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Marketing destination Niagara effectively through the tourism life cycle

Critical discussion written by Lisa Hammertinger, based on the following article:


Brooker, E./Burgess, J. (2008): Marketing destination Niagara effectively through the tourism life
cycle. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 20(3), pp. 278-292

Visitor numbers in the region Niagara have declined over time and its image seems to be
over commercialized, crowded and even tacky. What happened to this former very
attractive tourism destination? Many destination marketers blame the decrease of tourist
arrivals in the region on external factors, like the fluctuating currency exchange or the global
warming. In addition to that, the whole destination Canada experienced a decrease in
tourists, especially from Americans, who are their most important target group. This article
claims that it is wrong to blame the decline of visitor numbers on external factors. This
statement might be true in the case of the Niagara region, but there are other situations
where a decline is very well related to external factors. Mentionable as an example are the
bomb attacks in Bali in the years 2002 and 2005 visitor numbers went down by about 40%
each time. (www.balitourismboard.org) In Syria for example, the number of foreign visitors
went up by 40% from 2009 to 2010. (www.thenational.ae) Nowadays, the situation in Syria
is very unsafe and tourist arrivals decreased again. External factors are not always the
reason for a worsening tourism performance but in extraordinary cases like the ones
mentioned above, they have dramatic influence. The article also states that implementing
incremental and revolutionary innovations is necessary to achieve continuous growth in a
destination. Although the term revolutionary might seem a bit intense, it is without a doubt
very important to constantly introduce new ideas, fresh events and attractions to stay
fashionable and a desirable, like the destination St. Moritz in Austria, which is mentioned in
the article. Especially if a destination finds itself at the stagnation or even decline stage of
the Tourism Area Life Cycle it is crucial to take rejuvenation steps. Brooker and Burgess
suggest collaboration as a key component of a successful rejuvenation. Indeed it is very
important for the overall attractiveness of a destination that its involved actors follow the
same path, collaborate and work together to improve their overall performance. The
problem is, as also mentioned by Brooker and Burgess, that the reality in tourism is
different. In the Niagara region like in many other regions there are a lot of actors and
small businesses and most of them care for their own personal survival in the first place. The

question of how to overcome this rivalry and how to lead the different actors towards
collaboration is a topic that is a bit neglected in this article. Another component of
rejuvenation mentioned by Brooker and Burgess is branding. Destination branding is a
widely discussed topic and some destination marketers even claim that branding is a
marketing instrument that is relatively soft and aesthetic and that destination managers
should rather focus on new value adding activities for their destination product. (Beritelli et
al., 2013) However, as also mentioned in the article, if a brand is introduced for a
destination, it is very important that it identifies and also differentiates it. It should influence
the consumers destination choice. To what extent a brand is able to influence a consumers
destination choice is not mentioned in the article and might require further research.
Another very important key component for the rejuvenation of a destination listed in the
article is developing a strategy, which is crucial for every destination management
organization. Due to Brooker and Burgess, there where 9 different DMOs in the year 2008,
which for sure makes it very difficult to develop one common strategy that all the actors
follow. The instruments strategizing and branding depend from the collaboration of actors,
which is, as already mentioned, difficult to achieve.

Comparison: Niagara region - Vienna

Brooker and Burgess mention in their article from 2008 that the former very attractive
region of Niagara suffered from a decline in visitor numbers and that the destination was
indeed well known, but no longer fashionable. The visitors shortened the length of their
stay, the number of overseas visitors declined. In addition to that, the competition from
newer destinations grew constantly. Research of the Vienna tourism board showed, that the
destination Vienna also was considered old fashioned and especially in terms of shopping
and nightlife two aspects of growing importance not very desirable. (Penz et al., 2012)
The Vienna tourism board developed a new marketing campaign in 2009. The brand and
slogan were updated and a new strategy was introduced (Vienna 2015). Collaborations with
many actors like the convention bureau or taxi companies were established. But like in most
other destinations, there are still difficulties because of the many different tourism
businesses and actors that are mainly concerned about their own survival. (Penz et al., 2012)
By now, the region of Niagara has also developed brands and introduced different marketing

strategies. A big problem is the missing consistency of the different organizations. A google
search for Niagara tourism immediately shows three different official tourism websites,
with different logos and a completely different design. This illustrates that the problem of
collaboration still exists and that there is still a lot of work and effort ahead to achieve a
more consistent and efficient strategy for the whole region.

References

Bali Travel Information: http://www.balitourismboard.org/files/By%20Region%2020002005.pdf, [Stand: 07.10.2014], (2005)

Beritelli, P./Bieger, T./Laesser, C. (2013): The New Frontiers of Destination Management:


Applying Variable Geometry as a Function-Based Approach. Journal of Travel Research. 53(4)
pp. 403-418

Brooker, E./Burgess, J. (2008): Marketing destination Niagara effectively through the tourism
life cycle. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 20(3), pp. 278-292

Penz, M./Klein, B./Engl, G./Wolf, W./Kettner, N. (2012): Wien Tourismus. Lecture WS 2012
FH-Wien der WKW, Tourismus Management, TM_SkriptWS1213_WIENTOURISMUS.pdf

The National (2011): http://www.thenational.ae/business/travel-tourism/syria-sees-touristnumbers-leap-40, [Stand: 07.10.14], (2011)

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