Destination Management

As per the report generated by “Condorferries.co.uk” for the year 2020 to 2021, tourism contributed €106 billion in the British economy and it also contributed over 2.6 million jobs. It is expected that by the year 2025, the UK tourism industry will incorporate worth €257billion (Condorferries.co.uk, 2021). In this report, there will be discussion about the company name as “London & Partners”. The parent organization of London & Partners is Greater London Authority and the company is the destination agency for London. The company effectively promotes London across the world to fascinate audiences in an effective way. In this report there will be destination management, role and activities of London & Partners linked to destination management and governance for developing London as a leading international tourism destination.

Destination management ensures that everything is done in a right and ethical manner as well as there are no hurdles that can cause major trouble to the environment, residents or impacts the tourist’s overall experience (Gelter, Lexhagen and Fuchs, 2021). For London & Partners, it is important to understand the major dynamics of destination management which will help them in fulfilling their aim of making London a top international destination. For example: following are the major dynamics of destination management such as: destination marketing, destination branding, resource stewardship, visitor management, etc. Apart from this, London & Partners are required to work on the following strategies roles and activities such as: following principles of sustainability, facilitator of stakeholder involvement, development agent, analysing audience’s key interests, conducting demand forecasting analysis, etc. Moreover, examine of external forces which can influence arrival of visitors also plays an important role. For example: if the management of London & Partners conducts external analysis then they can examine about threats from the latest COVID-19 variants and Brexit. 

 In the last few years, the need for destination management has increased as it enables a company to market its destination with the visitor in mind. Destination Management helps in improving the quality of tourism management and is a strategic approach that helps in linking up for the better management of the destination (Pearce, 2015). Destination management is more like an alliance of stakeholders and people who are working towards the common goal of a tourism destination. It has been witnessed that the involvement of stakeholders is an important aspect as it makes stakeholders aware of the things which are going on in the company. London & Partners will be looking forward to utilizing all the necessary information which will help London in becoming a top international tourism destination (Koo, Mendos-Filho and Buhalis, 2019).

Destination Competitiveness and Sustainability

Competition around the world has increased significantly. Destination management includes different factors which plays a vital role in providing competitiveness and sustainability.  Destination management includes marketing, quality of service, information and research, human resource development, finance, venture capital, visitor management, resource stewardship and crisis management (Andrades and Dimanche, 2017). All these factors play an important role in determining destination competitiveness. One major aspect which has been seen in the tourism industry is the impact made by destination management. Destination management involves making strategies and implementing programs that will help in sharing some unique ideas about the destination. The latest trends suggest that destination management is helping companies to highlight their tourist destination (Gelter, Lexhagen and Fuchs, 2021).

Destination Management is vital as it also seeks to address the needs of the residents and the environment in a particular destination. Destination management makes sure that the visitor experience is the topmost priority and there should not be any hindrance caused by any factor (Mariani and Mura, 2016). Apart from this, it is important for London & Partners to understand that they should focus gaining a competitive advantage. To gain a competitive advantage, London & Partners should focus on Porter’s generic strategy of cost leadership. This strategy (cost leadership) is a business-level strategy which states that an organization can gain a competitive advantage by lowering its cost. Similarly, to gain market shares, it is suggested that the company should focus on offering budget trips to their targeted audience. For example: it is mentioned on the official website of the company that the company focuses on key international markets such as: North America, India, China and Europe (Londonandpartners.com, 2022). Now, as per the cost-leadership strategy, the company should focus on offering budgeted trips to London at a competitive rate in the market. It will help the company to effectively fascinate their targeted audience. 

Destination management organizations (DMOs) have key stakeholders involved in their processes. Some of the key stakeholders are the national or regional government, economic, development agencies, Local authorities, town centre management, transport authorities, accommodation providers, restaurant, leisure operations, business support agencies, intermediaries and skills development organizations. The benefits of stakeholder’s involvement in destination management are that the public is informed about the current affairs and issues, and new ideas can be generated through the involvement of different stakeholders (Slivar, 2018). It has been proven vital that when the stakeholders are given proper information and they are part of the process as well then there is a reduction in conflicts regarding a process (Sheehan et al. 2016).

Role of Stakeholders

London and Partners should conduct detail search about micro as well as macro factors which can impact their operations. As already discussed, the potential audience of the company belongs from four main countries such as: North America, India, China and Europe. Below is the example which showcases ways through which the company can conduct research for destination management. 

• Example 1: Economic analysis: in the economic analysis, it is important to analyse about spending capacity of the people. For example: As per the Statista.com, Chinese tourists spend about $254.6billion while travelling abroad in the year 2019 (Statista.com, 2019). On the other hand, as per the data of India’s central bank (the central bank in India is knows as the Reserve Bank of India) Indians had spent around $5.52billion on traveling abroad (Taazakhabarnews.com, 2022).
• Example 2: Researching about external forces: the company is required to research regularly about potential events which can impact the arrival or departure of tourists in London. For example: currently (March, 2022), from the global media news is coming that new variants of COVID-19 are again arising in China (Cnbc.com, 2022). Another news that can impact the operations of London and Partners is that war between Russia and Ukraine is still going on and it can lead to increase airfare prices by 20% to 40%.

Another important thing which needs to be understand is that destination management aims to control the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of a specific tourism territory. That is why the principle of sustainable development is also considered while planning the strategy. It makes sure that the environment is not hindered as well.

For the crisis management, it is suggested that London and Partners should upload a few videos on their official website regarding those situations which can arise mishappenings for tourists in London. The company should make it mandatory for all tourists to watch these videos (3-4 videos) before onboarding. For example: for the tourists, there are several issues which can create mishappening in London such as:

• Mugging risk.
• Risk for getting indulge into a scam.
• Pickpocketing is the most common form of street crime in London.

So, the company should upload few videos on their official website by explaining about potential crisis and ways to avoid these crises in the effective way. 

• It is suggested that the London & Partners should focus towards “Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered chatbots” in their system. The reason behind suggesting this recommendation is that it will help the company to reduce their human resource workload. For example: AI powered chatbots will be available to resolve or answer basic queries of the tourists in the effective way. If the company will focus on implementing AI-powered then it will also resultant in enhancing user experience.
• It is also suggested that the company should focus on providing personalized or customized recommendation to their targeted audience.
• It is suggested that the company should take use of social media and digital marketing strategies to promote their services among the global audiences because they are cost-effective (Koo, Mendos-Filho and Buhalis, 2019).

Conclusion 

It is concluded that there are following key dynamics related with destination management such as: destination building, resource stewardship, visitor management, etc. It is suggested that London & Partners should focus towards gaining a competitive advantage to fascinate targeted audience. It is suggested that the company should focus on implementing cost leadership strategy. As per this strategy, the company can choose to provide their services in competitive rates as compare to their competitors. Apart from this, it is recommended that London & Partners should focus towards implementing Artificial Intelligence based chatbots, the company should provide personalized recommendations to the audiences, etc.

References

Andrades, L. and Dimanche, F. (2017) Destination competitiveness and tourism development in Russia: Issues and challenges. Tourism management, 62, pp.360-376.

Cnbc.com. (2022) CORONAVIRUS. [Online] Available at: https://www.cnbc.com/coronavirus/ [Accessed on: 14^th March, 2022].

Condorferries.co.uk. (2022) UK TOURISM Statistics 2020-2021. [Online] Available at: https://www.condorferries.co.uk/uk-tourism-statistics [Accessed on: 14^th March, 2022].

Gelter, J., Lexhagen, M. and Fuchs, M. (2021) A meta-narrative analysis of smart tourism destinations: implications for tourism destination management. Current Issues in Tourism, 24(20), pp.2860-2874.

Koo, C., Mendes-Filho, L. and Buhalis, D. (2019) Smart tourism and competitive advantage for stakeholders: Guest editorial. Tourism Review, 74(1), pp.1-4.

Londonandpartners.com. (2022) About London & Partners. [Online] Available at: https://www.londonandpartners.com/about-us [Accessed on: 14^th March, 2022].

Mariani, M.M., Di Felice, M. and Mura, M. (2016) Facebook as a destination marketing tool: Evidence from Italian regional Destination Management Organizations. Tourism management, 54, pp.321-343.

Pearce, D.G. (2015) Destination management in New Zealand: Structures and functions. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 4(1), pp.1-12.

Slivar, I. (2018) Stakeholders in a tourist destination–matrix of possible relationships towards sustainability. Open Journal for Research in Economics, 1(1), p.1.

Statista.com. (2019) International tourism expenditure of Chinese tourists from 2008 to 2019. [Online] Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/249702/international-tourism-expenditure-of-chinese-tourists/ [Accessed on: 14^th March, 2022].

Taazakhabarnews.com. (2022) Indians are the highest spending globetrotters. [Online] Available at: https://taazakhabarnews.com/indians-are-the-highest-spending-globetrotters/#:~:text=According%20to%20Reserve%20Bank%20of,%245.52%20billion%20while%20traveling%20abroad. [Accessed on: 14^th March, 2022].