Tourist Destination Branding in a Country Context:an Analysis of Malawi’s Branding Efforts

摘要

Thetourismindustry has grown at a very fast pace over the past 50 years and is generating considerable amounts of revenues that are vital to the economic growth of developing countries. Realizing the potential that the industry has to their national economies many developing countries，including those in Africa，are now turning to tourism development to help bring in much needed foreign exchange into their countries and create jobs locally.Malawi has earmarked tourism as apriority economic development sector.Muchas the country is endowed with a huge tourist attraction resource base，itreceives a fewinternational tourists. Out of the 20 million tourists that visited southern Africa (a region of 14 countries) in 2010，only 746,000 visited Malawi. In a quest to bea premier tourist destination in the region，Malawi has tried to brand itself.However，literature has it that destination branding ismulti-facetedand is often poorly understood and executed. It is against the foregoing that this research sought out toinvestigate how the stakeholders in the Malawi tourism industry understand the concept of destination branding，the efforts they have taken to brand the country and how they interact while carrying out the branding initiatives. Further to that，the study also aimed at appreciating the challenges that the stakeholders face in their branding initiatives and what they think are the measures that should be taken if Malawi is to become a premier tourist destination.In-depth interviews and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data from respondents that were deliberately selected，basing on their knowledge of the subject matter and work-related activities in their work places. Also，policy documents such as the Malawi?s Department of Tourism policypapers were used in the study. The study was grounded in Hankinson?s (2004) brand networks model which provided the framework the development of meanings from the data.The study found out that，in Malawi,destination branding is generally equated to marketing communications or simply tourism promotion. Additionally，the research noted that there is poor coordination between the government and the private sector in issues of destination branding. The study also noted that the principal view of the stakeholders is that Malawi?s brand personality ought to be adjusted so that it should reflect changing tourist needs. Furthermore，the research found out that inadequate infrastructure; poor service quality and low adoption ofICTshave put the country at a disadvantage as tourist destination against other countries in the region.The discussion then argues for the adoption of a holistic approach to destination branding where the concept is looked at as a combination of various elements (tourists，local citizensand employees，infrastructure，and quality of service delivery) in the destination and not simply marketing communications. The study also calls for greater integration among the various stakeholders in the branding activities of the destination. Finally,the discussion calls for an urgent review and adjustment of the destination?s brand personality so as to meet changing tourist needs.

目录

封面

声明

英文摘要

目录

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION, OBJECTIVES AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1.2STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1.3RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1.4RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.5SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

1.6 THESIS OUTLINE

1.7TOURISM IN MALAWI

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 BRAND

2.2 BRANDING

2.3THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.4THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION/INNOVATION OF THE STUDY

CHAPTER 3: MAIN RESEARCH CONTENTS AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1MAIN CONTENTS OF THETHESIS

3.2RESEARCH DESIGN

3.3TARGET POPULATION AND SAMPLE SIZE

3.4SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

3.5DATA COLLECTION TOOLS

3.6DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS

3.7 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 INTRODUCTION

4.2THE STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED IN DESTINATION BRANDING IN MALAWI

4.3 THESTAKEHOLDERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF DESTINATION BRANDING

4.4ANALYSING MALAWI’S EFFORTS TO BRAND ITSELF USING THE BRAND NETWORKS MODEL

4.5CHALLENGES TO DESTINATION BRANDING

4.6WHAT COULD BE DONE BETTER?

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1STAKEHOLDERS; THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF; AND LEVEL OF INVOLVEMENT IN DESTINATION BRANDING

5.2BRANDING EFFORTS AS PER THE BRAND NETWORKS MODEL

5.3CHALLENGES TO DESTINATION BRANDING

5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS

5.5SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY

5.6LIMITATIONSAND MITIGATION MEASURES

参考文献

APPENDICES

致谢