Assessing perceived destination image and brand equity through web 2.0

Social media technologies of Web 2.0 play an increasingly important role in destination brand management practice and the consumer selection of destinations. Consumers freely discuss their travel stories, travel recommendations, travel experiences and attitudes through blogs, forums and social media. This material is read and added to by millions of people and the content has a role in determining the image of a travel destination. Therefore it is critical that destination brand managers understand what is being discussed and written about their destination. What is the content of the Web 2.0 discussions? What are the attributes, associations, experiences, connotations, connections, contexts and ramifications?

Fiji's tourism industry : a SWOT analysis

Within the last two decades Fiji’s tourism industry has grown dramatically, in the process overtaking the traditional export sector of sugar as the main foreign exchange earner and employment creator. Since Fiji depends enormously on tourism for its growth and development, this paper provides an analysis of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats on
the tourism industry. The paper aims to provide a clear picture of the tourism industry in Fiji and attempts to provide information, particularly to the policy makers, that will assist them in making policy decisions regarding the future growth and development of the industry - at a time when the industry's image has been tarnished as a consequence of Fiji's third coup in May 2000. The paper also provides some recommendations that need to be considered by policy makers and incorporated into any future development plans on the Fiji tourism industry.

Disastrous events and destination image

Many disastrous events worldwide have impacted on the image of tourist destinations. The subsequent downturn in tourism numbers and tourism spending has been directly blamed on those events. Arrival numbers and hotel occupancy rates have shown an immediate downturn following disastrous events in recent years. A comprehensive crisis management plan should incorporate guidelines to manage the return to the pre-disaster stage and re-positioning of the destination to re-establish its image.

The destination image models discussed in the literature, to date, have not included crisis management as one of the important considerations for a destination. This paper advocates changes to tourism destination image models that recognise the importance of crisis management and its subsequent impact on destination image. Tourism industry planners and marketers need to have access to reliable theoretical frameworks that incorporate all aspects of destination image to guide strategy formulation. The suggested improved model incorporating crisis management status - the preparedness for and the ability to deal with a disaster at any level - is more likely to provide this opportunity.

Medical tourism: a conceptual framework for an innovation in global healthcare provision

The purpose of this chapter is to establish a conceptual model that can potentially fill research gaps in the literature about medical tourism as an innovative concept in global healthcare provision by developing emerging economies as they are providing low cost alternatives in medical treatment at internationally accredited medical facilities to treat patients from developed countries. Major databases such as Ebscohost and Emerald have been used to search relevant literature. The literature on medical tourism is reviewed so as to understand the key drivers of medical tourism as well as research gaps in the existing literature. Three major drivers of medical tourism have been identified, namely cost, waiting time, and perceived quality. Further empirical research is needed to test the conceptual model in order to better understand what drives a decision to engage in medical tourism. This chapter makes three major contributions; firstly, the identification of the medical tourism literature from the service marketing and management perspectives; secondly, to propose a conceptual model representing innovation in medical tourism for global healthcare by developing emerging economies; thirdly, the identification of research gaps in the medical tourism literature through which future research can further the knowledge of why people travel to developing countries for medical treatment.

Lost in translation : Tourism Australia's 'Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign

Where issues and crises management intersect an converge with risk and reputaiton is one of the most dynamic and challenging areas of professional communcation. This study examines how poor research lead to message  misunderstanding  and ultimately internaitonal ridicule of the national image.

Medical tourism: A conceptual framework for an innovation in global healthcare provision

© 2015, IGI Global. The purpose of this chapter is to establish a conceptual model that can potentially fill research gaps in the literature about medical tourism as an innovative concept in global healthcare provision by developing emerging economies as they are providing low cost alternatives in medical treatment at internationally accredited medical facilities to treat patients from developed countries. Major databases such as Ebscohost and Emerald have been used to search relevant literature. The literature on medical tourism is reviewed so as to understand the key drivers of medical tourism as well as research gaps in the existing literature. Three major drivers of medical tourism have been identified, namely cost, waiting time, and perceived quality. Further empirical research is needed to test the conceptual model in order to better understand what drives a decision to engage in medical tourism. This chapter makes three major contributions; firstly, the identification of the medical tourism literature from the service marketing and management perspectives; secondly, to propose a conceptual model representing innovation in medical tourism for global healthcare by developing emerging economies; thirdly, the identification of research gaps in the medical tourism literature through which future research can further the knowledge of why people travel to developing countries for medical treatment.