Tourist destination
With Destination (pronounced " German " dɛstinaʦɪ̯o ː n ) is referred to in tourism a geographical area, which is seen as a destination.
Definition and delimitation
The Gabler economic dictionary defines:
"Destination is defined as a geographical space that the respective guest ( or bed segment) selects as a tourist destination. It contains all the necessary for a stay facilities for accommodation, meals, entertainment / employment. It is thus the competitive unit in the incoming tourism, which must be managed as strategic business unit. "
The destination presents itself as a common unit of a tourist segment, both on the part of the supplier, as well as the demand. In the literature and practice, the destination defined as a set of relevant features touristy. These include " landscape, fauna, flora, climatic conditions, cultural attractions. " It constitutes an economic unit competition. The term includes both small-scale structures (hotels, resorts, amusement parks, in the jargon also called Location), or places (eg in urban tourism ), but also entire regions (tourism region, historically grown or embossed trademarked), countries or an entire continent. To classical concepts, such as hotel, tourist resort, spa, resort or ski resort, destination forms the preamble and is limited in the general sense on any specific product segment.
Destination Management and Marketing
The concept of destination is from the travel behavior historically grown. The expectations of the traveler means that approximates the offer and a profile results (about the Mediterranean for a beach holiday, alpine area for summer mountain tourism and winter sports ). On the other hand, overlap the segments regionally (about leisure and cultural tourism ).
Connected is a destination through a common tourist and other infrastructure. Until the 1990s, the vendors focused on the established profile and were thus in a regional competition in the same segment, but also to the other segments. By the globalized travel behavior occur today Destinations but not exclusively in their own capacity profile in competition, such as in the winter season in Europe a ski resort in the Alps with the other, but also with beach tourism in the tropics. Moreover, the trend is away from the relevant tourist, the guest expects today a much wider range and sets in all lines a long opportunity ahead ( such as wellness, events, comprehensive tourist information ); he decides also much more spontaneous, what kind of trip he ever takes up ( last minute deals ). Therefore, one has gone on the market competition of tourism to guide the destination as a common strategic business unit. Here, the individual offers are connected in the sense of synergy. As identity was recognized by the initiative marks liberalization that the license plate is the most important symbol for the brand of the city for many cities.
Origins of destination management lie in the local tourism associations, which presented a town as a destination. Today we established typically shared roof brands as an advertising medium. Their carriers are both private sector ( companies of the tourism industry, professional associations ) and government organizations (ministries and national or sub-national tourism authorities, such as Austria advertising) are formed across national destination marketers.
In addition to tourism promotion, the winner of the Destination Marketing also occur more frequently as a travel agent or tour operator and establish common standards of quality management of the destination.