,
P., 2018)..

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Destination Situation Analysis
Environmental Analysis of Dublin
Tourism is very important in Dublin- the environmental factors which affects the tourism
in Dublin, Ireland. The recent report, which was completed in the year 2016, June, explained the
overall background context which includes the macro-economy and tourism trends and its
performance, the strategic and policy environment for tourism internationally in Dublin
(Bolderman and Reijnders 2017). The following environmental analysis can be done by PEST
analysis. The PEST analysis includes political, economic, social and technological aspects which
affects tourism.
Political Factors:
Ireland is an independent, sovereign and it is a democratic state with parliamentary
system of government, the Ireland is considered as the stable government. The House of the
Oireachtas is situated at Leinster House, Dublin (Camilleri, 2018). There are around 114 local
authorities in Ireland. Dublin provides a broad range of services which includes transport,
housing, water supply, education, waste management, health and welfare. Basically, Ireland is a
very neutral country and therefore terrorism and war is very rare in the globe. Therefore,
establishing business in Ireland is considered to be very safe. Thus, this place attracts many
tourists and makes people to stay in this particular place. Generally, Ireland is very lenient with
their price regulation which means there is no particular law and regulation on the price of the
products that is what will be the minimum, or what will be maximum price of a product. This all
factors attract the tourist for destination place in Dublin.

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Economic Factors:
Ireland is considered as the largest exporter of providing service in the whole world, by
estimation it contributes approximately 6.7% of the total GDP compared to last year. According
to the GDP, Ireland is ranked as the wealthiest countries, although, growth is growing year by
year, there was a declaration in the overall rate of oversea tourist growth in Ireland for the year
2017. The 9.0m trip in the year 2011 represented 3.2% as annual growth in the previous year. As
evidence, in the year of 2018 the first quarter suggest a strong growth, with a total number of
oversea trips that is 7%. The data shown in the (Appendix, Figure-1), shows the number of
domestic trips to Dublin (Costello, P., 2018).
Social Factors:
The Irish Society, delivers a unique culture and language, gaelic language and culture
forms a very important portion of the Irish national identity. Irish is such a place where people
from all over the world and especially in Dublin. Ireland is considered as the place for mass
emigration and had to adapt to mass immigration (Signorile et al, 2018). The culture of Irish is
different their traditions, customs, music, art, language, literature, cuisine, folklore and sports
which is totally associated with the people of Irish and Ireland. Irish is very well-known for its
literature, songs and drama. The society in Dublin is very peaceful; the country towns are very
well developed.
Technological Factors:

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The technological aspect is increasing very fast and is changing rapidly, which provokes
that the business must focus to plan for the future business in a greater extent. The railway
system in Ireland is technology based. It has national airports and three international airports and
generally the routine between the Dublin and London is marked as the busiest in Europe. This
factors like high level of infrastructure, allows Dublin to build great service better
communication and exportation of goods. The main objective is to encourage the Ireland about
their technological development.
Competitor Analysis
Dublin has been currently viewed as the place to visit and a thoroughly grasp as
competitor city destination. This has enabled the city to craft a fresh articulation and structure of
Dublin as a destination place that is a proposition of highly appealing, quiet distinctive and also
inherently true. The main competitor of Dublin will be the main cities in Europe which shares
the same prospects as Dublin. The Grow Dublin Taskforce in light of progress of Dublin, its
main competitors (e.g. Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin and Edinburgh), the Grow Dublin
Taskforce has recognized the need to build and reposition the characteristics of Dublin in the
view of potential visitors and to propel Dublin into their “must-visit” list in order to meet the
objective of growing tourism value and number. The current competitive places for Dublin are
London, Rome, Paris this are some mega cities with iconic destinations. The non-mega cities are
like Vienna, Madrid, Barcelona, Prague, Berlin, Venice, Brussels, Edinburgh, Florince,
Coperhagen and Stockholm. This places are also interesting cities with iconic attractions.

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Market Factors Influencers over Destination Market
Destination marketing is an integral part of the tourism world. Marketing means that it
will involve advertisement, publicity, pictures, contents and so many means of production.
Destination marketing defines how tourism will be developed within a community. Destination
marketing however is affected by a number of factors. There can be sudden changes in the
economy, financial considerations, needs and preferences, the demographics as whole and other
global events (Wright, G.N., 2019).
One of the most crucial factors that affect the destination marketing is the global political
market. If there is any change in the religion, there can be violence, wars and protests prevailing
between countries and this will affect the beautiful destinations. The tourism market gets
hampered to a large extent and affects the economics of the region gets affected. Marketing must
be made accordingly that won't hurt the sentiments and would suit the ongoing condition.
Another important factor that affects the destination marketing is the fluctuations in the
currency (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2019). If the exchange rate gets up and down, then the
amount to be paid by the tourists becomes either to huge or less. In cases the amount to be paid
increases because of the high exchange the tourists will not visit the planned destination and it
will affect the economic condition of that destination.
Seasonal change is one of the most common factors that affect any kind of destination
marketing management companies. The marketing changes accordingly. People who tend to visit
the cold places should be marketed to leisure and campfires. People who prefer springs should be
marketed to hiking and lakeside beauties.

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Natural disasters and bad weather's also affect the destination marketing. Promotional
offers and discounts should be provided after sudden climatic breakdown so that the destination
can be revived efficiently. Apart from these factors the support of the government also plays a
crucial influential role. Destination marketing requires both financial and promotional support
from the Government in times of economic hardships (Quinn and Ryan 2016).
TALC, 10 As model and Promotion
TALC refers to Tourism Area Life Cycle. It helps in evaluating the tourism sites
throughout their life cycle. This theory helps in analyzing any psychological, progressive,
ecological or any social and economic conditions and helps in understanding the dynamics for
developing the tourist destination. Dublin has always been a place of attraction. Being the capital
of the Republic of Ireland it truly holds the feature of being a capital country as it brings in a lot
of resource for the economy through its tourism (Kubickova, and Li 2017). There are always
ways to improve the ongoing conditions and to bring in more customers and revenue. This
requires analysis and hence the TALC model can be used. The theoretical life cycle of a
destination includes – Exploration, Involvement, Development, Consolidation, Stagnation and
either Decline or Rejuvenation.
Exploration is the stage where people start to visit the areas and start showing interests.
The adventurous tourists usually prefer areas that are unexplored and try to find something new
and it is in this stage that these tourists come to the places (Kubickova, M. and Li, H., 2017).
They get to know more about the destination by interacting very closely with the local people
and uses mostly local facilities. So the destination spot first needs to be checked and the
attractive areas are to be spotted out.

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Involvement refers to increased number of tourists but the control still remains under the
local areas. Advertisements are done and high interaction prevails in this stage. There is a change
in the social life and infrastructure in this stage (Kubickova and Li 2017). It is necessary that
some more tourists are to be bought in this place and their reactions are checked and feedbacks
are taken.
Development is the situation where the number of tourists increases rapidly and exceeds
the local population. It therefore, refers to the situation where artificial attractions are required to
be built and intensive and extensive advertisement is to be done.
Consolidation refers to the situation where all the tourists have explored the area and the
number of tourists has started to decrease because of over-crowding. Facilities degrade and
products and offers also deteriorate. In this situation extensive advertisement and several offers
are required to be given. Discounts in hotels, footing and transportation can be beneficial under
this circumstance.
Stagnation refers to the situation where no further improvement is occurring. Change in
the ownership, issues related to hotels and environment and economy arises. Focus needs to be
provided on the tourist package and resolving the social and other issues. In a declining situation
the tourists loses interest and hence rejuvenation needs to be done by changing some spots,
attractions and finding a better tourist market.
Apart from the TALC model the 10 As should also be emphasized upon as a manager. The 10 As
are –