Some Approaches to the Paradoxes of Tourist Communication From Global to Local, from the Brand to the Company

Abstract

Comunicación turística, publicidad, marketing turístico, comunicación multicanal, marca. Abstract This article carries out an analysis of some of the paradoxes presented today in the tourist communication. Along the 20th century, tourist communication has moved between contradictory forces that have pushed the way to make tourism advertising to the side of the global or to the side of the local, depending on the dominant conceptions and the context at any given time. At first, it is remembered the profound influence exercised by the Unique Selling Proposition (UPS) which contributed to a certain standardization of the market, with undifferentiated products and a global advertising. At the same time, the shortcomings identified on this universal advertising way, have highlighted the need to also take into consideration the local and particular aspects, therefore adapted products and more segmented and differentiated communications. On the other hand, the emergence of multi-channel communication in response to technological advances and economic crisis, has not solved this paradox that continues today. This oscillation between the global and the local has not yet led to an integrated tourism communication model, which is able to overcome the contradictions and paradoxes in that axis. This situation is joined by a second paradox that concerns the relationship between the brand and the company in the short and in the long term. The market development, influenced by economic difficulties and numerous business changes in the tourism sector, has made businesses primarily to pay attention to the economics of short-term, seeking profitability and survival of the company. With it, the marketing efforts necessary to build the brand image which contribute to its long-term stability have been neglected. As in the first paradox, in this second one, effective formulas that take into account both aspects have neither been found nowadays. Therefore, the effectiveness of the tourist communication in the future depends on being able to integrate these paradoxical dimensions in integrated systems.