Building destination brands: The cases of Wales and Australia

Abstract

At the end of the twentieth century, brands permeate virtually all facets of every-day life — indeed arguably branding is today's most important marketing strategy, having developed into both a valuable equity and a sophisticated science. Although the various aspects of branding continue to be the subject of many academic studies, there is a dearth of research focusing on tourism. In today's highly competitive tourism market, many destinations — from individual resorts to countries — are adopting branding techniques in an effort to differentiate their identities and to emphasise the uniqueness of their product. This paper discusses the role and importance of branding in destination marketing and evaluates whether destinations can indeed be branded in the way that FMCG and services have been. Destination managers face three unique challenges in such branding initiatives: a lack of control over the total marketing mix; relatively limited budgets; and political considerations. Focusing on two case studies, Wales in the UK and Australia, this paper concludes that the adoption of a targeted, multi-agency ‘mood marketing’ initiative can assist in overcoming these political difficulties facing destination brand managers.