Tourism Destination

TOURISM DESTINATION A tourism destination, as opposed to its origin, refers to a place where tourists intend to spend their time when they are away from home. Destinations can be a location, a collection of several destinations that form a tour or even a moving destination (ex: cruise ship. Tourism destinations are increasingly being eyed by governments and academics. In one case, there are more and more institutions that promote and coordinate tourism destinations, a large budget to finance the promotion and development of tourism destinations, and complex and different forms of tourism activity involvement, depending on whether these institutions have a public or private sector focus. (Cho (2000) suggests that there are five elements that influence the attractiveness of a tourism destination: • Tourist Attraction, in the form of nature (scenery, climate, beaches), Buildings (historical sites, recreational parks), culture (museums, art galleries) and social (interaction with local residents) • Facility, in the form of accommodation, transportation, F&B, entertainment, shopping areas, and information centers. • Accessibility, how easy it is for tourists to get to the tourist destination • Image, in the form of tourists' views and impressions of a tourist destination, is an important aspect in tourism marketing. • Price: varies depending on the type and services (accommodation, transportation, activities. Price can also characterize the type of tourist destination and the attractiveness of various tourist destinations). Several models have also been presented to make tourist destination choices (‘Crompton’s destination-choice model’). These models usually incorporate aspects related to travelers, including their motivational factors, the external stimuli they receive (ex: tourism marketing), and the structure of the decision-making itself. Some models also explain the development of tourist destinations from various perspectives, including modifications of spatial relationships, changes in visitors’ psychological needs and evolutionary cycles (Prideaux, 2000). This perspective includes Butler’s model (‘Butler’s model (tourism destination life cycle)’ and Prideaux’s model (‘Prideaux’s spectrum of resort development’). Competition between tourism destinations is an important issue in the tourism market. Competitiveness is related to the maintenance of cultural and historical heritage, the preservation of environmental attractions, and the increase in the number of operators and the ability to sell tourism products that have added value, increasing customer satisfaction through satisfying experiences at the destination. citing (Dwyer et al., 2014). For a tourism destination to compete in the tourism market, it must have a comparative advantage, this term refers to the presence of natural and/or artificial resources in the destination, and a competitive advantage, a term that refers to the destination’s ability to use these resources effectively (Ritchie and Crouch, 2000; Dwyer and Kim, 2003). Every tourism destination is faced with political, economic, natural, social or technological changes. Currently, the travel and tourism sector is experiencing crises and disasters involving terrorism, economic instability, pandemics (ex: Covid19) and natural disasters (Calgaroa et al., 2014). According to Ghaderi and Henderson (2013), tourism destinations must be prepared for disasters and crises: such incidents usually discourage people from traveling to the destination due to lack of self-protection. Lack of management and natural disasters can create negative opinions and give a negative image to the tourism destination.