Destination marketing: Future issues - Strategic challenges

Although pivotal to the travel and tourism system, the destination is widely acknowledged to be one of the most difficult products to manage and market. Over the coming decade, the challenges facing destination marketers are likely to be even greater with a whole host of issues likely to impact on the future marketing of destinations. This paper seeks to utilise an exploratory framework that brings together those issues deemed to be of significance to the future marketing of the destination product and examine the extent to which the framework can be applied to the marketing of two major destinations in the UK: London and Edinburgh. Both London and Edinburgh represent significant destinations for both domestic and international tourists and have been impacted by forces external and internal to the UK in recent years. For example, externally, 911 in the United States and SARS in South East Asia have both impacted on international travel patterns while the outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in 2001 and the devolution and 'regionalisation' of tourism within the UK has impacted on the management and marketing of destinations within the UK at the local, sub-regional, regional and national levels. In addition to conducting a thorough review of the relevant literature and organising focus group sessions within their working environments, the authors also conducted a series of face-to-face interviews with appropriate stakeholders in the two destinations to identify and explore those future issues and strategic challenges facing those marketing destinations in the future generally, and specifically to the two destinations representing the focus of enquiry in this study. The one consistent finding-and the one that perhaps best encapsulates those 15 challenges identified in the proposed framework -is the issue of collaboration and the need for those within the destinations to work together in solving problems deemed too demanding to solve in isolation. For collaboration to succeed in the context of destinations, the destination management organisation needs to act as a strong unifying force that is able to bring all component parts of the destination together and develop the wider destination in its entirety. To conclude, both London and Edinburgh have ambitious growth targets for the future. Collaboration is key to the achievement of such targets as is the need to continue to diversify markets. The need to be cognisant of all those issues and forces impacting on their future direction is, however, vital if both destinations are to keep abreast of competing destinations; both at home and overseas.