DESTINATION MANAGEMENT

Destination Management

Table of Content

INTRODUCTION3

DESTINATION MANAGEMENT3

CONCLUSIONS9

REFERENCES13

Introduction

During the last 30 years, the analysis of the tourism destination image has increasingly gained relevance in the academic literature. The perspectives with which the tourism image is analysed are diverse and multidisciplinary. One of the elements that has been paid more attention is the study of the capacity of the tourism image to influence the destination selection process. Authors such as Baloglu and McCleary (1999), Echtner and Ritchie (1991), Jenkins (1999) and Yüksel and Akgül (2007) have taken this particular perspective.

Destination Management: A Case Analysis of Maldives

The tourism destination image can be defined as the sum of beliefs, ideas, and impressions that a person has of a place (Crompton, 1979; Kotler et al., 1994). These images are based on the knowledge of a place and a series of perceptions of emotional and affective nature (Galí and Donaire, 2005). In fact, we can state that a tourism destination at the Maldives image is a kind of knowledge. This issue is highlighted in the definitions made of this term by authors such as Markin (1974), who establishes that a tourism image is “our own personalized, internalized and conceptualizing understanding of what we know”. This tacit knowledge has necessarily passed through a process, where it has been first acquired, then assimilated, later transformed and finally exploited.

In this context, we consider the destination at the Maldives as a network of relations, links, ties or contacts between multiple and diverse actors that, together, create the tourist product (Comas and Guia, 2005; Novelli et al., 2006; Wang and Fesenmaier, 2007). This approach is reflected in social network theory (Burt, 1992; Scott, 1991), in which a social network is defined as “a specific type of relation linking a set of persons, objects or events” (Knoke and Kuklinski, 1993). We should take into account that the quality of the relational links as well as the structure of the relational network will have implications on the global competitiveness of the network. Therefore, high connectivity among the various tourism agents of the destination at the Maldives will help them access relevant information and new knowledge. This situation will, then, improve the innovation capacity of tourism agents and make the creation of tourist products more satisfactory.

However, the need to have external contacts or contacts outside the destination at the Maldives to gain access to newer knowledge is well known, and also that without them it is more likely to reach a situation of stagnation (Lazerson and Lorenzoni, 1999). In this context, Gartner (1993) identifies eight types of agents that intervene in the process of formation of a tourism destination at the Maldives, stressing that four of them are considered induced agents. The induced agents are those that create and communicate a destination at the Maldives's tourism image in a conscientious way. Within the category of induced agents this author distinguishes between “Overt Induced I” which are destination at the Maldives's internal agents such as promoters of the destination at the Maldives and other tourism agents within ...