Tourism Marketing Strategies, External Environment and Destination Performance: a Critical Literature Review

Abstract

The objective of this Conceptual Independent Study Paper was to critically review relevant literature on the relationship between tourism marketing strategies adopted by destinations and the destination performance. The responsibility of tourism marketing for a destination is mainly undertaken by a destination marketing organization (DMO), which seeks to enhance the tourism competitiveness. Tourism competitiveness may be viewed as the ability of a destination to create, integrate and deliver tourism experiences, including value-added goods and services considered to be important by tourists. These experiences sustain the resources of a destination and help it maintain a good market position relative to others. Although, there seems to be no consensus on a generally accepted definition of competitiveness and the means to measure it, many authors agree that it is determined more and more by the strategies adopted and less and less by the natural endowments of the destination. From literature, it was noted that a number of authors in their studies posited that the relationship between the performance of the firm and marketing strategies is moderated by the firm's external environment. A further review of literature reveals that there are a number of knowledge gaps as summarized in Table 3.1. Some of the studies reviewed had explored the relationship between market orientation, which reflects adoption of marketing strategies and the performance of firms, while others addressed the causal relationship in the context of external influencing factors, such as environment, economic and technological, among others. A number of the studies found that market orientation and hence adoption of marketing strategies affects performance of the firm whereupon the current review has taken tourism marketing strategy (TMS) as the endogenous factor. It should be noted that the components that define marketing orientation in an organization include customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional coordination. Therefore a firm practicing a market orientation would signify adoption of marketing strategies in their function. From the literature, it was observed that external environment affects performance in a diverse range of industries from manufacturing to hospitality. The conceptual model developed in this Paper is therefore consistent with the literature review as it has been noted that the relationship between tourism destination performance and tourism marketing strategies adopted, is moderated by such factors as the external environment (PESTEL factors). In terms of theoretical implications, this study serves useful contribution to the tourism industry. Foremost, the Paper contributes to the understanding of the tourism destination competitiveness as measured by the destination performance and how it is affected by the external environment. Secondly the Paper illuminates the various strategies and the theories upon which they are grounded, that a destination may use to improve on its performance. Further, the conceptual model developed provides useful insights to the relationship between tourism marketing strategies used by a destination and its performance and the external environment. Consequently, it is imperative for an empirical study to be undertaken to evaluate how the strategies adopted affect performance from the perspective of such variables as tourism arrivals, revenues generated, bed-occupancy, competitiveness indices, among others and the moderating effect of the external environment of the destination. The theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between marketing strategies and performance has been reviewed. Various knowledge gaps have been identified on this relationship. Most of the studies documented were undertaken either in non-tourism related sectors and/or in foreign nations. The study therefore recommends further research in this area and more so in the context of a developing country.