Keywords

Introduction

Over the last two decades, destination planning has changed the landscape of marketing studies (Fyall et al., 2019). In contrast to the conventional thinking that a single destination should be designed as one offering, stakeholders of tourist destinations have now understood and considered the mix of different goods and services in a location. Moreover, the players in this environment have different roles that influence each other, and determining the impact that each has on varying components would now require a more integrated approach to promoting the destination. Integrated marketing communication has had a significant impact on marketing research including destination marketing. For example, the marketing mix element generates a great deal of research and has become a common marketing concept in textbooks and research on emerging economies (Nekmahmud, Farkas & Hassan, 2020; Hesam et al., 2017; Maltio & Wardi, 2019; Sadq et al., 2019; Sheikhi & Pazoki, 2017). As emphasised by Amin and Priansah (2019), marketing communication remains relevant in tourism destination planning because it serves a variety of purposes for attracting customers or target audiences, including informing and demonstrating how and why a product is used, who the target market is, and where and when the product is available. However, the marketing communication landscape has also changed due to the advancement of communication process technology, as it is the case with the recent increase in internet growth and availability and destination marketers have to take advantage of technology to become more competitive.

Recently, online marketing communication has become one of the most powerful marketing strategies because of its more comprehensive coverage, allowing for greater promotional exposure to a broader audience (Krizanova et al., 2019). Online forms of marketing communication are much faster to use than traditional communication platforms since the advertiser has more networked devices to provide more information to a prospective customer at a reasonable cost. According to Gorlevskaya (2016), destination marketers must fully comprehend the sociodemographic profile, desires, attitudes, perceptions, and, most importantly, media consumption to create successful marketing communications. For example, in an emerging economy like Indonesia, Koswara et al. (2019) discovered that a “one village, one product” initiative would fail if the destination marketing organisation lacks proper marketing communication. This is due to two key issues: a lack of human resources, that is, a lack of skillset, and a lack of expertise and experience in marketing communication.

Consideration of these issues would lead to a well-planned tourist experience that will leave visitors with positive memories, resulting in a long-term and sustainable relationship between the demand and supply sides of the industry. In Asia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the regional community comprising ten South East Asian nations, aspires to achieve political-security cooperation, economic prosperity, and sociocultural integration. The ten countries include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. In the destination marketing aspect, the cooperation takes the form of strategic collaboration, which involves positioning and branding the region as a single destination, eliminating customer confusion, and ensuring transparency. The challenge for ASEAN as the plan unfolds is to encourage sub-regional destinations and routes to be more inclusive and visible. Through @goaseantv (a web platform that promotes travel and tourism), ASEAN promotes tourism destinations and scenic landmarks by leveraging two popular programmes, “The Eco Traveler” and “Go Fast Go Home” which are promoted across the channel (Nugroho, 2017). The partnership kicks off with the broadcast of various programmes about regional tourism products like food, culture, extreme sports, festivals, and religions. According to Nugroho (2017), most of the activities promoted in @goaseantv occur in Malaysia, and other ASEAN members have limited opportunities to promote in the platform. As a result, future programmes should consider increasing the proportion of other countries, promoted and forming a partnership with ASEAN countries’ tourism networks to clearly showcase ASEAN as a ONE brand association. This chapter covers issues on competitiveness and destination marketing among emerging economies and documents the progress of destination marketing research. Next, the chapter presents a few examples focusing on marketing communication from some emerging economies in the light of the global crisis caused by COVID-19. Finally, the chapter explains how stakeholders play a part in destination marketing.

Competitiveness and Destination Marketing in Emerging Economies

Sales promotion tools remain essential in destination marketing communication to convert target audience from knowledge quest to option and purchase. Through an extensive literature search, price competitiveness is the most crucial factor for visiting. It can be presumed that knowing tourist disposable income reserved for travel is a crucial consideration for the business. ASEAN Tourism Marketing Strategy 2017–2020 was established to carry out specific initiatives under the purview of the ASEAN Tourism Marketing and Communication Working Group (MCWG) to improve the availability and reliability of market research data and analysis to enhance experience creation, packaging, pricing, distribution, and promotion (ASEAN, 2017). The flow of tourists to the destination is influenced by price competitiveness, as is vulnerability to changes in external forces (Sul et al., 2020). Destination marketing organisation relies on the country’s overall economic stability, including price differentials, exchange rate fluctuations, and various tourism industry components (Dwyer et al., 2020). According to Suppiah and Selvaratnam (2020), the “2014 Visit Malaysia Year campaign” positively impacted tourism demand due to lower comparable prices; however, cross-elasticities indicate substitution effects between Malaysia and alternative destinations. Based on the study by Loganatan et al. (2019), the tax cut in Malaysia significantly affects inbound tourism because it will increase trade and stimulate its GDP. Furthermore, they advocated that fiscal policy should be more inclusive of a positive long-term effect on the tourism industry that will attract investment opportunities in mega projects. This, in turn, will create jobs and stability in the tourism industry and eventually become a unique selling proposition for the tourism industry.

Another critical issue for ASEAN is destination positioning, as it is essential to revisit how ASEAN should be positioned and promoted in its markets as a single destination to reduce the risk of market uncertainty and ensure clarification (ASEAN, 2017). The consumer should be presented with a single destination brand in which different product thematic destinations, circuits, and corridors can be introduced. According to ASEAN (2017), the most essential factor is to meet changing visitor expectations because visitors will recognise and demand constantly evolving and developing experiences like resort corridors, adventure circuits, pilgrimage circuits, and ecotourism.

The element of human interaction is one of the components that emerged in preliminary findings in the literature. The involvement of humans in tourism marketing is vital to measure the success of the overall experience. For developed tourist destinations, high-quality human resources ensure the industry has access to the right people to serve the international tourists (World Economic Forum, 2019). As proposed in the Travel and Tourism (T&T) Competitiveness Index, the high-quality human resource derived from how efficient the countries develop skills through education and training and allocate ideally to the labour market (World Economic Forum, 2019). According to Hamarneh and Jeřábek (2018), the human development index is a vital method for assessing the safety and security of the destination, with the factor of safety consisting of a collection of precautions put in place to prevent tourists and industry workers from being exposed to circumstances where they assume they are in personal danger as a result of crime, accidents, or emergencies. A study conducted in Western Europe by Nagaj and Žuromskaite (2020) suggested that to ensure that tourism continues to develop and generate income for tourist regions, all stakeholders in this sector should pay more attention to their safety and security customers. When deciding on a trip, tourists choose a tourist destination and a hotel, or more broadly, an accommodation facility, guided not only by the criterion of price, but also by the level of security in these facilities. Similarly, Malaysia has taken steps in the Tourism Blueprint post-September 11 to ensure that the tourism industry strengthens Malaysia’s status as a top tourist destination by implementing strategies to ensure visitors’ comfort, safety, and well-being (Ayob & Masron, 2014).

Infrastructure received considerably great attention from tourism scholars. The availability of sufficient facilities to meet visitors’ needs would inevitably attract new visitors to the tourist area, making it an excellent topic for research. Jafari and Xiao (2016) mentioned that recreational facilities are an essential component of the physical infrastructure that supports overall economic and tourism growth. They suggested that tourism infrastructure is made up of hotels, other forms of infrastructure, and spas and restaurants to replace the generic description of infrastructures that include mental amenities, physical amenities, environmental amenities, and legal amenities. World Economic Forum (2019) suggested three dimensions of infrastructure used in the study for macrolevel to examine the destination’s competitiveness for benchmarking purposes. Infrastructure could play a significant role in attracting conscientious tourists and promoting a more pleasant tourist experience by encouraging visitors to suggest the destination to other friends and relatives (Mikolon et al., 2015; Moscardo, 2017). However, in the current environment, the element of digital infrastructure (i.e. high-speed internet access; public and free WiFi) received overwhelming attention from the scholars in order to cater for the need of millennials that rely on information and stay connected during travels (Bozhuk et al., 2020; Kumar & Shekhar, 2020; Natocheeva et al., 2020).

For a destination, digital marketing has become an integral aspect of the global economy to advertise products or services (Natocheeva et al., 2020). Digital innovation means the destination is aware of the latest trend relevant to the tourist preference, thus digitalising the emerging technology that is quickest and most efficient in destination marketing (Natocheeva et al., 2020). Tourists plan their travel routes, choose itineraries for excursion visits, and book overnight accommodations entirely on digital, online, and social application platforms (Bozhuk et al., 2020). Hence, it is vital for promotion to maintain a positive image of the destination by disseminating content, a key message about the benefits of travel and recreation, and the destination’s features that the tourists want to see, live, and experience regularly.

Tourism Malaysia’s marketing and promotion strategies centred on rising tourist arrivals in the short term and maintaining a positive reputation in the long term, from the first blueprint in 1966 to 2015 (Hussin & Buchmann, 2019). It is worth noting that the grand opening of “Visit Malaysia Year 2014” coincides with the launch of a digital marketing campaign that focused on leveraging digital assets to optimise presence in the digital realm, growing and maintaining a positive relationship with fans and followers on social media, and eventually converting them into real tourists or repeat visitors (Tourism Malaysia, 2014). Tourism Malaysia uses a YouTube channel, online TV, social media, website, and an official mobile travel app as a digital marketing tool. The digital marketing strategy software was said to have received over 12.5 million views (Tourism Malaysia, 2014).

Another new idea in destination marketing that is gaining momentum in current academic discussions is “Sustainable Growth”, as described by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) under “Sustainable Development Goals ” (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2021). Sustainable growth focuses on eight key areas as follows (Table 2.1):

Table 2.1 Sustainable growth
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Recently, there has been an increasing body of literature on sustainable tourism in emerging markets that focuses on improving residents’ quality of life by leveraging tourism’s economic, social, cultural, recreational, and other benefits (Sheresheva et al., 2020). The Scientific communities of research scholars, research projects, and international organisations have made sustainability a priority, premised on the United Nations’ “Sustainable Development Goals”, and sustainable tourism has been identified as having a potential role to play in achieving them (Martini & Buffa, 2020). Sustainable tourism marketing typically focuses on “pro-sustainability” customers who have a biospheric–altruistic value orientation, are passionate about sustainability issues, and have an interest in and positive attitude towards environmentally sustainable consumption (Vinzenz et al., 2019).

The Progress of Destination Marketing Research

It is essential to recognise that the tourism ecosystem is vast and expanding. The industry is naturally unpredictable, uncertain, dynamic, ambiguous, and disruptive, making the destination marketers confront a new set of issues and concerns (Mikulić, 2020). The difficulties that tourism scholars face in assessing and gathering critical data result from the intertwined facets of the external structures in the operating environment. Fyall and Leask (2006) introduced “15Cs Framework” that conceptualise the key issues and challenges that confront destinations. The framework is introduced as efficient means for destination marketers to synthesise several generic issues that, for their destinations, would require a highly customised management approach. The variables in the framework include (1) complexity, (2) control, (3) change, (4) crisis, (5) complacency, (6) customers, (7) culture, (8) competition, (9) commodification, (10) creativity, (11) communication, (12) channels, (13) consolidation, (14) cyberspace, and (15) collaboration. Recently, Sotiriadis (2021) elaborated on the research field of destination marketing and synthesised the relevant topics and issues. (See Table 2.2)

Table 2.2 A Classification/synthesis of topics in the research field of tourism destination marketing
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The marketing environment is one of the popular topics in recent years due to the unpredictable nature of occurrences (i.e., health issues, economic crises and natural disasters) in the world. The travel industry is adapting to changes in the tourism ecosystem, and it will continue to do so as time goes on. As their priorities change, they will continue to look for the “order qualifier” (necessary attributes of a product) and “order winners” (winning attributes of a product) (Prajogo & McDermott, 2011) from the pool they have built. Furthermore, as the market becomes steeper and more complex, the market and tourism service providers are confronted with an increasing amount of data that is accessible to them across a variety of channels (Khodadadi, 2016). Because of the “online world” and accessible information, it is more difficult to obtain data that is highly relevant to the needs of a specific sector (Buhalis & Zoge, 2007). Destination marketers must also ensure that they have access to the most up-to-date and sought-after data to target tourists and businesses and sell to them accurately. To do so, they would have to be present on various platforms, especially the digital world, where most potential travellers, particularly the millennial generation, can be found.

Destination Marketing During COVID-19

The tourism industry’s unpredictable and uncertain nature makes it challenging for destination marketers to prepare for inevitable changes and resource allocations that would benefit both its demand and supply. Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a lot of issues to the table and has compelled most companies to go digital due to the challenges that physical interaction poses (Fotiadis et al., 2021). In the Philippines, the state of the nation had a significant effect on the economy and an enormous impact on the tourism industry (Centeno & Marquez, 2020). Natural disasters ravaged the country in the early months, making it difficult for destination marketers to promote places of interest, and by March 2020, COVID 19 had taken over the media. With these concerns ever-present, destination marketers must formulate concrete strategies that address these issues and those that might occur in the future. To address this problem, the Philippine Department of Tourism introduced the idea of “travel bubbles” (travel corridors that permit free movement ), which attract domestic tourists to locally accredited points of interest (Department of Tourism Philippines, 2020). With these contingency plans in place, the destination will adapt quickly while maintaining a favourable economic environment for all tourism stakeholders.

The website has become a standard tool for promoting a destination. The more advanced a website’s architecture is, the more appealing it is to its users. Its design has evolved from posting information to a forum for various solutions geared towards customer satisfaction (Martínez-Sala et al., 2020). Destination marketers must keep up-to-date website solutions and their associated functions. There are also possibilities for borderless relationships as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology made it possible for further convergence amid increased competition from inside and outside their territories, offering destination marketers plenty of ideas to reflect on in the years ahead. As extensively reviewed by Mariani (2020), recent website variables adopted in destination marketing research included demographics of the end-user, motivation to visit the destination, information sources required, previous destination visitation experience, psychological, temporal, and spatial distance to/from the destination, identity and self-concepts, emotions, platform type, level of interactivity, media exposure, and devices used. Designation marketing organisations can utilise these variables to improve the user experience on their websites and attract more tourists.

Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace vibe, Pinterest, and Instagram have risen steadily in popularity over the last decade, including Africa, a less developed continent (Dzandu et al., 2016). The social climate has changed as travellers’ conversations have moved from word-of-mouth (WOM) to e-word-of-mouth (eWOM) (Gosal et al., 2020). Li et al. (2020) conducted a study on TikTok short food videos in China and analysed the effect of short food videos on destination image during COVID-19. TikTok’s short videos in the form of cognitive images increased potential tourists’ attention to the destination image, especially their attention to the flavour characteristics of the destination’s food and the local social environment (Li et al., 2020). Furthermore, the appearance description of food in short food videos produces a noticeable impact of intention and a desire to travel together and acquire information.

The buzzwords in the travel digital space, are social networking and social media marketing, so destination marketers will need to “follow” and “subscribe” to this trend. User-generated content makes their jobs more challenging because the online world now plays a more prominent role in the decision-making of this generation (Christou & Chatzigeorgiou, 2020). To build a seamless social ecosystem for future travellers, destination marketers must remain informed with digital resources. They could use various Internet technology, such as blogging, vlogging, virtual tours, gamified content, and other social networking programmes, to maximise potential tourists’ desire to travel and turn it into a reality. Javed et al. (2020) revealed that the active use of social media during travel in terms of exchanging stories, photographs, and videos influences other future visitors to travel to exotic destinations, making Web 2.0 and social media more engaging. It also opened to a new trend of following “social influencers”. Hwang and Zhang (2018) described that the “influencers” could control the purchasing decisions of many followers in the virtual world. During the COVID-19 lockdown , influence arises from an influencer’s personality, which includes their power, experiences, ways of thinking, leadership tendencies, profane impulses for the supporting material, or simply the followers’ faith in that influencer (Hwang & Zhang, 2018; Praničević, 2020).

Digital marketing is becoming increasingly critical for destination marketing organisations (DMOs) and is being used extensively in their marketing campaigns, according to Sotiriadis (2020). DMOs will make every effort to connect with all Information communication technologies (ICTs) that use digital platforms and interactive marketing networks, such as content design, blogs, search engine marketing, optimisation, social media, smartphones, and e-mail. In their study in India, Sivakumar et al. (2020) found that social media platforms and mobile applications are preferred in the decision-making process of e-tourism services. It is well expected that the top four applications are WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Sivakumar et al. (2020) further noted that ease of usage, security, and reliability are the essential factors determining the decision-making to use social media and mobile applications. In the post COVID-19, social media determinants were found to be centred on places of interest in image strategies; moments or events of unique tourist interest; lifestyle attributes or interests for visitors, such as biking, sailing, or gastronomy; and the use of words to connect positive feelings related to travel, according to a study conducted in the Philippines (Heras-Pedrosa et al., 2020).

In another aspect, sustainability paradigms and concepts, as examined by Sotiriadis (2021), can make a significant contribution to destination marketing. Understanding market needs, planning more sustainable offerings and experience opportunities, and finding more compelling methods of communication to influence tourists’ behaviour positively are examples of how sustainability marketing can effectively utilise marketing concepts and methods. As advocated by Paunović et al. (2020), a destination’s long-term success post COVID-19 is determined by its global competitiveness, as well as the ability to sustain that competitive position and be resilient in the face of unforeseen events. Future destination marketing research can use a complex mix of social, cultural, political, and economic relationships, making tourism research a transdisciplinary field of study that connects sustainability to destination marketing from a local, regional, or national perspective.

Destination Marketing and the Role of Stakeholders

In destination marketing study, the government’s position was often overlooked. The government’s primary role is to safeguard and boost the public interest (Dredge, 2010). It is in charge of regulating the scope and scale of tourism production. Furthermore, since the tourism industry causes numerous disputes and issues among stakeholders, it is the job of the government to mediate and function as a decision-making body. The government will project an image of being an “infrastructure and facility provider” in the early stages, but later move into a more vital position by implementing legislation and policies, strategies, and other allied services. Destination marketers may take a more organised approach to strategising how to rebrand a destination to a target market supported by government policies. The Philippines established a tourism circuit plan focusing on 21 regional clusters of the country through local government units (Alampay et al., 2018). The country has developed its own National Tourism Development Plan by working with each local government unit. Changes that could improve the social, economic, and environmental benefits are highly expected as a result of the national/local government’s efforts.

Next, the destination marketing research could look at the private sector, which works closely with the government, to develop a more holistic strategy that benefits all stakeholders (Wang & Xu, 2014). Since there is rivalry among the players, government intervention would be necessary to level the playing field. Although some researchers argue that a tourism development heavily controlled by the public sector is unlikely to achieve optimal economic returns (Shone et al., 2016), the private sector will be needed to help mitigate its drawbacks. Numerous government issues can be easily solved with private-sector assistance. Strong public-private partnerships are the most important components of successful tourism business models.

Another important stakeholder in tourism, the community, also plays a critical role in sustainable tourism. The majority of community leaders and economic development experts have gradually viewed tourism as a vital industry that can boost local jobs, tax revenues, and economic diversity (Kim et al., 2013). Poverty alleviation was at the forefront of national strategies, with more opportunities for the poor to benefit from collaborations and the international community’s involvement (Kişi, 2019). This is especially true in the case of the community where the destination is situated. The community sits at the centre of collaboration among the stakeholders. They are the ones who will be initially affected once a plan is approved or marketing starts. Thus, they have the right to vote in support or against a specific move from any of the stakeholders. They can withdraw support anytime, which can threaten the destination marketers’ position within their community. However, if a deep connection is established within the community, the community itself can help the destination marketers promote the place and thus entail little effort from the other external stakeholders (Tosun, 2000). Therefore, a deep relationship should be established between the prime movers of the community and make them understand the benefits and drawbacks of any move that the other stakeholders may make.

Conclusion

Destination marketing has emerged as a fascinating subject in the tourism industry. With the advent of emerging technologies and the current world’s unpredictability, destination marketing provides endless possibilities for future researchers to investigate the potential and assess the risks of technical advancements in the field of inbound and outbound tourism. End-users such as millennials provide a great perspective on the evolution and future of travel activity. Academic researchers should keep up with these developments and suggest a dynamic modelling methodology that can spark further debate. Increased emphasis on keeping promises made to visitors, advancement of strategic and research concepts, and an increased focus on the study of actual actions present exciting opportunities for future research. In addition, comparative studies, as suggested by the World Travel and Tourism Council , should be considered by future researchers. Various investigations of partnership in destination marketing, the role of stakeholders, and governance in destination marketing were articulated to provide suggestions for more rigorous studies in destination marketing, especially in emerging economies, as highlighted in the study. Another intriguing research area is to investigate the future of travels using a scenario approach to destination management and marketing in the context of globalisation, digitalisation, and uncertainty caused by various economic and health issues.