This research investigates Destination Management Organisation (DMOs) in China, and looks at their functions and their adoption of Performance Measurement Systems (PMSs). A two-stage questionnaire survey has adopted to achieve the pre-determined aims of the research. Finally, ninety-three DMOs took part in the first stage survey and thirty-four DMOs were involved in the second stage survey. The key findings from the research are as follows. (1) Irrespective of their nature and level, Chinese DMOs attached most importance to the functions of “economic-driver”, “marketing” and “coordination & collaboration”. (2) DMOs attached a second level of importance to the functions of “operator”, “administrator”, “statistics” and “training”; however, particularly at municipality and city levels; also Chinese public DMOs paid more attention to these aspects. (3) Chinese public DMOs, particularly at provincial and city level, placed more emphasis on the functions of “regulator” and “legitimacy”. (4) Chinese higher-level public DMOs paid less attention to the function of “public awareness”, “funding” and “international relations”, however they did performed much better than non-public lower-level DMOs to these tasks. (5) Chinese governmental DMOs at higher-level, and private DMOs, were the best at adopting PMSs in their organisations. (6) The PMSs of Chinese DMOs paid greatest attention to measuring the aspects of “visitor”, “earning” and “marketing”, and medium levels of attention to the aspects of “stakeholder”, “operation” and “event”, and relatively low attention to evaluating their performance of the aspects of “employment” and “innovation” in their organisations. Finally, a refined PMS model that could be adopted by Chinese DMOs in the future was developed at the end. Based on the above findings, the refined model aimed to measure the performance of “stakeholders”, “employees” and “customers” by assessing the outcomes of the aspects of “management” and “marketing” for Chinese DMOs. The refined PMS model was developed and based on the top-down operation system that currently existed in China and was supposed to pursue every major aspect of the system for each stakeholder in the DMOs.

This thesis deals with the evaluation of the current situation and potential for development of tourism in Jindřichohradecko region. Key factors influencing the development of tourism are identified through SWOT analysis and PEST analysis. Strategies are suggested on their basis. There is an analysis of the suitability of the legal forms for the establishment of an organization. The goals of the organization are set and further elaborated the objectives of short-, medium-, and long-term objectives of fulfilling the principle of sustainable development. They are defined as activities leading to the fulfilment of these objectives. On that basis there are defined three variants of establishment and function of the organization out of which one describes the ideal situation, where the organization operates on the principles of destination management, a second variant, we can often encounter in practice, and the third option provides the least favourable situation. The solution is to identify the most likely options and recommend what to avoid in case of passive approach of organization's potential partners.

Destination management is a management method, which is based primarily on the cooperation of stakeholders from the private and public sector while ensuring the effective development of tourism in the destination. The aim of the thesis is to evaluate the status of destination management organisation in the promotion of tourism. The actual impact of the functioning of destination management organisation on tourism cannot be directly analyzed. However destination management organisation, through implementing projects focused mainly on marketing and cooperation with other stakeholders, positively promotes tourism in the destination.

Skapandet av en destinations image och varumärke är idag en effektiv positioneringsstrategi. Destinationer lägger fokus på att skapa en attraktiv destination och därmed leverera ett värde till besökaren. Det finns däremot färre empiriska studier om hur samarbetet på en destinationer och hur ett multi-aktörsperspektiv spelar in i att skapa en attraktiv destination och därmed ett starkt varumärke. Det leder studien in på dess forskningsfråga: Hur samarbeten på en destination kan främja destinationsvarumärket? som också kommer besvaras med underfrågor: Hur Destination Management Organisations och aktörer skapar en dynamik och samverkan för att de ska samarbeta gentemot destinationens brand identity? och Hur aktörer förhåller sig till att arbeta gentemot destinationers gemensamma mål samtidigt som de beaktar egna intressen? Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur aktörer i Kalmar samverkar för att skapa en attraktiv destination och stärka dess varumärke, samt att skapa en större förståelse för hur samarbetet fungerar för att stärka varumärket. För att besvara studiens forskningsfråga har en kvalitativ metod använts med en deduktiv ansats. Studien bygger på intervjuer med sju respondenter från områden som anses relevanta för att besvara forskningsfrågan och uppnå syftet. En tematisk analys har genomförts för att se mönster i respondenternas svar. Dessa har sedan tolkats tillsammans med teorier som leder fram till vissa slutsatser. Slutsatser som kunnat dras i studien är att samarbetet på en destination kräver en organisation, möjligen en Destination Management Organisation, som kan samordna aktörerna och främja destinationsvarumärket. Studien har även visat på aktörernas egna vinning och att de fortfarande kan ta egna intressen i beaktning och ändå arbeta för destinationens mål och enhetliga varumärke. / The creation of a destination image and brand is an effective positioning strategy. Destinations focuses on creating an attractive destination and thereby delivering a value to the visitor. There are, fewer empirical studies on how the collaboration on a destination and how a multi-actor perspective plays into creating an attractive destination and thus a strong brand. This leads the thesis into its research question: How collaboration at a destination can promote the destination brand? Which will also be answered with these questions: How does Destination Management Organizations and actors create a dynamic collaboration in order for them to cooperate towards the destination brand identity? and: How actors relate to working towards destinations´ common goals while considering their own interests? The purpose of the thesis is to investigate how actors in Kalmar work together to create an attractive destination and strengthen its brand, and to create an increased understanding of how the collaboration works to strengthen the brand.

The diploma thesis deals with the topic of sustainable tourism development at the regional level. This phenomenon is elaborated on the example of Vysocina Region. To evaluate sustainability of its development, the potential of this touristic destination is researched regarding various areas, including key products. These are subjected to comparisons with recommendations of significant tourism organization for the purpose of assessing the sustainability of tourism. The diploma thesis also includes a comparison with other Czech regions experience as a touristic destination. Vysocina Region has favourable initial conditions for its sustainable development, especially regarding supply of key products, which include both environmentally friendly goods and cultural attractiveness contributing to the personal development of individuals and promoting intercultural tolerance. The main issue appears to be the spatial imbalance of its development in the region, caused mainly by the concentration of tourist activities to certain areas and low local initiative in the less attractive areas. The diploma thesis proposes a number of solutions, such as utilization of geocaching and products of gastroturism, supporting the foundation of local destination management organisations, promoting cycling tourism and the foundation of highly visited tourist destinations.

This doctoral thesis approaches literary tourism initially from an historical perspective in order to define the phenomenon through a review of the existing academic literature in the field. The forms of literary tourism are analysed to provide a typology and from this the value of literary tourism is explained both from the visitor's point of view and the destination manager's. Current theories underpinning the existing literature on literary tourism, including Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital are reviewed. To extend the current state of research and to answer the research questions a case study of successful urban literary tourism is identified, in this case in Brittany, France. The uses of French literature in literary tourism are reviewed to provide a sound basis on which to examine French texts and tourist destinations. Novel methods of field research are developed to formalise and to make reproducible the methodology for this study and for future work drawing on, and seeking to combine both literary theory and ethnography. Following a pilot study on the French Riviera the full discovery instruments are designed and applied in fieldwork on the case destination, Concarneau, using the detective novel, The Yellow Dog, which is set in Concarneau. Analysis of the findings from this provide a new contribution to the field of literary theory, in the area of reader interpellation, and answer the research questions in the form of a new set of recommendations for DMOs and tourism stakeholders. From the empirical study that used Web 2.0 social media, only available since 2013, an analysis of which novels do stimulate literary tourism is presented for the first time. Out of the research process new methods have been evolved, and are presented in the conclusion, for the DMO to synthesise and leverage digital resources. This provides DMOs with interpretation processes for its managed heritage to use with its local stakeholders in hotels and in tourism businesses. Finally, an innovative conceptualisation of what constitutes tourism knowledge is proposed.