The 'real' marketers Destination Branding and Marketing 2.0

Abstract: Due to an increasing ease of access to social media outlets, more tourists than ever are able to share their comments, images and videos of travel experiences. As such this user generated content is said to have more of an impact than professionally produced content on the decisions of prospective travellers. On this basis the major objective of this study is to identify the overall perspectives held by destination marketing organisations on the importance of user-generated content. The research adopted an exploratory study based on semi-structured qualitative interviews. A sample of seven stakeholders, all with working knowledge of destination marketing within Sweden were interviewed. These interviews investigated (1) marketing strategies that were currently in place, (2) the understandings held of social media, (3) user generated content and (4) challenges, risks and restrictions perceived to be associated with its use. Beliefs and perspectives were identified and deconstructed according to relevant literature and interviews enabling us to believe that user-generated content is perceived by all interviewees as being of some importance. However, it was concluded that the extent of importance and its utility can be divided into three varying perspectives; Futuristic, Traditionalist and Realist, all of which served as our theoretical contribution. The results further revealed a unanimous preference for the use of ambassadors