Introduction
The perceptions of local people and tourist may differ greatly on tourism products and services. Different tourist from diffferent cultures and background may see some tourism products is not interesting while others may enjoy the products that is offered. That is why glocal strategy is important in tourism development.
This paper discussed different approaches to international market communication. It argues that tourism destinations are culture-bound products which generate associations and meanings that are influenced by the cultural background of the potential tourist.
Original Article: “Imagining Places: Image Formation of Tourists and its Consequences for Destination Promotion”. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality & Tourism; Dec2003, Vol. 3 Issue 2, p134-150, 17p, 2 charts, 2 diagrams by Anette Therkelsen
Article can be found at www.ebscohost.com
Essay by Rinza Adrial Sandy
Master in Tourism Destination Management student 2008/2009
The slogan “think globally, act locally” has been absorbed and adapted by almost every industry in the world, from fast-food industry to automotive and also tourism industry. Global-Local Connections (Glocal) has been seen as an important approach in the development of tourism industry. Tourism industry approach to global-local connections is to make the destination and tourism products favorable for the tourists with a local aspect. Understanding the cultures and backgrounds of tourists is important to develop and launch a successive campaigns to attract visitors. Cultural approach has been taken more seriously to suits the preferences and expectations of tourist from different culture and background.
From the cultural perspective, in the article it was mentioned about the difference in perceptions of one culture with the other, this can be seen by the old slogan of Irish Tourist Board in 1996 “Live a different live”, which in the North American market the slogan was understood literally as if the reader was encouraged to pack his bags and move to Ireland. The article also mentioned and focus in the perceptions English market and German market toward tourism in Denmark. German’s market perceptions mainly focuses on the beaches, the seas and natural secenery that didnt appear interesting in the English market. This led the tourism board of Denmark to try to start a global campaign with localized aspects, and they do so by introducing new images of Denmark, to reach the English market that is currently a minor market in Denmark’s tourism.
From the background perspective, tourist that comes from a tropical beach area may not be interested to travel to another beach destination, but to the historical decstinations and vice versa. In this case we could take myself as an example, I came from a city surrounded by beaches and almost no historical buildings, and that makes me prefer to travel to a historical destinations rather than beach destinations to see and experience the culture. Officials from tourism destination area have to identify and create a spesific campaign to target and attracts different types of tourist
New images and spesifically targeted campaigns may bring new tourist to the area. However, if its done without considering local and global aspects this will not be succesful. Another example, the Malaysian government have been trying to modernize the traditional people in Sabah and Sarawak region for years, later to discover that the tourists actually come and attracted to the destination to see and learn about the traditional people ways of living. The Malaysian government currently actively promotes the traditional culture.
In my opinion, the global-local connection approaches will be a major factor in future tourism product and business development. It is predicted that there will be massive boom of new tourist coming from China in the future, and the ability to adapt and suits the need of new kind of tourist will makes a huge differences for a tourism destinations.
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