Destination competitiveness has become a critical issue in today's increasingly challenging tourism market. Many studies have indicated that tourists and their needs stand as the ultimate driving force which influences competition and competitiveness in the tourism destination. Today, destinations eventually compete on the quality of tourism experience offered to visitors. However, limited research has been undertaken to examine destination competitiveness from the tourists' perspective. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of quality of tourism experience on tourists' perception of destination competitiveness. A destination competitiveness model based on the perceptions of tourists and a measurement instrument to assess the constructs of the model were developed for this study. The model proposes that tourists' perceived destination competitiveness is affected by the quality of tourism experience, which includes the experience in pre-trip planning, en-route, on-site, and after-trip (reflection) phases. Furthermore, tourist involvement, as an important salient dimension of consumer behavior, is introduced into the model as a moderating factor in the relationship between quality of tourism experience and perceived destination competitiveness. The sample population of this study consists of residents of Virginia who are 18 years old or above and took at least one leisure trip away from home in the past 18 months. Three hundred and fifty-three usable questionnaires were utilized in the data analysis of the study. Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis were performed to test the study hypotheses. The results indicated that the quality of tourism experience and tourists' perception of destination competitiveness do relate to each other as substantiated by the existence of shared common variances between these two major constructs. The study also revealed that tourists' perception of destination competitiveness is positively influenced by the quality of tourism experience in terms of different phases (pre-trip planning, en-route experience, on-site instrumental experience, on-site expressive experience, and after-trip reflection). Furthermore, tourist involvement appears to have a moderating effect on the relationship between pre-trip planning experience, en-route experience, on-site expressive experience, and perceived destination competitiveness. The study also provided managerial implications to destination managers and marketers based on the research findings. / Ph. D.

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Bluetooth Data collection technique is recently proven as a reliable data collection technique that provides the opportunity to modify traditional methodologies to improve system performance. Actual volume in the network is a result of the timing plans which are designed and modified based on the volume which is generated using existing timing plans in the system. This interdependency between timing plan and volume on the network is a dynamic process and should be captured to obtain actual traffic states in the network. The current practice is to calculate synthetic origin destination information based on detector volume that doesn't necessarily represent the volume scenario accurately. The data from Bluetooth technology can be utilized to calculate dynamic volume on the network which can be further used as input for signal timing design. Application of dynamic volume improves the system performance by providing the actual volume in system to design optimal timing plans. This thesis proposes a framework that can be used to integrate data obtained from the Bluetooth technology with the traditional methods to design timing plans. The proposed methodology utilizes the origin destination information obtained from Bluetooth data, detector data, characteristics of intersections such as number of lanes, saturation flow rate and existing timing plans as a basis for the calculation of the dynamic volume for the various movements at each intersection. The study shows that using the Bluetooth based OD matrix to calculate accurate dynamic volumes results in better system performance compared to the traditional way of using the static detector volume alone. / Master of Science

Yes / There has been a substantial rise in the number of Chinese tourists, with the Chinese millennials being important influencers. Yet very little is known about their tourism behavior, particularly how their perceived destination brand values influence their destination loyalty. This study brings in the consumers’ perceived brand value concept from the branding literature to investigate Chinese millennial tourists’ destination loyalty. An online survey was adopted to collect data from 287 Chinese millennial tourists. The findings offer insight into the relative effects of five dimensions of tourists’ perceived destination brand values on their destination loyalty. The findings also extend existing tourism literature, showing the moderating effects of destination brand globality, destination status (domestic vs. international) and national brand attitude on the said relationships. Managerial implications to better target Chinese millennials are discussed together with future research directions. / Zhejiang Natural Science Funding [LQ17G020009]

Today more people choose to travel, both for business and leisure, which have resulted in that tourism gradually are considered to be an important industry for different places. The increased possibility to travel and globalization is the main reason why destinations more often tend to use place branding and place marketing as a strategy to differentiate themselves against their competitors. This paper aims to study the phenomenon place marketing from a producer perspective on the destination High Coast, Sweden. Interviews was conducted with both the destination-organization and various tourism company within the region. The study aims to answer following questions: In which way do the destination developers at the High Coast work with place branding and place marketing? Perceive tourism companies in the High Coast area any benefit of and do they share the image that the destination developers want to convey? This paper shows how a destination actively work with packaging and communicating the core values of the destination. The developers work includes for instance a brand analysis where the involvement of companies and local people is one of the main points. The majority of the tourism business companies within the destination High Coast also feel that they can take advantage of the destination developers branding and that they, as individual companies, can help promote the destination.

Destination marketing organisations (DMO) är ett fenomen som går att studera utifrån flera aspekter. Vi valde att utgå från DMO positionering och distribution av turismprodukter vilket skapade frågeställningen: Hur förmedlas Norge som en nationell destination? Organisationen är komplex, och detta arbetets syfte är därför att få en ökad förståelse för DMOs arbete utifrån en egenskapad modell, DMOs framställningsprocess av en destination. En deduktiv ansats har används i studien, där teorierna DMO, platsmarkandsföring, kommersialisering samt destination image har behandlats. Dessa teorier har sedan applicerats på ett verkligt fenomen, som i detta fall har varit Norges DMO, Innovasjon Norge.   Arbetets empiriska material har samlats in från en mail intervju med Andreas Ørjasæter Solhaug på Innovasjon Norge. Även en semiotisk bildanalys har genomförts, där bilder i den officiella broschyr Innovasjon Norge publicerat år 2014 till den svenska marknaden studerats. Utifrån semiotik har en bildanalys genomförts med hjälp av ett kodningsschema samt en kodningsmanual som skapats. De värden Innovasjon Norge önskar att platsmarknadsföra och kommersialisera ut, har jämförts med de värden som faktiskt kommersialiseras ut till den svenska marknaden. Utifrån detta har sedan en slutsats dragits kring vilka indikationer som finns för den destination image potentiella besökare i Sverige har inför Norge. Då det i huvudsak är natur och aktiveter kopplade till naturen som kommersialiseras ut, visar detta en indikation på att de svenska besökarna också ser Norge som en destination som främst har naturupplevelser av olika slag att erbjuda.

Syfte och Forskningsfråga:Syftet med studien är att klarlägga aktuella marknadsföringskanaler för kommuner i arbetet mot att stärka och bearbeta kommuners varumärken. En digital tid är här där många synsätt och tillvägagångssätt ständigt förändras vilket utgjort grund för följande forskningsfråga:  Hur arbetar kommuner med olika marknadskanaler för att stärka sitt varumärke i en tid med digitala möjligheter? Metod: Denna studie har varit av kvalitativ karaktär där målet varit att få en djupare förståelse för kommuners arbete i att stärka sitt varumärke genom användningen av olika marknadskanaler. Utgångspunkten i studien har varit av deduktiv karaktär för att senare även tagit induktiva drag vilket gjort att den kan kategoriseras som en abduktiv ansats. Den empiriska delen utgörs av sju stycken djupintervjuer med respondenter som jobbar på olika sätt med kommuner och deras varumärkesutveckling och användning av marknadskanaler. Slutsatser: I studie har det framgått att kommuner ses som mer komplexa jämfört med vanliga varumärken. Ett samspel mellan kommun, invånare, näringsliv och besökare måste finnas för att kunna utveckla ett starkt varumärke för en kommun. De sociala medierna spelar en stor roll och är i tydligt fokus samtidigt som stora utvecklingsmöjligheter hittas för dessa kanaler. Med en ökad förståelse för de digitala kanalerna, ett tätare samarbete mellan samtliga delar hos kommuner samt ett helhetsperspektiv med samarbeten mellan regioner så hittar vi stora möjligheter inför framtiden. Detta i kombination med en utveckling av annonseringsverktygen för främst de sociala medierna så ges goda förutsättningar för kommuner i framtiden.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Hospitality Management and Dietetics / Deborah Canter and Junehee Kwon / Thailand is one of the world’s most popular tourist destinations. However, it has not been successful in capturing and sustaining the U.S. travel market, one of the world’s top source markets by international tourism expenditure. The destination image (DI) is a key factor that affects destination selection, but there has been limited research exploring U.S. travelers’ DI of Thailand. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to measure U.S. travelers’ DI of Thailand and identify important attributes for U.S. travelers in terms of destination selection using mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative approaches. To explore American travelers’ DI of Thailand, personal interviews with 56 U.S. travelers were conducted at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand. Maximum variation purposeful sampling was used to ensure diversity of the sample. One interviewer and a verifier ensured consistent and credible data collection and analyses. Data analyses included inductive, deductive and cross-case analyses. “Friendly People,” “Beaches and Islands,” and “Amazing” described Thailand's DI. First-time visitors had tourist attraction and activity-based images, while repeat visitors rated people and culture-related experience as top reasons for destination selection. Results from the qualitative study were used to identify common and unique attributes for the quantitative survey instrument. To access general perception of Thailand’s DI among U.S. travelers, an online survey was conducted with 522 international travelers including non-visitors (n=173), virtual-visitors (n=175) and visitors to Thailand (n=174). Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and factor analyses were conducted. Of five factors that solidified the DI of Thailand, cultural attributes and local experiences represented Thailand’s DI the most. DIs were different among different types of visitors. Importance-Performance Analysis illustrated Thailand’s destination attributes and their importance for destination selection. For U.S. travelers, travel environment was the most important factor but had low performance. Thailand tourism organizations may use these findings for future marketing efforts toward the U.S. travel market.

This paper deals with the promotion of Germany on the tourism market, especially in the Czech Republic. The aim is to investigate the effects of Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus on the Czech market. The theoretical part characterizes the term destination and focuses on marketing of the destination. It also clarifies running tourism at governmental level. The practical part focuses on Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus. A main part of this paper is personal research carried out on travel agencies, journalists and end users. It is based on survey research.