Annette Pritchard

Destination branding and the role of the stakeholders: The case of New Zealand

Managing a destination brand presents many challenges, and this paper opens by briefly reviewing the destination brand management context. It focuses particularly on the political processes involved in successful brand management and on the vital role of public and private sector stakeholders. Critical to the creation of a durable destination brand is the identification of the brand’s values, the translation of those into a suitably emotionally appealing personality and the targeted and efficient delivery of that message. While this is difficult to achieve in destination marketing, it is not impossible and, having reviewed some of the key issues in brand management, the paper explores the context and creation of the New Zealand brand. It identifies the stakeholders crucial to the delivery of this destination brand and examines the positioning process and the creation of its largely web-driven strategy. The paper suggests that through stakeholder partnerships and the harnessing of non-traditional media, Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) has been able to create a powerful travel destination brand, positioned as an appealing niche player in the global tourism industry. Finally, the paper concludes by suggesting an agenda for future research on destination brand management.

Culture, identity and tourism representation: marketing Cymru or Wales?

Abstract This article attempts to contribute to the development of a critical analysis of tourism representations through an investigation of destination branding strategies. Based on an analysis of the marketing campaigns of the Wales Tourist Board and Welsh local authorities, it argues that the influence of repressive and liberating historical, political and cultural discourses can be discerned in the tourism representations used in contemporary branding strategies and these explain why Wales is differentially branded in its overseas and UK markets. Whilst Wales provides the focus for this discussion of the relationship between discourse, tourism representations and destination marketing, the same analysis could be applied to representations of other tourism destinations.

Privileging the male gaze: Gendered tourism landscapes

Abstract Much of the extant work on gender and tourism concerns employment patterns and sex tourism. However, any feminist analysis of tourism must encompass a critique of gender relations in the production and consumption of tourism experiences and images; this is the central theme of this article. It begins by discussing the gendered nature of society and then reviews work on tourism and gender. It further develops the concept of gendered tourism landscapes and discusses the interrelationship between the language of patriarchy and (hetero)sexuality and the language of tourism promotion. The article concludes that the language and imagery of promotion privileges the male, heterosexual gaze.

On souvenirs and metonymy: narratives of memory, metaphor and materiality.

This article scrutinizes souvenirs as highly significant, but underexplored material objects of contemporary travel and tourism. It adopts a reflexive interpretive approach to explore the relationship between materiality, tourism and constructions of self-identity and examines how individuals reflexively use souvenirs as touchstones of memory, (re)creating polysensual tourism experiences, self-aware of their roles of ‘tourists’. It pays particular attention to the ways in which souvenirs are objects mediating experiences in time and space and argues for more experiential and reflexive study of the roles of materiality and memory in the construction of tourist identities and performances. It concludes by suggesting how further interpretive studies could offer unique insights into how the absorption of souvenirs into the realm of the mundane and the domestic transforms the home space, fusing tourism and contemporary everyday life.

Reaching out to the gay tourist: Opportunities and threats in an emerging market segment.

This article is an exploratory investigation of the emergence of gay tourism. It briefly reviews the emergence of the gay consumer and discusses the development of gay-friendly travel products and destinations. In particular, it details the development of two European gay-friendly destinations, Manchester and Amsterdam, concentrating on the role of gay events and festivals in creating a gay identity for those cities. The articles substantive contribution to the tourism literature is, however, its focus on the importance of space and place to this community. Given that public space is contested, controlled and heterosexualised, the article suggests that whilst there are significant opportunities for tourism marketers to reach out to the gay consumer, the resultant touristification of gay space may ultimately degay spaces and events and erase their essentially gay identities.

In search of lesbian space? The experience of Manchester's Gay Village.

This paper discusses the socio-cultural processes that shape homosexual leisure space, specifically examining the experiences of lesbians. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to the emergent body of tourism research focusing on gendered and sexualized leisure. Its primary contribution to gender tourism research, however, is to provide further support for the conceptualization of leisure processes and spaces as both heterosexist and androcentric. The paper thus begins by briefly discussing the socio-cultural construction of gay space and the powerful dynamics that underpin its emotional geography. It then briefly discusses the studys methodological approach before presenting and discussing the findings of the research conducted with lesbians in Manchesters gay village - one of the UKs first and most successful gay and lesbian quarters. The paper reveals how sexuality and gender combine to constrain womens consumption of public leisure space and suggests that, whilst homosexual spaces have emotional and psychological importance as empowering places in a heterosexual world, in the case of the Manchester gay village, this homosexual space does not empower lesbians because of the homo-patriarchic power dialectics characterizing its socio-cultural construction. The women interviewed in the study do have territorial ambitions in the village - their own space is important to them, it confirms their place in the village and it supports the development of social networks for lesbians in a hostile, hetero-patriarchic world. Yet, it emerges that lesbian space is an exceptionally difficult homosexual space to claim since the more powerful and more established gay male community in that area does not particularly welcome women.

Sexuality and holiday choices: conversations with gay and lesbian tourists

This paper is an exploratory investigation of the travel motivations of gay and lesbian tourists. Based on in-depth interviews and focus groups, it investigates the interrelationships between sexuality, tourism behaviour and tourism spaces. Given that public space is controlled and heterosexualized, the paper suggests that whilst gay and lesbian people are motivated to travel for a range of reasons, such is the power of the dominant heterosexual milieu that their sexuality has a critical impact on their tourism choices. The need for safety, to feel comfortable with like-minded people, and to escape from heterosexism – often to specifically gay spaces – emerge as key influences on their choice of holiday.

Gender-blind marketing: businesswomen's perceptions of airline services

Abstract Todays airlines are competing for an increased share of the lucrative business travel market by means of product enhancement, innovation and concentration on a consumer-orientated approach. This article suggests, however, that the airline industry is failing to effectively cater for businesswomen — the fastest growing segment of the business travel market. Based on telephone interviews, in-depth interviews and focus groups, it argues that although the number of women business travellers has increased dramatically in the 1990s, their needs are not being adequately met by an airline industry which regards the airline experience as a gender-neutral product. Arguing that gender-neutral marketing is framed by the dominant male perspective, the papers substantive contribution to the tourism gender literature is its exploration of the perceived needs of UK male and female business airline travellers; in particular, it discusses womens concerns over the inadequacy of levels of comfort and safety and of sexist staff attitudes. The article concludes that despite some isolated moves to appeal to the female business market, the airline industry as a whole needs to address its currently male-oriented service attitudes and facility provision if it is to more effectively cater for businesswomen.

Mythic Geographies of Representation and Identity: Contemporary Postcards of Wales

This article explores how picture postcards contribute to the cultural production, performance and consumption of landscapes, places and identities. Drawing on cultural and critical studies, it scrutinises the postcard as a cultural text and as a site of cultural production. It begins by briefly reviewing the concepts of ethnicity and identity in relation to its case study country of Wales and suggests how its imagined communities and landscapes have a broad mythical structure that can be mapped across a series of discourses. It then outlines the studys approach to postcard analysis and locates the visual in social science research, confronting issues of interpretation, validity, sampling and reflexivity. The article subsequently presents a discourse analysis of a dozen contemporary Welsh-produced postcards from the archives of the National Library of Wales. In particular, it navigates the visual narratives that are privileging particular stories of place, culture and nationhood and analyses what is being invoked to epitomise contemporary Wales and what is being set aside in these postcard representations. It suggests these visual texts reflect an internal re-mapping of Wales that is celebrating the capital city of Cardiff as its metropolitan cultural core and marginalising alternative imagined communities of Wales, redefining them through spectacle and theatricality. Finally, the article concludes by suggesting how further analysis of such visual touristic texts could offer insights into the cultural production and consumption of identities, landscapes, and places.

In search of lesbian space? The experience of Manchester's gay village

This paper discusses the socio-cultural processes that shape homosexual leisure space, specifically examining the experiences of lesbians. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to the emergent body of tourism research focusing on gendered and sexualized leisure. Its primary contribution to gender tourism research, however, is to provide further support for the conceptualization of leisure processes and spaces as both heterosexist and androcentric. The paper thus begins by briefly discussing the socio-cultural construction of gay space and the powerful dynamics that underpin its emotional geography. It then briefly discusses the studys methodological approach before presenting and discussing the findings of the research conducted with lesbians in Manchesters gay village - one of the UKs first and most successful gay and lesbian quarters. The paper reveals how sexuality and gender combine to constrain womens consumption of public leisure space and suggests that, whilst homosexual spaces have emotional and psychological importance as empowering places in a heterosexual world, in the case of the Manchester gay village, this homosexual space does not empower lesbians because of the homo-patriarchic power dialectics characterizing its socio-cultural construction. The women interviewed in the study do have territorial ambitions in the village - their own space is important to them, it confirms their place in the village and it supports the development of social networks for lesbians in a hostile, hetero-patriarchic world. Yet, it emerges that lesbian space is an exceptionally difficult homosexual space to claim since the more powerful and more established gay male community in that area does not particularly welcome women.