Preface

This book continues the testimony of the scientific contributions of the Advances in Tourism Marketing Conference (ATMC) series. It compiles papers selected before and after their presentation at the 5th ATMC held in Algarve, Portugal, October 2–4, 2013. Under the conference theme of “Marketing Space and Place: Shifting Tourist Flows,” this conference builds on the success of the previous Advances in Tourism Marketing conferences with a series of critical reference books now in existence and beginning to demonstrate impact through citations.

The first conference took place in 2005, in Mugla University in Akyaka (Turkey), which resulted in Kozak and Andreu (2006) Progress in Tourism Marketing, a book published by Elsevier. It contains 17 chapters that add to the discussion of pertinent theories and practices critical to marketing research. The second conference was hosted in 2007 by the Universitat de València (Spain) and resulted in the edition of Kozak, Gnoth, and Andreu (2009) Advances in Destination Marketing. This second book published by Routledge explores new and emerging topics in destination marketing reinforcing scientific and innovative thinking in tourism marketing. The third conference hosted by Bournemouth University (UK) resulted in a further book by Fyall, Kozak, Andreu, Gnoth, and Lebe (2011) Marketing Innovations for Sustainable Destinations. Published by Goodfellow, this volume offers insight into a variety of innovative marketing operations able to enhance tourism development in destinations. The fourth conference was then held in Maribor (Slovenia) leading to a further book Kozak, Andreu, Gnoth, Lebe, and Fyall (2013) Tourism Marketing: On Both Sides of the Counter, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book brings to the discussion tourism marketing strategies and operations through the lenses of industry and tourists. Ahead of its time, the conference and book promote collaboration and co-creation in the particular context of tourism marketing.

Nine years after the launch of the ATMC series, an increasing number of researchers have been attracted to discuss emergent topics across the domain of tourism marketing. During this time, over 500 sets of research, findings, and presentations have been made accessible to the public. In addition to the conferences and books, its steering committee edited three special journal issues and many more individual articles that have found their way into top-ranking tourism journals after first, presentations, followed by collegial critique and discussion at respective ATMC events, as well as further editorial help thereafter. The fifth conference follows the proud tradition of ATMC, enlarging and consolidating an expert worldwide network which, in turn, continues to enrich the body of knowledge in Tourism Marketing.

The editors of this book, with the assistance of many colleagues who gave their time to serve as reviewers for papers submitted to the ATMC 2013, selected the papers for the chapters in this book. The editors would like to acknowledge the contribution of the authors and reviewers to make this achievement possible.

The result is a timely and relevant compendium of chapters that offer to readers topical issues in place marketing and competitive strategies where tourism is discussed as a subjective, performative action contextualized by the geographical and sociocultural characteristics of destinations. The book covers qualitative and quantitative methods as well as case studies, finishing with conceptual papers that offer new avenues of research in image and tourism place marketing. The contributions reflect the vibrancy of ATMC and the high caliber of researchers the conference attracts. Chapters are mostly written by mature researchers, some of them in collaboration with young researchers following the collegial tradition of ATMC of launching new scholars and opening new horizons for future generations of academia and industry.

The book offers itself as a must read for researchers, students of tourism and industry, as well as all the individuals who wish to be updated on topical research issues in Tourism Places Marketing. This book helps trigger new topics in tourism marketing research and deserves your attention. Keep reading is our major advice!