Isabelle Cloquet

Looking into the overlooked: incoming tour operators and early tourism development in Gabon

For a few years, Gabon has demonstrated increasing signs of its willingness to develop tourism. This has led a growing number of individuals and/or companies to seek opportunities and invest in the inbound tourism sector. Yet Gabon still presents high barriers to tourism development, resulting in major constraints upon tourism firms. This paper focuses on the particular example of incoming tour operators (ITOs); ITOs play a role in tourism distribution but have received little attention in the literature. This study seeks to better understand their profiles as well as their marketing and channel behaviours in the Gabonese fledgling tourism industry. Based on semi-structured interviews held in 2011–2012 with 11 ITOs in Gabon, the study outcomes show that ITO marketing and channel behaviours were rational and growth-oriented and were influenced by company profiles, demand requirements and the position of power of ITOs in the distribution channel. The accessibility, comfort and reliability of products/suppliers stood out as key factors in the upstream or downstream channel behaviours of ITOs (selection of suppliers vs. selection of customers). Most respondents considered vertical integration as an appropriate strategy to improve the supply channel.

How capital are capital cities on the internet

Capital cities are gateways to countries or sometimes to broader political entities, such as Brussels for the European Union. They are also often major tourist destinations. A capital city has a symbolic value and is the political decision-making centre. Consequently, capital cities are places of power displayed through urban spatial development and often through heritage sites. This paper therefore looks at different capitals – new and old – to examine the use of ‘capitalness’ in their promotion on the Internet. The aim is to determine whether capital cities make a difference, by highlighting particular features and assets which are related to ‘capital tourism’ and the role of the city as national or supranational capital on their websites. More particularly, we examine the way in which these capitals promote tourism and the extent to which being a capital city actually plays a role in the choice of promoted sights and attractions. By means of a comparative study, this paper analyses the websites of capital cities and their ‘capitalness’ in terms of city branding.

Disability, social inclusion and the marketing of tourist attractions

ABSTRACT The participation of persons with a disability (PWDs) in tourism has received growing academic interest in recent years. This paper contributes to a reflection on how accessible tourism relates to the sustainable development paradigm. To investigate this relationship, it goes beyond the question of PWDs’ access to tourism services, and adopts an inclusiveness perspective. Inclusion is examined in terms of legislation, marketing and imagery, and representations of PWDs as consumers embedded within social units – and families in particular. These dimensions are explored empirically in a study of visitor attractions in Cornwall (England) based on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of brochures and websites. The study shows that the marketing materials of Cornish visitor attractions mainly focus on access, and the imagery used largely projects quasi invisibility or provides ambiguous messages. Communication with PWDs rarely addresses the family unit, making the family tourism experience intangible in the pre-trip phase. These results point at weaker implementation of inclusiveness, which corroborates previous findings of watered down definitions of rights to tourism under neo-liberal ideologies and economic crises. The paper discusses implications for social inclusion and highlights avenues for future research.