Tourism destination development in the context of
brand personality and advertising message: a case study of
Swedish Lapland, ecotourism perspective
Abstract: Tourism is growing globally. During the last years, the development of
tourism in Sweden, especially in the county of Norrbotten, has been
positive. A destination marketing organisation, DMO, Swedish Lapland was
established in 2001 and is responsible for marketing tourism in the county
of Norrbotten.
The purpose of this thesis was to gain better understanding of how DMOs
that represent ecotourism develop destinations in the context of brand
personality and advertising message. The following research questions were
addressed in order to reach the purpose: How do DMOs develop tourism
destinations?, How do DMOs create brand personality?, and How do DMOs
incorporate brand personality into the advertising message?
The study started with a literature review which was used as a base for
problem discussion and theory. The review of the theory resulted as a
conceptual framework, which in turn was used as a base for the formulation
of the interview questions. The primary data was collected during the
interview with Swedish Lapland’s Managing Director.
This study indicates that cooperation between different industries is
important in order for a destination to be able to develop. In addition,
the study shows that a destination’s development does not necessarily have
to lead to increasing numbers of visitor in order for the destination to
become successful in terms of financial or popularity aspects. Furthermore,
brand development is a large part of destination development from the
marketing perspective. A destination brand personality is strongly
connected to the brand’s core values, which is then communicated to target
markets through logos, slogans, images, brand concepts and themes. Finally,
it is important for the members of the DMO to build their business and
marketing activities around the DMO’s overall branding strategy in order
for the DMO to be able to communicate a coherent advertising message.
Metaphors are used in advertising messages in order to portray destination
brand personality.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE ESSAY. (in PDF format)