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Best Practice in Destination Marketing Symposium
February 27, 2019 @ 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Announcing the 6th Sheffield Business School ‘Best Practice in Destination Marketing Symposium’ to be held on Wednesday 27th February 2019, Eric Mensforth Building, Room 3021, Sheffield Hallam University, 14.00 – 17.00.
To book on this event visit our Eventbrite page
Contemporary Challenges for Destination Marketing
The annual Destination Marketing Symposia* held at Sheffield Hallam are free events aimed at students, academics and practitioners. This year’s symposium examines the challenges for destination marketing which relate to a range of issues linked with a destination’s external macro environmental factors, competitive forces, resource management, product development, branding, and differentiation. Destinations are widely acknowledged as being both pivotal to the tourism system and extremely complex products which are difficult to market and manage effectively. In remaining competitive, destinations are faced with many challenges associated with increasing visitor numbers and expenditure, providing satisfying, memorable experiences that link key brand values and assets with the aspirations and needs of target markets, while enhancing the well-being of destination residents and preserving their natural capital.
One of the key challenges associated with the scale of the product is the fragmentation of ownership and the lack of overall control which can undermine the implementation of a strategic approach to marketing the destination as an entity. As such, destination marketing organisations (DMOs) play a critical role as a unifying force in relation to harnessing the component parts of the product, forging partnerships and alliances and both co-ordinating and representing stakeholders. Most tourism destination products are not unique and competitive advantage requires innovation and creativity to survive and grow in an increasingly global and dynamic market, but innovation is linked with uncertainty, risk, cost and potential for failure. In a destination context, effective leadership is therefore critical for ensuring that brand values extend through both strategic relationship building and consistent communication with stakeholders.
At this year’s symposium, we have presentations from three eminent speakers: Dr Philip Stone from the University of Central Lancashire, Chris Brown, Director of Marketing Liverpool and Professor John Lennon from Glasgow Caledonian University; they will provide valuable insights into the challenges for destination marketing from a range of perspectives. Students, academics and practitioners are welcome to attend this free event. Please reserve your place here!
* The annual symposium was awarded the 2015 ATHE (Association for Tourism in Higher Education) ‘Making the Case’ Award for a Teaching Project, which is sponsored by VisitEngland http://athe.org.uk/prize-awards/
Programme
14.00-14.10: ‘Welcome and Introduction’, Peter Schofield, Professor of Tourism and Services Management, Sheffield Business School.
14.10-14.50: ‘Managing dark tourism and ‘difficult heritage’: challenges and consequences’, Dr. Philip Stone, Executive Director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR), University of Central Lancashire.
14.50-15.30: ‘Keeping destination marketing relevant‘, Chris Brown, Director of Marketing Liverpool.
15.30-16.10: ”Understanding the success of the North Coast 500: Scotland’s most successful tourist route’, Professor John Lennon, Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development, Glasgow Caledonian University.
16.10-16.30: Questions from the audience and closing comments.
16.30-17.00: Coffee and networking.
Biographies
Philip Stone is founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Dark Tourism Research (iDTR) at the University of Central Lancashire [UCLan]. He is internationally recognised in the field of ‘dark tourism and difficult heritage’ having presented keynotes at conferences across the UK and continental Europe, North America, Asia, and Australasia. Dr Stone also acts as a Media Consultant to over thirty national and international print and broadcast media outlets, including BBC TV & Radio, CNN, Der Spiegel, The New York Times, Huffington Post, The Guardian, and the New Scientist. He has a PhD in Thanatology and has published extensively in the area of dark tourism and difficult heritage, including The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism (2009); Tourist Experience: Contemporary Perspectives (2011); The Contemporary Tourist Experience: Concepts and Consequences (2012) and The Palgrave Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies (2018). His forthcoming books will be Dark Tourism and Difficult Heritage: Childhood Encounters and The Business of Dark Tourism: Managing Difficult Heritage.
Chris Brown is a graduate of the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and having worked in a number of Hotels as a General Manager he changed course to work in destination management in 1999. Initially he worked for five years at The Mersey Partnership as Director of Tourism, Director of Operations and interim Chief Executive before taking the role of Chief Executive at Marketing Cheshire, formerly Visit Chester and Cheshire, in 2004.
He returned back to Liverpool in 2013 to establish Marketing Liverpool and to promote the city as a first-class destination for visitors, investors and students. Chris is also responsible with its key partners in promoting the Liverpool brand nationally and internationally. He is a keen follower of all things Scotland and continues a long held ambition to finally see the country win something.
John Lennon is the Dean of Glasgow School for Business and Society, Glasgow Caledonian University www.gcu.ac.uk/gsbs/ and is responsible for the management and leadership of 170 academic staff and the education of over 5,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. Professor Lennon is the also Director of the Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development which is responsible for the production of international consumer and market research in tourism. The Moffat Centre funds scholarships for students wishing to study Travel and Tourism www.moffatcentre.com. Since 1999 over £1,000,000 worth of scholarships has been awarded to students of travel and tourism. In the commercial sector of travel and tourism John has undertaken over 700 tourism and travel projects in over 50 nations on behalf of private sector and public sector clients. John is the author of seven books and over 80 articles and numerous reports on the global hospitality, travel and tourism industry.
Peter Schofield is Professor of Tourism and Services Management at Sheffield Hallam University. He was educated at universities in Manchester and New York, and is a founder member of the International Academy of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research. Peter has published extensively in, and reviewed for, a range of international journals. Before entering academia, he worked as an airport operations manager in San Diego and Manchester. His main research and consultancy interests are in consumer decision making, disordered gambling and shopping behaviour, destination and events marketing, and service failure and recovery. His work has informed government, DMO and hotel management decision making in relation to tourism development, destination marketing and customer services.