Search results

While the value of stakeholder involvement in destination marketing and branding has been emphasized, little research has been conducted on the inner workings of collaborative initiatives. Based on the case of the Athens Tourism Partnership, Greece, this study aims to map the value co-creation process as it unfolds in joint destination marketing and branding initiatives.

To capture the way partners collaborated to create the brand of the city, this study collected data through participant observation and analyzed it using Classical Grounded Theory principles.

The study reveals the different types of relationships and their characteristics that develop when an airline-airport-destination authority partnership is established to enhance destination brand and the potential dynamics of the collaborative initiatives.

The FiNE framework has been developed and can guide stakeholders who wish to collaborate to co-create the destination brand. This study offers theoretical and practical implications for destination authorities and tourism stakeholders to initiate, manage and implement collaborative initiatives that may empower the destination brand and deliver win-win outcomes.

This paper aims to examine developments in tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic using the hotel sector in the North-East of England as the area of study. The country has attracted a lot of attention not only because of its importance as a tourism destination but also due to its rather controversial management of the pandemic at least in its early stages.

Fifteen semi-structured interviews based on ten open-ended questions were conducted with North East of England-based hotel managers of international brands on the level of their hotels’ preparedness to effectively deal with pandemic cases. The interviews took place in August and September 2020 with participants kept anonymous.

Meeting new operational and bureaucratic requirements added to the cost structure and proved a major challenge for managers who saw their hotel occupancy rates and revenue collapsing within a short period of time. Innovative and aggressive pricing strategies were introduced to lure especially younger travelers in the absence of business clientele. Staff were made redundant and/or asked to work overtime making effective human resource management very difficult.

This is one of the first research attempts to highlight the importance of the COVID-19 pandemic for the hotel sector in a major region of the UK. The paper also attempts some generalization by discussing managerial implications and suggesting a possible way forward for the hotel sector. Developing resilience by building on previously used successful business practices proves of essence.

Airports and urban developments in their vicinity constitute a highly specialized type of agglomeration based on air connectivity that epitomizes the importance of mobility in the modern service economy. However, in a frictionless world of backyard capitalism and perfect competition, such agglomeration of civil aviation services would not have been necessary. Thus, concepts such as imperfect markets, path dependence, and cumulative causation may be alternatively used to explain the spatial aspects of airport developments. Focusing on “second-nature” concentration, the “new geographical economics” (NGE) literature offers a potential theoretical framework that organizes these concepts into a coherent economic framework. This chapter aims to highlight the unique relevance of the NGE approach in developing an economics-based understanding of the spatial distribution of airports. Drawing from the existing NGE knowledge-base, this conceptual chapter explains that the NGE approach can be adopted as a micro-foundation to show how the spatial aspects of airport development, including core-periphery dynamics of regional disparity and parity, can emerge from economic mechanisms. The chapter concludes with potential implications for airport economics and regional policy, along with the discussion of some of the main critiques of the theory.

Fashion is linked to destination branding as it constitutes an important aspect of cultural heritage. Fashion events and exhibitions enhance destination brand awareness and increase tourism demand. This chapter attempts to highlight the interdependence between fashion and destination branding focusing on how attributes are portrayed by inflight and fashion magazines. A comparative qualitative analysis of Blue (Aegean Airlines inflight magazine) and Vogue Greece is undertaken. This chapter provides insights to inform destination and fashion partners in Greece regarding their future campaigns and extend their collaboration at various levels.

The tourism industry in Greece has come a long way since its beginning as a distinct economic activity to reach the recent impressive results. It is a sector that has grown remarkably and became a major source of growth for the Greek economy. As such this chapter aims to discuss the importance and the potential of the sector, the unique characteristics of the Greek tourism industry and the future challenges ahead. Tables and suitable graphics are provided to visually enhance and inform the discussion. A wide range of articles, journals, books, and electronic sources has been reviewed to present as accurately and up to date information as possible. This chapter can therefore prove useful for academics and non-academics to use it as a reference point for the tourism sector in Greece.