Tourist-created content: rethinking destination branding

Ana María Munar

doi:10.1108/17506181111156989

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International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research

ISSN: 1750-6182

Online from: 2007

Subject Area: Tourism and Hospitality

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Tourist-created content: rethinking destination branding

Document Information:
Title:	Tourist-created content: rethinking destination branding
Author(s):	Ana María Munar, (Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark)
Citation:	Ana María Munar, (2011) "Tourist-created content: rethinking destination branding", International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, Vol. 5 Iss: 3, pp.291 - 305
Keywords:	Destination branding, Information technology, Tourism, User-generated content
Article type:	Research paper
DOI:	10.1108/17506181111156989 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Acknowledgements:	Received: June 2009Revised: June 2010Accepted: June 2010The author thanks the Nordic Innovation Center for research funding, and Carina Hallin and Bjarke Møller for reading and providing comments to this manuscript.
Abstract:	Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between tourists' user-generated content on the web and destination branding, as well as to discuss the online strategies used by destination management organizations. Design/methodology/approach – The research adopts an exploratory study of social media sites and destination brands, relying on qualitative research methods, content analysis and field research. Findings – Tourists are largely contributing to destination image formation, while avoiding the use of the formal elements of the brands. The most popular strategies used by destination management organizations exhibit some crucial weaknesses. However, a strategy based on analytics brings new opportunities for destination branding. Originality/value – The study provides an innovative analysis of tourist-created content and its impact on destination branding and presents a theoretical model of generic web-based strategies.