Narratives of a tourism destination: Local particularities and their implications for place marketing and branding

Abstract

Maria Lichrouis a lecturer in the Department of Management and Marketing at the University of Limerick. She has recently completed her PhD research on Marketing and Consumption of Place. Her research interests focus on the relationships between place marketing and consumer culture and on the use of narrative methodologies in marketing and consumer research.ABSTRACT This article presents an investigation into local narratives of place and their implications for place marketers and policymakers. It fi rst examines the key challenges involved in marketing places in general and tourism destinations in particular. Following this, it presents, through a narrative methodology, the views of local stakeholders of the island of Santorini, Greece, in relation to their experience of the place ' s rapid transformation into a tourism destination. Drawing on the local narratives of place and their theorising of local particularities, the article discusses important implications for place marketing, including the political challenges and the role of place image in successful place branding.

Place, Organization, Democracy: Three Strategies For Municipal Branding

“…As a result, branding processes must bring together multiple stakeholders that negotiate their interests, such as business sector actors, civil sector actors, and actors from the local political-administrative system (Burns, 2004;Klijn et al, 2012;Lichrou et al, 2010;Robson and Robson, 1996).…”

On the marketing implications of place narratives

“…Our interest, however, is in the narratives of locals which have been used heretofore in the study of place to investigate issues as diverse as cultural identity in Minnesota (Bird 2002), identity and sociality in the Banda Islands, Indonesia (Winn 2001), and planning implications for industrially harvested peatlands in Ireland (Collier and Scott 2008). In contrast, within the realm of marketing, local narratives of place receive far less attention (See Kalandides 2011;Lichrou et al 2010 for exceptions). Our contention here is that, through narrative, local people can simultaneously be viewed as producers and products of the social reality of place.…”

The Dimensions of Art in Place Narrative

“…As Lichrou, O'Malley, and Patterson (2010) argue "marketing should place tourism destinations within socio-cultural contexts and put the human experience back into the production of place" (2010, p. 31). As Ryan describes for tourism, there is much more to it than the space and the physical environment: "Tourism is not simply about places-it is about the experience of place, about meeting people, the interaction between host and visitor and with fellow tourists" (Ryan, 1991, p. 102).…”

“…The "community" is also not monolithic, but is rather composed of different communities and individuals that perceive and feel the city in different ways (Lichrou et al, 2010). Visitors are temporarily part of the place community and, as Rojek (1997) observes, tourist spaces also have their representational cultures.…”