Rahul Pratap Singh Kaurav, Ruturaj Baber, Nimit Chowdhary & Shakir Kapadia
Abstract:
There is a huge gap in defining the core concept of destination, performance and its marketing / management organisation. This review paper intends to study the aforesaid gap and aid the concept in defining it from different perspectives. The chosen study also highlights the burning need of researchers and students alike in serving the definitional aspect from the literature point of view. The main focus is however on the gaps between defining Destination, Destination Performance and Destination Management / Marketing Organisations (DMOs). We bring in the literature review to define the concepts for today’s scholars as transfiguring for the current tourism industry. In considering the factors affecting the performance of a destination, the research considered eight specific variables i.e., revenue generation, employment generation, investment in tourism-related business, development of basic infrastructure, cultural exchange between tourists and host communities, increasing number of parks and recreational facilities, intra-generational equity and inter-generational equity. These variables were chosen on the merits that make a destination successful in the true sense. The findings also bring insights from the tourism industry to understand better all the key stakeholders. The definitions and model derived can be a supporting pillar for planners and managers of DMOs in crafting a suitable strategy to obtain a better performance from all stakeholders. The main significance of the findings is to help various government departments, agencies, consultancies and NTOs who can visualise and actively use these definitions for policy planning and implementation. This is also a step forward towards regaining the importance of destination with performance, management, marketing and organisation.
Keywords: Destination, destination management, destination performance, DMOs