Journal of Vacation Marketing
Volume 5 Number 3
Tourism destination brands and electronic
commerce: Towards synergy?
A. P. Williams and A. J. Palmer
Received (in revised form): 8th March 1999
Refereed anonymously
School of Marketing and Tourism, Faculty of Business, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia
Tel: ‡ 61 8 9400 5442; fax ‡ 61 8 9400 5840; email: paul.williams@cowan.edu.au
A. P. Williams is a senior lecturer at the School
of Marketing and Tourism, Faculty of Business,
Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Australia.
be using the Internet in a random, disorganised,
uncooperative way.
A. J. Palmer is Professor of Tourism Marketing
at the University of Ulster, Magee College, Londonderry.
INTRODUCTION
Electronic commerce is having a fundamental and far-reaching impact on the way travel
is marketed, distributed, sold and delivered.
The diversity and complexity of tourism
destination products is well documented,1
and this makes information provision and
subsequent brand development very dif®cult
for both national and regional tourism organisations. Information provision and branding at destination level necessarily involves
the focused attention of all tourism-related
businesses in a destination. This creates a
number of challenges for destination marketers in getting all companies to develop a
coherent theme to the brand. For example,
Pritchard and Morgan highlight challenges
for destination marketers in the form of
lack of control over the marketing mix;
limited funding; and political in¯uences.2
Undeterred, tourism marketing organisations
are increasingly using a central brand image
for the promotion and distribution of destination products and services, by working
together under a number of different cooperative arrangements and alliances between suppliers.3
The evolution of electronic commerce on
the Internet has allowed individual tourism
suppliers to compete more equally with the
larger multinationals' brands for the global
ABSTRACT
KEYWORDS: Internet, electronic commerce, destination marketing, branding
This paper discusses the impact of electronic commerce on the development of strong tourism destination brands. Electronic media have the potential
to create strong direct links between individual
tourism suppliers and their customers, thereby
possibly undermining collective efforts to create
strong destination brands. In addition, electronic
media may have the potential to strengthen the
process of destination brand creation, by facilitating
interaction and cross-selling between complementary producers within a destination. A case study
methodology is used to evaluate the recently developed Brand Western Australia (Brand WA)
marketing campaign. This strategy attempted to
develop a strong centralised tourism destination
brand for the state of Western Australia and the
paper reviews the branding strategy to date, the
promotional and distribution channels used, and
the challenges and opportunities faced by WA
suppliers when using electronic channels on the
Internet. It is concluded that despite the enormous
growth in the use of electronic commerce, it is not
being used to its full potential. Suppliers appear to
Journal of Vacation Marketing
Vol. 5 No. 3, 1999, pp. 263±275,
& Henry Stewart Publications,
1356-7667
Page 263
Tourism destination brands and electronic commerce: Towards synergy?
consumer.4 As such, electronic commerce
has facilitated a stronger presence for individual tourism suppliers in the marketplace,
through being able to reach their potential
markets more directly. For example, electronic commerce has led to the development of
new channels of distribution which connect,
in a virtual sense, individual producers with
individual customers (one-to-one marketing). Traditionally, in tourism, indirect channels such as travel agents, tour operators and
tourism bureaux have acted as intermediaries
between buyers and sellers and electronic
channels are challenging the role of these
organisations.5 The initiatives of the Western
Australian Tourism Commission to create a
strong centralised destination brand, through
Brand WA and its electronic destination
database, may potentially be undermined
due to this lack of cooperation.
The challenge for destination marketers is
thus to create a strong tourism brand which
facilitates consumer/producer interaction
through a cooperative marketing strategy.
This paper discusses the impact of electronic
commerce on the development of strong
tourism destination brands in Western Australia. The Brand WA marketing campaign
has created a strong destination brand which
is being reinforced through an electronic
distribution strategy to pull together tourism
suppliers in the state and facilitate consumer/
supplier interaction. It is concluded that
despite the potential, even stronger leadership is required by the WATC to enable
electronic commerce to realise its synergistic
potential.
CHANGING NATURE OF TOURISM
DISTRIBUTION
Tourism products and services have traditionally been marketed through a complex
array of intermediaries.6 These intermediaries
add value by acting as information agents for
the consumer, providing up-to-date access
to a wide choice of different tourism products and services, and offering a range of
extra travel services such as visa/passport
advice, personalised travel information, for-
Page 264
eign exchange and travel insurance. In the
same respect, tourism intermediaries offer
principals and suppliers value through their
more extensive, high-street located distribution networks and through the decentralisation of many administrative functions such as
ticketing. A commission of between 7 per
cent and 10 per cent is normally paid by the
supplier to the intermediary for their services
as a service provider. These traditional channels can be seen in Figure 1.
Tourism distribution channels, however,
are changing rapidly. Traditional indirect
channels of distribution through tourism intermediaries, such as travel agents, are on
the decline,7 and more direct channels are
evolving, with the advent of electronic marketing initiatives such as computerised reservation systems (CRS), global distribution
systems (GDS), the Internet and destination
databases.8 Although CRS and GDS use has
proliferated in travel agents, such as through
systems like Galileo, Amadeus, Sabre and
Apollo, the electronic bene®ts have been
passed indirectly to consumers. Recent developments suggest that CRS/GDS companies are now marketing themselves directly
to the consumer via user-friendly interfaces
on the Internet, which again bypass travel
agent intermediaries. According to Travelweek,9 `US$2.1 billion worth of travel products will be sold on the Internet, up from
$275 million two years ago. Travelocity,
Sabre's online agency, is doing $5 million
worth of business a week; with 22% of
active, adult Web users having booked on
the Internet, up 49% from six months ago,'
highlighting the enormous growth of electronic commerce in the tourism industry.
The Internet is a cheap, ¯exible method of
promoting tourism products overseas, and
through its integration with newly developed destination databases will complement
existing distribution channels initially, and
perhaps replace them in the longer term.10
Customers will be able to see a destination's
online brochure and interact at their leisure,
and will gain immediate grati®cation of their
requests, greater choice, multisensory feedback, accuracy, up-to-date information and
an easy-to-use interface.11 For example, the
Williams and Palmer
Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation
(QTTC) recently released its `Destination
Queensland' promotion in 1996 with over
1,800 online pages of destination and product information and images,12 as a response
to these emerging channel needs.
Increased competition in the tourism marketplace is driving tourism suppliers to work
cooperatively towards a common goal: the
attraction and satisfaction of the global consumer.13 The diversity of provision in the
travel industry and the increasingly discerning
consumer means that the quality and ef®ciency of information provision is becoming
a differentiating factor for destinations.14 As
such, as new channels of distribution evolve,
destination marketing organisations have a
unique opportunity to pull together suppliers
and market themselves under one common,
identi®able brand image, thus controlling the
quality of information provided and reducing
the costs of information provision through
economies of scale.
Tourism destination brands
Branding as a commercial tool has been with
us for a long period of time,15 and brand
image is one of the key components in the
formation of a clear and recognisable brand
identity in the marketplace. In recent years,
the branding of goods and services has been
popularised in marketing circles due to a
brand's ability to `promise to consistently
deliver a speci®c set of features, bene®ts and
services to buyers'.16 In the tourism industry,
destination marketing is considered a rather
nebulous concept, but has recently received
attention from researchers.17 There is a strong
consensus among these authors that brand
image is a pivotal aspect of a marketing
strategy for a destination.
The brand is de®ned by a combination of
the images projected by the organisation;
and those images received by the consumer,
which are ultimately shaped by the consumer's previous attitudes, knowledge and experience.18 These authors have investigated
the use of image in brand formation for
destinations and it is argued that despite a
multiplicity of products and services under
Traditional channels of distribution
Figure 1
the one-brand umbrella, the formation of a
brand identity can be achieved to give the
destination a common marketing purpose
and direction. Ashworth and Voogd,19 agree,
noting that destinations `can be marketed
through their generalised images' and that
image building is an important and widely
used means of market penetration for destinations. Pritchard and Morgan20 suggest that
a successful brand builds an emotional link
between product and consumer, which in a
destination may include the resort the tourist
stays in, or the friendliness of the local
people. They further contend that `mood
marketing' is a useful method of destination
branding; where brand `saliency' is created
through the development of an emotional
relationship with the consumer through
highly choreographed and focused communication campaigns. Nevertheless, many dif®culties remain in developing strong collective destination brand images.
The prospect of cooperation among suppliers and strategic marketing alliances has
also been outlined by several authors21 as
being effective when marketing a destination. Examples include the Brand Australia
initiative to gain partnerships between all
state tourism bodies around the country;
Queensland's `Destination Queensland:
Beautiful One Day, Perfect the Next!' campaign; and the Brand Ireland campaign to
promote Southern and Northern Ireland as a
single tourism destination. In each case, the
centralised brand served to focus the promotional efforts of all organisations involved in
providing services to tourists within a destination. Clearly the brand image created is
emphasised through all promotional strategies, however it is critical that the brand
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Tourism destination brands and electronic commerce: Towards synergy?
image permeates all aspects of the marketing
strategy including the distribution channels.
Opportunities for electronic commerce
and destinations
The shift towards electronic commerce on
the Internet has been topically covered in
many trade journals and popular press, with a
distinct lack of empirically tested studies to
verify these often hyped reports. However, it
is estimated that around 50 million people
are using the Internet around the world with
over 25 per cent of these making travel plans
or travel reservations.22 In the same regard,
travel and tourism is often cited as one of the
key players for the future of Internet use.23
The potential of electronic commerce in the
tourism industry is supported by IBM, who
revealed that there are 20,000 websites for
the travel industry and this is growing by
around 2,000 per month. Further, IBM argue that 50 per cent of Internet users in the
UK ®nd out about travel for holidays via this
mechanism.24 This presents a wide array of
opportunities for destination marketing organisations which are willing to capitalise on
them.
Opportunities arise for marketing destination brands on the Internet largely through
the World Wide Web (WWW) which uses
multimedia capabilities to present textual,
graphical and verbal information on just
about anything publishable. A WWW web
page is essentially an electronic document,
which allows multiple users (consumers) to
access and download information from the
page to their own computers. Each web page
can be stored on a wide variety of computer
servers all connected to the Internet, which
in effect broadens the distribution of the web
page to a larger number of potential users
around the world. The ¯exibility to update
and then distribute a web page electronically
creates some exciting marketing possibilities
for suppliers. The WWW can be compared
to an electronic product brochure that is
constantly up to date, graphical and colourful, capable of text, audio and video images,
cheap and easy to copy and accessible by
Page 266
millions of readers around the world. Tourism suppliers can thus create their own electronic brochures to market their products
and services quickly and cheaply on a global
scale. In fact, it is argued that existing printed
media is under threat from multimedia in the
tourism industry.25 An example of how the
Internet can create new channels of distribution is shown in Figure 2.
The opportunities arise, for destination
marketers, through a stronger and more purposeful identity for all suppliers and products
in the tourism marketplace; or synergies and
economies of scale from alliances.26 Similarly,
the costs of obtaining information are reduced for customers and travel agents and
the wide diversity of information can be
represented on one terminal, which further
enhances the information search costs for
potential tourists.27
Similarly, the development of fully integrated destination databases that can be marketed electronically via the Internet creates
some exciting opportunities. These databases
offer full product information, interactive
booking capability, and real-time price and
availability information. Several destination
databases have been developed worldwide to
varying degrees of success. For example,
Archdale28 reports on a range of systems
including the BOSS system in Canada,
GULLIVER in Ireland, SWISSLINE in
Switzerland and ATLAS in Queensland in
Australia. These databases have been developed at signi®cant cost and although the
return on investment has yet to be fully
realised, Archdale29 is con®dent of their use
in the future: `large elements on the demand
side of the equation for destination database
developments can therefore be termed positive. The provision of improved information
is clearly essential.' A destination database
complements the existing promotional channels and underpins the development of effective distribution channels.
In the medium term, three to ®ve years,
opportunities abound with the linking of
picture and video images of destinations
and accommodation which could again alter
the purchasing procedures of consumers in
the tourism industry. Kotler,30 for example,
Williams and Palmer
claims, `the capability of transmitting colour
photographs to millions of people across the
globe makes the Internet an exciting new
distribution channel'. Pollock31 agrees and
outlines a number of advantages of electronic
brochures, for tourism businesses and tourism destinations, such as the ability for consumers to select only the information that
appeals to them, reducing time and effort for
searching for their holiday information. Similarly suppliers have the opportunity to
reduce costs of distribution at the same time
as reaching more directly into the consumer's home where decisions are made,32 thus
creating new and more direct channels of
distribution for destination brands. These
developments are likely to provide greater
accessibility to information and also customer interactivity capabilities with the destination product than traditional distribution
channels.
Challenges to electronic commerce
and destinations
One of the most notable effects of electronic
commerce is to facilitate direct access between a supplier and its customers, without
need to resort to an intermediary.33 There
has been considerable development in many
services industries of direct sell organisations
that are able to deal with many thousands of
customers on an individual basis. At the same
time, there is some evidence of the effects
these direct channels have had on the number and pro®tability of remaining intermediaries. In the context of tourism destination
brands, it is quite possible that individual
companies which belong to a tourist destination may seek to open up direct channels
with their existing and prospective customers, rather than channelling more effort
into the development of a central brand or
the destination. This may be a real possibility
where an operator offers a unique facility
such as a theme park whose appeal is not
directly related to the area in which it is
located.
Search engines are increasingly allowing
Internet users to search out types of activity
irrespective of the location of the destina-
Emerging distribution channels in tourism
Figure 2
tion. Once the website for a favoured activity is found, that website may suggest other
attractions in the area that might appeal to
the needs of the type of person who typically
takes part in the preferred activity. Hotlinks
may take an individual to related activities
without the intervention of a centralised
tourism brand.
The potential synergy for electronic commerce may not arise in the short to medium
term due to a number of challenges yet to be
faced by organisations adopting this electronic medium of communication. For example, the development of Internet channels of
communication and distribution for tourism
raises issues of information overload for consumers, and also the relative bias from individual suppliers towards the business traveller
and towards higher priced products and
services.34
Other challenges for this medium arise
from the complexity of information to new
users, copyright and legal issues, and security
and privacy of information.35 Similar challenges may be faced from tourism businesses
each doing their own thing and promoting
to multiple market segments (ie lots of channels of distribution/communication), further
confusing the consumer. The rapid development and dissemination of worldwide websites created by suppliers and intermediaries
may re¯ect the amount of confusion faced
by consumers when seeking travel information about a destination. For example, a
customer may search for information from
multiple sources including travel agents, tour
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Tourism destination brands and electronic commerce: Towards synergy?
operators, tourism of®ces, visitor bureaux,
books, media, computerised reservation systems, the Internet and from the suppliers
directly. This diversity is compounded
further by the mass array of different travel
agents, operators, bureaux and Internet
sites,36 which often offer con¯icting information for the consumer. An example of one
search for `Hotels and Western Australia' on
the Internet (ie only one channel of distribution) resulted in 6,340 `hits' using one search
engine, despite there being only 1,200 registered hotels in the state, few of which actually hold their own Internet connection.
Obviously, the `hits' included worldwide
websites made up of the individual properties themselves, plus a wide array of professional travel guides, regional tourist of®ces,
travel agents, tour operators, media reports,
travel book companies and `specialist' information providers representing the hotel
properties on the Internet. Suppliers are also
likely to face this confusion when they
choose distribution channels for their products and services.
The implications of such confusion are
that destination marketing organisations have
a great opportunity to bring together the
relevant suppliers of tourism services in their
region under one brand identity. The destination marketing organisation would act as a
`®lter' or `broker' for customers seeking professional travel advice in their region and
thus add value to existing services for both
customers and suppliers in terms of a strong
centralised brand. The destination marketing
organisation would signi®cantly reduce the
amount of potential confusion for suppliers
and consumers.
Based on the existing literature relating to
electronic commerce and to tourism destination branding, the development of the Internet would appear to present both opportunities and threats to the development of
strong tourism destination brands.
METHODOLOGY
A case study methodology was undertaken
to review the Brand Western Australia
(Brand WA) campaign in more detail and to
Page 268
investigate the pattern of development of
electronic commerce for the tourism destination brand. Case study analysis was considered the most appropriate for this research
question due to the diverse and largely pluralist context37 of tourism destination marketing. The focus of a case study is on an object
of study (in this case the Brand WA strategy)
to elicit new views, ideas and research questions for future researchers, not to make
evaluative judgments about relationships between key variables.
This study may be considered a partly
`intrinsic' case study and a partly `instrumental' case study.38 An intrinsic case study is
normally undertaken because one wants better understanding of a particular case in all its
particularity and ordinariness (in this case the
Brand WA strategy). Whereas an instrumental case study provides insight, in a supportive role, facilitating our understanding of
something else (in this case distribution
channels of destination brands). Stake39 does
note that there is often `no line distinguishing intrinsic from instrumental case studies',
which justi®es the joint approach in this
study.
Qualitative techniques were used to collect information about the case including an
extensive review of secondary data, and also
collection of primary data from interviews
with key players in the development of
Brand WA. In total, 27 personal interviews
were conducted with key tourism industry
representatives in WA. The interviews lasted
between 30 and 45 minutes, although in two
cases the discussion extended beyond one
hour. Informants included tour operators of
private sector tourism facilities, hotel managers, restaurants, WATC staff with responsibilities for destination marketing, and staff
at the visitor bureaux. Secondary data analysis was conducted from published sources of
information including annual reports of
WATC, strategy documents from WATC,
company annual reports and published media
reports.
The interview data were transcribed and
content analysed using the qualitative software package ZY-Index to establish whether
there were any patterns emerging from the
Williams and Palmer
data. In addition, triangulation techniques
were employed by both authors, across the
different data collection procedures and also
throughout the data analysis, to increase the
objectivity of the methodology.40 Triangulation involves the use of multiple perceptions
to clarify meaning, by identifying different
ways the phenomenon is being seen.41 In this
case study, the primary data and secondary
data were triangulated with each other for
consistency, and also each author checked all
transcriptions of data to ensure accurate data
were recorded. Each author reviewed the
data and independently analysed them for
patterns and trends, before jointly comparing
notes. Where discrepancies occurred, follow-up discussions were held with the relevant interviewee to clarify the exact meaning
of their statement.
BACKGROUND TO THE CASE STUDY
The Brand WA campaign, launched in
1996, was based on research undertaken in
1994 which revealed that Western Australia
(WA) and Perth did not have a meaningful
identity in the global marketplace.42 Despite
this WA enjoys a number of attributes which
make it a marketable commodity. It has a
great climate, a clean unspoilt environment,
relaxed and friendly people, is a great place
to live, is dynamic and exciting, multicultural, possesses fabulous coastlines and enjoys an
international reputation as an events and
convention location.43 In the development
of Brand WA, it was considered vital that
the core personality of the destination was
clearly de®ned and was re¯ected in all marketing strategies. The core personality elements of Brand WA were de®ned as `Fresh,
natural, free and spirited'. These are the
constants of Western Australia's personality
as a destination and are used in all its promotional campaigns.
Similarly, the `Best on Earth in Perth'
campaign was a marketing strategy speci®cally designed to help overcome negative
perceptions of Perth being quiet. In 1997±
98, Perth hosted 11 major international
events including world championships in
cycling, swimming, aerobics, boardsailing,
sur®ng and round the world sailing. It is
hoped that these events will generate an
international pro®le and will promote Perth
as an `active' rather than a `quiet' destination.
The Brand WA campaign has focused on
direct advertising through newspapers and
television advertising, and also through the
traditional distribution channels of promotional brochures in travel agents. A summary
Table 1: Promotional activities
Year
Activities
1994±95
1995±96
December Ð market research, data collection
Extensive market research analysis, focus groups, interviews, research completion,
development of the brand and the relevant marketing literature
Launch of the brand and promotional campaign into key selected markets:
Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia and Sydney/Melbourne for domestic market.
Aim to establish the brand via the use of key celebrity Elle MacPherson
Brand extension through the `Best on Earth' campaign where major international
events hosted in Perth will be used to gain international exposure for the brand.
Promotional campaigns in Europe, convention market in South East Asia and
promotion of summer festival to increase domestic tourism, interstate and intrastate travel
Continuation and cooperative promotional campaigns. Cooperative tactical
programme, to convert initial exposure into real business
Undertake `Gateway to the Olympics' promotional campaign, continuance of
existing campaign for domestic tourism
1996±97
1997±98
1998±99
1999±2000
Source: Adapted from WATC.
44
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Tourism destination brands and electronic commerce: Towards synergy?
Table 2: Distribution activities
Year
Planned distribution activities
1996±97
Start of three-year strategy to ensure WA is positioned to take advantage of emerging
technologies. Development of fully integrated WA product and destination
information database. Internet facilities enhanced. Commence the use of CDROM marketing tools
Further development of the electronic marketing initiatives: database and input
mechanisms. Develop links to global reservation systems
Commence linkage to key tourist bureaux and regional tourism associations.
Commence replacement of printed material with electronic material where
appropriate. Commence development of integrated local area booking systems in
parallel with information systems
Complete electronic marketing initiative and commence `Ticket to ride' booking
system. Continued development of booking and informational local area systems
Completion of `Ticket to ride' initiative
1997±98
1998±99
1999±2000
45
Source: Adapted from WATC.
of its marketing strategy is presented in
Tables 1 and 2.
It can be seen from Tables 1 and 2 that
there is a strong emphasis on the promotional aspects of the marketing campaign
with a signi®cant number of initiatives and
programmes implemented. The core of these
programmes is based on the extensive market
research undertaken in 1994 and 1995.
The early stages of promotional strategy
emphasise traditional media, but subsequent
stages embrace a three-year programme to
position the state in the electronic marketplace. The WATC will enhance its Internet
capabilities, develop a product and destination database with online update capability,
link to global reservation systems and will
commence use of multimedia facilities to
present motivational information, eg CDROM.
DISCUSSION
At the heart of WATC's electronic strategy
is a database known as `PowerTOUR'. This
will provide a comprehensive tourism information database that can be accessed via the
World Wide Web network by a multitude
of users including WATC staff, tourism operators, regional and metropolitan tourism
associations, tourist bureaux, travel agents,
tour wholesalers and, of course, consumers.46
Page 270
This development follows up the original
plan under the Brand WA strategy to convert awareness into business,47 and the website is written using the logos and imagery
from Brand WA to emphasise the standards
and consistency of the brand. This electronic
initiative will assist suppliers in providing a
consistent destination brand message to potential customers.
At this stage, however, the adoption of
electronic distribution channels throughout
the Western Australian tourism industry has
been very fragmented. This has meant that
the Brand WA campaign has sent out some
potentially con¯icting messages to consumers and electronic media have not signi®cantly contributed to the development of a
strong destination brand. The very strong
promotional campaign using broadcast and
print media has created a strong brand identity in the marketplace, but this has not been
reinforced by a consistent brand strategy
through electronic distribution channels.
While Brand WA was developing, individual
tourism suppliers such as hotel properties and
theme parks were developing their own
websites resulting in a wide proliferation of
web pages among individual suppliers in the
WA tourism industry. As such, consumers
were likely to be overloaded with different
images and con¯icting messages about the
products and services on offer, confusing
Williams and Palmer
potential decision makers at the point of
purchase.
A number of suppliers who were interviewed identi®ed that they had already
developed their own web page to market
their businesses on the Internet. Interviews
with individual tourism operators indicated
that they were often split between allegiance
to their own corporate website and the
website of WATC. For international hotel
chains with locations in Western Australia,
the central website (often located outside
Australia) was a driving force in local
development. One respondent commented
that their chain had invested heavily in
customer loyalty programmes and the
website was seen as a means of providing
information and simpli®ed booking procedures that would keep those customers
within their chain. There was evidence that
the strategy of tourism businesses whose
headquarters were located outside Western
Australia showed greater allegiance to their
corporate websites than to that of WATC.
For example:
`. . . we are part of a global group and we
rely on the expertise of head of®ce to
develop our site and thus market us internationally.'
A further interesting insight into web
development came from the views of smaller
tourism businesses who were not yet connected to the Internet, but who were planning to develop their own web pages in the
near future. The view was frequently repeated that the main reason for the development of a website was to gain market share
in a very competitive market. The current
economic climate of lower visitor arrivals,
particularly from Asia, appeared to have been
in¯uential in developing a spirit of competition, rather than one of cooperation,
between suppliers. It was a common perception among interviewees that the Internet
was a means of gaining presence in potential
new markets, and thus to compete with local
suppliers which had already developed a web
page. For example:
`. . . we cannot stand by and ignore this
new means of advertising while our competitors gain an advantage. We are using it
to keep up with trends.'
`. . . I don't expect much business from a
web page, but I have to have a presence
on there to keep up with my competitors.'
This competitiveness results in potentially
con¯icting messages to consumers; and this
in turn results in a relatively weak destination
brand. A stronger destination brand would
ensue if suppliers worked cooperatively towards the same strategic goal. It would appear that at the time of study, Brand WA
was in the early stages of the lifecycle model
of development proposed earlier. Where individual companies develop their own websites in isolation from the destination brand,
their sites often suggested packages which
take the potential consumer outside WA or a
particular region within WA. For example,
an airline may be just as keen to sell stopovers in other countries as hotels elsewhere
in Australia. In simplifying consumers'
choice, consumers may perceive that it is
easier to satisfy their needs in a geographically dispersed area rather than in one speci®c destination, thus undermining the
destination brand.
`. . . I have developed my own site, with
its own pictures, layout and hotlinks. This
gives me full control over being able to
change it and keep it updated.'
Interestingly, very few of the tourism suppliers interviewed had the technical skills themselves to write web pages using the HTML
language used on the Internet. The promotional information was often given to a
friend or a sub-contractor to design and
update the website on a periodic basis. This
lack of coordination, in terms of standards,
information quality and technical expertise,
suggests a potentially dif®cult time for consumers, who are likely to become confused
with the range of sites and presentation
standards available. This would seem to reaf®rm the premise made that the brand is in
the early stage in electronic commerce
development, and leads to consumer confusion with the proliferation of images.
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Tourism destination brands and electronic commerce: Towards synergy?
A number of other observations can be
made about the potential opportunities for
electronic commerce in Western Australian
tourism. Montgomery48 has noted that the
information superhighway is not living up to
its original expectations of paperless of®ces
and seamless information movement. Technical problems, large amounts of `trash' and
inconsistent interface standards are the root
causes of such perceptions. It is suggested
that until these negative perceptions are
minimised, then future developments, such
as the WATC's destination database, will be
inhibited.
Interviews with three managers of tourism
businesses suggested that full electronic commerce on the Internet was a long way down
the track, due to these perceptions of technical dif®culties (for example, slow access and
breakdowns). However, many felt that a
`presence' was necessary to keep abreast of
technological developments, and to provide
awareness of products, but full electronic
commerce initiatives such as electronic reservations, electronic con®rmations, and
electronic ticketing, which convert the
awareness into business, were several years
away. For example:
`. . . we have seen businesses left behind
because they didn't adopt new ideas, such
as accepting credit cards and providing
satellite television in bedrooms. We don't
see much immediate bene®t of the Internet, but we don't want to be left behind if
it catches on in a big way.'
From the evidence collected for this study, it
appeared that there was a great deal of
reticence of suppliers and scepticism of consumers to become involved in doing business
over the Internet. Any attempt to create a
strong centralised destination brand on the
Internet appeared to be undermined by suppliers `doing their own thing'. The evidence
collected suggests that Western Australia is in
the early stages of the electronic destination
development model proposed earlier.
From this case study, there is evidence that
the next stage of a strong centralised destination brand developed through electronic
media is likely to emerge. It is envisaged that
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with the development of the PowerTOUR
destination database, stage 2 and stage 3 of
WATC's strategy will be reached much
more quickly. The destination database suggests a cooperative investment by a signi®cant proportion of the tourism industry in
the region and has been endorsed by the
principal industry body, the Tourism Council of Australia. The latter represents a large
number of small and medium-sized tourism
businesses in Western Australia. Members
may be ®erce direct competitors to each
other at the local level, but essentially share a
common aim of competing against other
destinations. The Tourism Council recognises the problem of actually implementing a
cooperative programme among members
who may disagree about the content, cost
and format of a shared Internet facility.
For individual businesses, a strong Western
Australia homepage would allow hotlinks to
be developed to their own websites. However, numerous travel information intermediaries have emerged to offer hotlinks from
their homepages. For the individual business,
paying for a hotlink in this way can be considerably cheaper than creating awareness of
their own site which customers log into
directly. Faced with multiple offers of linkages from home pages, individuals must assess the value of paying for those links.
Fortunately, the number of `hits' can be
measured reasonably accurately. With the
development of live booking systems, it is
possible to assess the effectiveness of each
home page in terms of the business that it
generates. During the course of interviews,
it emerged that those businesses that
already had their own websites had been
approached by many Internet providers offering to link their web pages to their own
home site in return for a fee. For a destination website to be viable, it needs to attract
subscriptions from individual businesses
against competition from other Internet
service providers. As evidence of the critical
evaluation that websites will face, one interviewee commented:
`. . . creating a really strong website for
Western Australia is a good idea, but I
Williams and Palmer
would expect it be cost effective for me,
compared to all the other electronic options that are opening up. There are so
many options, I wouldn't know where to
start . . .'
Precedents exist for operators seeing each
other as cooperators as well as competitors.
Companies have joined together throughout
Western Australia to market packages jointly,
which may combine, for example, hotel
accommodation, entry to sports facilities and
vouchers for restaurants. The Internet offers
possibilities for linking together diverse suppliers to provide tailor-made packages within
Western Australia. There was some evidence
of these linkages between operators beginning to emerge; for example, a number of
hotel operators had created hotlinks to nearby golf courses, thereby facilitating the task
of extending visitors' length of stay.
There is perhaps a fear and reluctance by
tourism businesses to embrace electronic initiatives fully, at destination marketing level,
with the admission from the WATC that
`computer based media are becoming more
in¯uential, challenging the mainstream media of television print and radio. This requires
a commitment to the unknown as many of
the future distribution and communication
technologies are yet to be resolved.'49 Their
early reticence was perhaps understandable
but should not be insurmountable with the
investment in the PowerTOUR database.
CONCLUSIONS
This paper has sought to add to the debate
about the effects of the Internet on tourism
destination brands. While many previous
predictions of the impacts of information
technology have proved to be inaccurate, an
analysis of tourists' needs and information
search activity may give some indication of
the likely effects of the Internet. Strong tourism destination brands can help to simplify
consumers' decision-making processes, and
consumers look to the Internet to simplify
their decision-making process for similar reasons that they would use for a travel agent or
seeking the advice of trusted friends.
In Western Australia, it appears that the
main destination marketing body (WATC)
has succeeded in creating a strong centralised
brand identity. However, despite the enormous growth in the use of electronic commerce, the brand is not yet being reinforced
through the Internet. Suppliers have developed their own links to the Internet, which
sends confusing messages to consumers visaÁ-vis the destination brand. As such, the
tourism industry appears to be using the
Internet in a random, disorganised, uncooperative way despite the initiatives of the
Western Australian Tourism Commission,
through Brand WA. The strong brand may
thus be undermined due to a lack of cooperation.
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