M.Sc in Marketing Management
INDEPENDENT STUDΥ “Athens as an international tourism destination: An empirical investigation to the city’s imagery and the role of local DMO’s.” SPYROS LANGOS ID: 100285557
Supervisor: Mr. George Roumeliotis Athens, September 2014 Academic Year 2013 – 2014
“Athens as an international tourism destination: An empirical investigation to the city’s imagery and the role of local DMO’s.”
The aim of this project was to identify the role of DMOs in promoting Athens as a tourist destination, as well as to evaluate their effectiveness in terms of marketing and managing the tourist product of Athens, its popularity and imagery.
“ Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”
Gustave Flaubert
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS
5.1 Conclusions The aim of this dissertation, was to evaluate the contribution of Athens DMO’s towards the rising popularity of the city of Athens as an international destination within the context of Destination Marketing. More specifically, the dissertation had the following objectives: 1. To identify the activities which are performed by DMOs for promoting Athens and to evaluate the strategic role of DMO’s. 2. To identify the importance of destination marketing through its application in the Greek Tourism Industry and the particular case of Athens. 3. To portrait the opinions and activity planning of Greek DMO’s Executives, who are considered to be experts in the tourism field. 4. To provide insights and new trends of high informational value about the Tourism Industry in Athens. 5. To highlight the latest incentives and programming concerning the city’s future developments. 6. To identify the key problems that Athens face as a tourist destination and to recommend points for improvement from the DMOs perspective.
First of all, the results of this study indicated that DMOs are playing a crucial role for the promotion of Athens as a tourist destination. More specifically, DMOs key responsibilities include: the promotion of Athens with the use of audiovisual media, development of sophisticated online marketing strategies, creation of high quality published material; participation in international tourism fairs for developing relationships with key stakeholders, development of network synergies with airline companies, and DMOs from other countries, production of promotional products such as umbrellas, bags, blocks, postcards and other souvenirs and conduction of market research studies for evaluating the current activities and designing future actions.
Athens is a destination with great potential for future growth and for that reason DMOs have design certain plans for the next three years in order to exploit the opportunities which are presented. The future plans of the DMOs give particular emphasis in the opening in new tourist markets and more particularly in the markets of Russia, Turkey China, and USA. Besides, DMOs will focus in five forms of tourism which can be developed successfully in Athens, namely: 1) cultural tourism, 2) health tourism, 3) luxury tourism, 4) city break tourism, and 5) convention tourism. Other future activities planned from the DMOs involve the increased participation in international tourism fairs, and sponsorships in selected events in Greece and abroad.
On the other hand, the executives of the DMOs underlined several problems which prevent the tourism development of Athens. The majority of these problems are related with the business environment in Greece which has become less competitive due to the crisis. In more details, the Greek state has imposed strict taxation to increase public revenues. The strict taxation has influenced the operation of tourism enterprises in Athens and for that reason, several DMOs have proposed to the Greek government several tax reforms which will help tourism businesses to increase their competitiveness. Besides, Athens as a destination faces the problems of seasonality, the vast majority of the tourists visit the city between June and September.
However, the region has the potential to attract visitors during the whole year and DMOs should work towards this direction. It is indicative that Grzinic and Saftic (2012) and ECOTEC (2010) also underlined the capability of DMOs to reduce seasonality and increase substantially tourist revenues in a destination.
Other problems which were revealed from the research were the missing infrastructures of Athens. In more details, Athens needs: a) more high quality hotels,
b)
improvements
in
the
public
transportation
system,
c) a better connection of the city canter with the coastal front of the city, d) redevelopment of the beachfront of the city with the construction of large pedestrian zones, coffee shops, restaurants, etc.
e) completion of the
projects of the new Lyrical Stage, the redevelopment of the city center supervised by Onassis Foundation and the metropolitan park at the area of the old airport.
Finally, one other key recommendation which were mentioned from the executives of the DMOs was the establishment of University departments such as the Department of Economics and Tourism Administration. The functioning of these faculties will help in the overall improvement of the quality of tourism in the country as well as in the instilling of a culture of hospitality in the executives of tourism.
DMOs are aware of their strategic role and have established strong and long term relationships with DMOs in foreign countries. These partnerships allow the Greek DMOs to be updated concerning the trends of the global tourism market as well as to enhance the movement of tourists between cooperating countries. In the same length, the collaboration between public and private DMOs in Greece is satisfactory. Nevertheless, the promotion of Athens requires a more concerted effort between the public and the private stakeholders which are involved in the tourism industry. The benefits will be multiplied for businesses, the state and the society in general.
The results of this study were in agreement with the findings of Grzinic and Saftic (2012), Angela (2010) and Buhalis (2001). More specifically, authors such as Grzinic and Saftic (2012) and Angela (2010) also underlined the vital role of DMOs in promoting a destination and especially in: ensuring adequate related infrastructure, achieve a coordinated offer between the involved stakeholders, decrease seasonality, provide and promote institutional support of tourist development (Grzinic and Saftic, 2012) and strengthen the local economy (Angela 2010). Concurring, Buhalis (2001) claims that DMOs for promoting efficiently a tourist destination should promote collaboration between state and public tourism organizations, target new markets, invest in alternative tourism – such as cultural, city break, health and congress tourism and provide sufficient support, not only financial, to local tourism enterprises.
5.2 Suggestions for further research In relevance with the limitations of the project which were presented in the third chapter, suggestions for further research include the following points:
I.
Since the sample of the study was limited, future studies can conduct more personal interviews with executives of other DMOs.
II.
The sample included only managers who were working in DMOs. Other papers can conduct interviews also with tourists, tourism consultants, and tourism entrepreneurs.
III.
The dissertation was based only in Athens. Future projects can investigate the role of the DMOs in the promotion of other destinations. or/and to compare the role of the DMOs in different destinations.
IV.
Other papers can also use quantitative research approaches that will allow the measurement of the discussed issues.
5.3 Personal Reflection To determine the best practices in experiential learning, it is necessary to first define experiential learning. In the words of Lewis and Williams (1994): “In its simplest form, experiential learning means learning from experience or learning by doing. Experiential education first immerses learners in an experience and then encourages reflection about the experience to develop new skills, new attitudes, or new ways of thinking.”
The first theories of experiential learning arose in the mid-nineteenth century as attempts to move away from traditional formal education, where teachers simply presented students with abstract concepts, and toward an immersive method of instruction. Students would “learn by doing,” applying knowledge to experience
in
order
to
develop
skills
or
new
ways
of
thinking
(Lewis & Williams, 1994).
Experiential learning is also built upon a foundation of interdisciplinary and constructivist learning. Experiential methodology doesn’t treat each subject as being walled off in its own room, unconnected to any other subjects. Compartmentalized learning doesn’t reflect the real world, while as the experiential classroom works to create an interdisciplinary learning experience that mimics real world learning (Wurdinger, 2005).
Similarly “experiential learning is aligned with the constructivist theory of learning” in that the “outcomes of the learning process are varied and often unpredictable” and “learners play a critical role in assessing their own learning” (Wurdinger, 2005). How one student chooses to solve a problem will be different from another student, and what one student takes away from an experience will be different from the others.
This following part aims at describing the personal thoughts and critical statements that emerged during the composition of this dissertation. The composition of the theoretical framework has thoroughly been developed in connection with the dissertations objective statement.
Many scientific articles, relevant literature and previous research on topic have been systematically read and analyzed in order to gain understanding of the research phenomenon. The chosen theories are related to destination management and contribute to a thorough analysis and deeper understanding of different tourism aspects of Athens. The author gained even more understanding by using the theoretical framework when performing interviews with relevant actors.
Reflecting on the experiences of this thesis, it is realized that I am reflecting on a journey, my personal journey into the world of destination marketing. Like any journey, some of the most memorable experiences come from side trips that take us out of our comfort zones, changing us forever.
Concerning the whole process of the dissertation, it should be noted that in overall was very intriguing and exciting. Generally, I liked learning about the destination marketing disciplinary and the Greek tourism market, as I find this specific subject an ongoing challenge for today’s local marketers in this new era of changes and visitors shifting behaviors.
All the information that I read around the topic, was of great value and aligned with today’s tourist “trends” on the scientific field. I liked the independent study as it had more tasks to fulfill & demanded my academic view and critique of things.
The interviewees represent different fields of the dissertation's topic, though interconnected within the subject of matter. The discussions in form of personal meetings allowed to gain insights into the perspectives of the different actors, hence approaching from a different angle.
The communication with the interviewees provided certain information that would have definitely been hard go get from merely examining the respective scientific articles and literature, as it is taken from direct experience. The aim of this dissertation is to evaluate theory and practice in the field of DMO’s. The theoretical framework as well as the information gained from the interviewees were very informative and useful.
To allow for some degree participant-led responses but also compensate for my lack of research experience, I decided on semi-structured interviews. After I had revised my questionnaire and skeletal interview script several times, and conducted a couple of practice runs with friends, I was ready to undertake my interviews. The interviews generally went more smoothly as I went along. I probably also relaxed a little more with every interview as I gained more experience and got closer to completing the research.
The most demanding and time-consuming requirement of the access arrangement was that of transcribing all interviews. The challenge was to choose which data I would use, and to put it together in a way that was both interesting and engaging, to produce a unique “product�.
As I conducted
more and more interviews, developed my theoretical structure, and reflected on what I had observed, I became more and more confident in my interpretation of events and behaviors as I understood them.
In interviewing, I usually found no difficulty in getting people to talk. The issue was rather, moving from the "warming up" phase of the interview to the serious business of the interview, which I expected would provide "good data" as well as "good conversation�. Since all interviews had to be transcribed, the challenge was to keep them short without sacrificing rapportbuilding conversation. I tried to conduct interviews in an open ended style, to allow the possibility of pursuing areas of inquiry that were significant to the individual. The coordination of interviews became a much more timeconsuming and challenging task.
Confidentiality had been a serious issue from the time of negotiating access, particularly in the conduct of interviews. My consciousness of the need for confidentiality grew stronger as I conducted more interviews. It became clear to me that people were taking a risk in talking to me, at least in their view. They needed constant reassurance that what they shared with me would remain confidential. At the same time, I had to acknowledge that I had only stepped into their world for a short time, and only to the extent to which they granted me admittance.
The conclusions of this dissertation is not generalized universally, as one of the aims is to investigate what factors that characterize Athens travel patterns that occur within local DMO context and framework. While reflecting on the experience of writing a thesis, I came to the realization that I truly enjoyed this process, at least most of it. I am the type of person who loves to learn and always seeks to obtain more knowledge in and out of the classroom. I am especially passionate about learning things that pertain to my major and my future career in the marketing sector.
I spent many hours doing this project, but through it I learned that, if I set goals, I can achieve anything. As I reflect upon what I learned, that was most valuable, I think it was truly seeing that persistence pays. I learned that I can achieve more than often I think I can, so just push myself. I have not always pushed myself, but, in this instance, I enjoyed the challenge and felt driven to do as well as I could. I learned that when I enjoy what I am doing, it is much easier for me to excel.
In overall it was a very interesting “trip� for me, as I gained new colleagues, partners and business friends to share my academic and personal thoughts. The research helped to maintain a study focus and encouraged me to have participation, through questions and answers.
Concerning this reflection, I would like to state that Mr. Roumeliotis's feedback and guidance, upon my project was sufficient enough to point out clearly which parts of my dissertation where adequate and which not. I gained an insight which I think made me untwist understanding upon the subject of my thesis. I can now look back and realize that this experience has helped me both as a student and as a young professional. Research and writing skills are not only valued in an academic setting, but also in the marketing sector as well. I now feel much more confident in my writing abilities and research skills.
Additionally, working under my Supervising Professor, has given me the opportunity to develop a mentor/mentee relationship with a professional of the travel industry. Overall, I feel that this has been both a valuable and enjoyable experience and I now feel prepared and excited for my upcoming academic and career years.