Developing Wellbeing Destination Brands: A Collaborative Approach

Authors: Hemingway, A., fyall, A. and hartwell, H.

Publisher: sage

Abstract:

Although destinations have always been acknowledged as difficult to market and manage, this difficulty has not hindered those marketing and managing destinations in highly complex and dynamic environments as they seek to differentiate their respective destinations in an increasingly competitive destination landscape. The need to collaborate within and between destinations is also now an accepted modus operandi, albeit to varying degrees, as destinations seek to reconcile the challenges posed by their multiple component nature, the existence of multiple suppliers and multiple stakeholders at destinations, and the need to represent multiple meanings to multiple markets and segments (Fyall, Garrod & Wang, 2012). In fact, Wang and Fesenmaier (2007, p.863) go further to confirm the notion that the continued need for a “substantial degree of co-ordination and collaboration among the variety of different players within destinations is a natural response to the industry’s inherent fragmentation”.

Although being truly unique or distinctive in a crowded marketplace is becoming more challenging, in part due to so many destinations positioning themselves as great places to work, live and play (Morgan, Pritchard, & Pride, 2011) one emerging trend for many destinations as they seek differentiation is that of ‘wellbeing’. Although far from being a new avenue for destinations, with the origins of modern mass tourism primarily driven by religious pilgrimage (mental wellbeing) and the perceived benefits of spa and sea waters and the general good quality of air evident in primarily coastal destinations (Walton, 1983; Middleton, 2005), destinations are beginning to tap into the renewed desire by tourists, and residents, for a more eudaimonic, and less hedonistic, “quality of life” experience (Hartwell, Hemingway, Fyall, Filimonau, & Wall 2012). In contrast to hedonistic forms of tourism that are driven by happiness and the attainment of pleasure, eudaimonic forms are driven by the desire for self-realisation, meaning and human flourishing with eudaimonic orientations more consistent with the wider agenda of wellbeing as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (WHO, 2006). Although hedonistic forms of tourism will always remain, albeit to varying degrees, momentum across the tourism and public health divide for a significant and sustained improvement in the overall wellbeing and quality of life of both tourist and resident communities is apparent as they collectively seek to establish destinations that are both nice places to visit and nice places to live (Burton, 2012; Fyall, Hartwell, & Hemingway, 2013).

In view of the above, this chapter explores the opportunities to be realized by destinations from the adoption of a wellbeing branding agenda and the collaborative approaches necessary to bring all stakeholders together for the common good of the destination, its visitors and residents. The chapter begins with a brief overview of the wellbeing benefits and opportunities facing destinations with a short discussion on collaboration in the destination context. There then follows a discussion on the branding opportunities facing destinations with case examples provided where such approaches are already in existence or soon to be implemented. The chapter concludes with a short synthesis of recommendations for the future as destinations seek to sustain their differential advantage in the long term.

Source: Manual

Preferred by: Ann Hemingway