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Demarketing
underconstruction
“Marketing, the management of demand, plays an important role in sustaining tourism by channelling tourists to more resilient places, and visitor management can be used to ‘select or deselect tourists, control their flows and influence their behaviour through promotion and education’ (Liu, 2003:463)”.
Demarketing can be used to discourage visitors in order to reduce negative impacts – as with marketing there is a range of methods available from price rises to reducing promotional activity and spreading the word that the quality of the experience has deteriorated to discourage visitors. Demarketing was successfully used at Sissinghurst Garden in Kent (Benfield 2001) by marketing the garden as a place where you would need to wait some time to gain admission with a timed ticket. Sissinghurst had for a range of reasons, some within the control of the National Trust and others not, been over-marketed and they had failed to market the garden within its carrying capacity.
When preparign the tourism plan for the World Heritage Site at Puerto Princesa on Palawan in the Philippines we discouraged visitors to the fragile zones of the National Park simply by removing the attractions to be found there from the maps.
De-marketing involves manipulating the 4Ps of the marketing mix. It is a major step, so managers must consider the situation carefully before deciding to take it. In the case of cultural heritage sites or protected landscapes, this would involve:
- Product: restricting the number of entrance tickets sold per day or per hour;
- Price: increasing prices to restrict those who can afford to visit;
- Place: restricting group visits or packages at peak periods of the day / season;
- Promotion: reduce the amount of promotional material and channels.
The use of price-related de-marketing has obvious ethical considerations. “[t]o be able to use price to limit the number of visitors requires that consumption should be excludable – only those who pay can benefit from the visitor experience. But this is frequently deemed undesirable in the case of natural resources or the historical and cultural artefacts of a country, either because they are public goods, so that it is not practical to exclude consumption, or because they are merit goods whereby it is to the benefit of society that consumption should be encouraged”. Cooper et al (2008:331)
Limitations of demarketing
- changing the established behaviour and preferences of tourists, tour operators, guides and coach companies is a major task
- more difficult to reduce overall demand than to channel it to other times or similar places - first-time visitors and many repeat visitors will prioritise the honeypot places
- may reduce demand for some businesses and they may be local voters
- raising prices will impact of local users and domestic visitors
Once visitors are at the site their behaviour can be influenced and managed by guidelines and codes of conduct, guides and interpretation.
Beeton and Benfield (see below) have examples from Italy, Sissinghurst in the UK, and Australia.
Beeton, Sue, and Richard Benfield. "Demand control: The case for demarketing as a visitor and environmental management tool." Journal of Sustainable Tourism 10, no. 6 (2002): 497-513. Available online
Benfield, R. W. "Good things come to those who wait–Demarketing Sissinghurst Castle Garden, Kent for sustainable mass tourism." In TTRA Annual Conference Proceedings, pp. 226-234. Boulder, CO: Travel and Tourism Research, 2000.
Cooper, C., Fletcher, J., Fyall, A., Gilbert, D. & Wanhill, S. (2008) Tourism: Principles and Practice. Prentice Hall.
Liu, Zhenhua (2003) Sustainable tourism development : a critique . Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 11 (6). pp. 459-475.
Medway, Dominic, Gary Warnaby, and Sheetal Dharni. "Demarketing places: Rationales and strategies." Journal of Marketing Management 27, no. 1-2 (2010): 124-142.
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- Marketing/Post-pandemic Tourism Marketing
DESTINATIONS ADOPTING ‘DEMARKETING’ STRATEGY AGAINST OVERTOURISM
Overtourism was a phenomenon that caused major problems to some of the most famous destinations around the world before the pandemic and it is destined to do so even after the state of ‘normalcy’ returns.
But how exactly can destinations fight against overtourism? Some regions are now adopting a new strategy in order to combat the problem.
The ‘Demarketing’ Strategy
This is the so-called ‘demarketing’ strategy which dates back to the 1970s when anti-smoking and alcohol ads began to appear . It consists of setting up advertising actions to dissuade the public from consuming a product.
In tourism, the idea is to show a tourism destination the way they really are, but also to adopt a strategy of silence. To avoid overcrowding, the destinations stop promoting certain popular locations.
The Involvement of the Locals
Recently, citizens and nature conservationists have been putting pressure on the economic players in tourism to fight against overtourism by implementing demarketing campaigns.
The inhabitants of Venice and Barcelona, for example, got very involved. This made it possible to put measures in place.
When the local population becomes hostile towards tourists, it creates significant conflicts. The city of Amsterdam understood this and decided to include the inhabitants in its tourism reflection. This is why coffee shops along with the red-light district may soon be banned for tourists.
The Pandemic Effect
Paradoxically, however, the phenomenon of overtourism is not only tied to the pre-pandemic era, but also to the current tourism environment.
Many people have chosen to visit places which they thought are not as frequent, but the problem is, that almost everyone had the same idea at the same time, which saw some communities overwhelmed by crowds of tourists.
Is It Really the Only Way to Go?
Experts suggest that the demarketing strategy against overtourism is not sustainable, because the players in the sector need tourists to survive.
The best model seems to be that of slow marketing and thus encouraging tourists to take their take. It is necessary to rethink the way we try and put an end to tourist overconsumption, but it must be done by educating tourists so that they behave more responsibly.
A good example of this could be a natural park in Wyoming in the United States which encourages visitors not to mention the place where they are on social media. Generally, however, it is necessary that all actors, institutional as well as private, participate in this shift.
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Overtourism: a growing global problem
Researcher, Lecturer and Consultant in Tourism, Ostelea - School of Tourism and Hospitality
Lecturer, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics, Monash University
Professor of Tourism and International Development, University of Brighton
Disclosure statement
Claudio Milano is team member of a consortium of researchers led by Prof. Paul Peeters (NHTV), which is the recipient of European Parliament's funding to study Over-Tourism in the EU. Claudio is also co-editor with Joseph M. Cheer and Marina Novelli of (1) Overtourism: Excesses, Discontents and Measures in Travel and Tourism (To be published by CABI International in 2019) and (2) Special Issue on overtourism in the journal Tourism Planning & Development (Taylor & Francis)(2019).
Joseph M. Cheer is board member of the International Geography Union (IGU) Commission on Tourism and Leisure and Global Change and Steering Committee Member, Critical Tourism Studies Asia-Pacific. He has received Australian government research funding. Joseph is also co-editor with Claudio Milano and Marina Novelli of (1) Overtourism: Excesses, Discontents and Measures in Travel and Tourism (To be published by CAB International in 2019) and (2) Special Issue on overtourism in the journal Tourism Planning & Development (Taylor & Francis)(2019).
Marina is team member of a consortium of researchers led by Prof. Paul Peeters (NHTV), which is the recipient of European Parliament's funding to study Over-Tourism in the EU. Marina is also co-editor with Claudio Milano and Joseph Cheer of (1) Overtourism: Excesses, Discontents and Measures in Travel and Tourism (To be published by CAB International in 2019) and (2) Special Issue on overtourism in the journal Tourism Planning & Development (Taylor & Francis)(2019).
Monash University provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.
Universitat de Lleida provides funding as a member of The Conversation ES.
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The summer holidays are in full swing – and protests against overtourism have begun ( yet again ) in a number of popular European cities. Overtourism is not a new problem.
Barcelona , in particular, is at the centre of these mounting concerns about the rapid growth of tourism in cities, especially during peak holiday periods. In fact, Destination Barcelona estimates that there were 30m overnight visitors in 2017, compared to a resident population of 1,625,137 .
But across southern Europe protests and social movements are growing in number. This has led to the formation of organisations such as the Assembly of Neighborhoods for Sustainable Tourism (ABTS) and the Network of Southern European Cities against tourism (SET) . They are at the forefront of the fight against overtourism and the impact it has on local residents.
While many tourists want to “live like a local” and have an authentic and immersive experience during their visit, the residents of many tourism-dependent destinations are seeing the unique sense of place that characterised their home towns vanish beneath a wave of souvenir shops, crowds, tour buses and rowdy bars. They are also suffering as local amenities and infrastructure are put under enormous strain.
It is a truly global issue. Other destinations where overtourism has reached disruptive proportions include Palma de Mallorca , Paris , Dubrovnik , Kyoto , Berlin , Bali and Reykjavik . Recently, Thai authorities were forced to act when the number of tourists visiting Maya Bay , the beach made famous by Danny Boyle’s film The Beach, led to shocking environmental damage .
What does overtourism look like?
We define overtourism “as the excessive growth of visitors leading to overcrowding in areas where residents suffer the consequences of temporary and seasonal tourism peaks, which have enforced permanent changes to their lifestyles, access to amenities and general well-being”. The claim is that overtourism is harming the landscape, damaging beaches, putting infrastructure under enormous strain, and pricing residents out of the property market. It is a hugely complex issue that is often oversimplified.
It can have an impact in multiple ways . The international cruise industry, for example, delivers thousands of passengers daily to destination ports. While comparatively little is returned to communities, cruise activity creates physical and visual pollution .
City residents also bear the cost of tourism growth . As cities transform to cater for tourists, the global travel supply chain prospers. This coincides with increasing property speculation and rising costs of living for local communities. AirBnB, for example, has been accused of reducing housing affordability and displacing residents.
Amsterdam wants to take direct action to prevent this by banning short-term rentals and directing cruise passengers away from the city centre. AirBnB is also making efforts to address the problems they are accused of creating.
Things are made worse by the fact that key destinations are mostly unprepared to deal with overtourism. According to the Italian sociologist Marco d’Eramo , in 1950 just 15 destinations were visited by 98% of international tourists, while in 2007 this had decreased to 57%. This indicates the rapid expansion of global tourism beyond established destinations.
Overcrowding and the establishment of typical tourism-focused businesses, such as clubs, bars and souvenir shops, overwhelm local businesses – and rowdy and unmanageable tourist behaviour is common. This diminishes the unique ambience of destinations and leads to crowd and waste management pressures.
Clearly, tourism brings jobs, investment and economic benefits to destinations. But overtourism occurs when tourism expansion fails to acknowledge that there are limits. Local government and planning authorities have so far been powerless to deal with the overwhelming influence of the global tourism supply chain. This has led to widespread “ tourist-phobia ” – first described by Manuel Delgado more than a decade ago as a mixture of repudiation, mistrust and contempt for tourists.
Dealing with overtourism
Dealing with overtourism must now be a priority. But despite the mounting howls of protest, tourism promotion endures – and unsustainable hordes of tourists continue to descend on cities, beaches and other natural wonders.
Managing the flow of tourists seems an improbable and unwelcome task. But some cities have taken drastic measures to limit the effects of overtourism, including the introduction of new or revised taxation arrangements, fines linked to new local laws, and “demarketing” , whereby destinations focus on attracting fewer, high-spending and low impact tourists, rather than large groups.
But it’s a fine line to tread. If tourist arrivals to a destination decline suddenly and dramatically it would likely have considerable economic repercussions for those who rely on them.
Overtourism is a shared responsibility . City administrators and destination managers must acknowledge that there are definite limits to growth . Prioritising the welfare of local residents above the needs of the global tourism supply chain is vital. Prime consideration must be given to ensuring that the level of visitation fits within a destination’s capacity.
The global tourism supply chain also bears a major responsibility. It must ensure that product development achieves a balance between the optimal tourist experience and a commensurate local benefit. Tourists must also play their part by making travel choices that are sensitive to the places they visit and those who live in and around them.
Tourism should be part of the wider destination management system, which must also consider transport and mobility, the preservation of public spaces, the local economy and housing, among other aspects of daily life. Research, planning and a close and ongoing dialogue between city administrators, the tourism industry, civil society groups and local residents are essential.
Perhaps overtourism is a symptom of the present era of unprecedented affluence and hyper mobility, a consequence of late capitalism. We need to urgently rethink the way cities are evolving to uphold the rights of their residents.
- Overtourism
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Overtourism as Destination Risk
ISBN : 978-1-83909-707-2 , eISBN : 978-1-83909-706-5
Publication date: 13 May 2021
The growing tensions related to overtourism and its influences, such as environmental harm to nature and residents' well-being, loss of authenticity and visitors' satisfaction, have triggered a rethinking of destination marketing strategies. Many destinations consider stricter measures to cope with this situation. Among others, demarketing initiatives, which aim at discouraging demand, are discussed as an alternative strategic orientation. Demarketing is not a new concept, but in complex tourism destinations with many attractions, stakeholders and tourists, its potential remains mostly unexplored. This chapter presents findings from two tourism destinations: one on a national scale, New Zealand, and one on a regional scale, the Lofoten Islands, Norway. Our results show that destination demarketing mix strategies are emphasised by both destinations. In an overtourism situation, it is surprising that general demarketing has limited relevance. Instead, we find evidence for a mix of mainly selective demarketing, but also synchromarketing initiatives (redistributing demand spatially and temporally) and counter-marketing efforts (tourists' code of conduct). Decisions related to the implementation of a demarketing mix depend not only on destination management in general, but also on long-term, sustainability-oriented and dynamic processes where stakeholders negotiate how they can adjust visitor demands. We refer to such strategic work as ‘Stakeholder Integrated Demarketing Approach’ (SIDA). The chapter provides an original contribution to tourism academia and practices while opening avenues for future research, particularly with reference to a demarketing mix strategy and the feasibility of SIDA in times when demarketing could develop as a tool to mitigate overtourism.
- Demarketing
- Strategic destination management
- Visitor management
- Sustainability
- Stakeholder involvement
- Strategic destination marketing
Lindberg, F. and Seeler, S. (2021), "Demarketing Strategy As a Tool to Mitigate Overtourism – An Illusion?", Sharma, A. and Hassan, A. (Ed.) Overtourism as Destination Risk ( Tourism Security-Safety and Post Conflict Destinations ), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 129-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83909-706-520211010
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Demarketing Strategy As a Tool to Mitigate Overtourism – An Illusion?
Summary ( 3 min read), introduction.
- Marketing is often accused of following pure growth aims without considering the consequences for the environment and social life in the destinations (Beeton & Benfield, 2002).
- Against the background of increasing tensions in many popular tourist destinations and the awareness that more marketing is not necessarily beneficial, this chapter sets out to examine how destinations could rethink marketing and thus contribute to mitigating over-tourism towards a more sustainable tourism development.
- Another example is over-tourism which can be viewed as a symptom of imbalance manifesting in crowded paths, parking congestion, rubbish, frequent injuries and rescues, and environmental damage.
- Empirical investigations on demarketing within tourism are mostly centred around demarketing as an environmental policy instrument in the context of natural protected areas and iconic landmarks (Armstrong & Kern, 2011; Beeton, 2003).
The concept of demarketing
- Irrespective of a company’s sustainability focus and endeavours, marketing traditionally aims for demand creation and growth.
- Armstrong Soule and Reich (2015, p. 1404) note that “any deliberate attempts at demand reduction by marketers may seem surprising, confusing or even non-sensical” for consumers.
- This could include modifying message content in advertising, developing segmentation, designing and positioning products and services, reducing sales promotion expenditures and increasing prices.
- Varadarajan (2014) argues for a more proactive version of demarketing for environmental protection and suggests a focus on inadequate or ineffective investments in infrastructure (e.g. water, electricity).
- According to Lefebvre and Kotler (2011), a demarketing strategy might imply influencing the level, composition and timing of demand, and to involve policymakers and other stakeholders to influence a desired environmental, public or social benefit in the marketplace.
Demarketing in tourism
- Demarketing in tourism was first addressed in the late 1980s and was mostly discussed in the context of mass tourism (Beeton, 2006; Beeton & Benfield, 2002).
- In tourism contexts, demarketing has been thought of as a form of mirroring activity to place/destination marketing, or marketing in reverse, and in its purest form has been realised through decreased distribution, minimised promotion or abandoning paid advertisement altogether (Medway et al., 2010; Weiler et al., 2019).
- It has not been the primary aim to discourage visiting, but to change perceptions and behaviour without creating the impression of enforcing punitive measures (Weiler et al., 2019).
- These softer and more indirect forms of demarketing remain often ineffective, and more active forms of control, formal regulation and legislation are needed (Beeton, 2006; Beeton & Benfield, 2002).
- More extreme measures have been employed in times of natural disasters and uncontrollable events, such as earthquakes, terrorism and in general political instable circumstances or the recent global pandemic.
Demarketing of tourist destination
- It is argued then that the potential of demarketing would not be recognised and deployed sufficiently (Armstrong & Kern, 2011).
- Destination demarketing strategies are believed to have the potential to successfully enhance ecological and cultural integrity as well as the quality of the visitor experience, while minimising risks and tensions related to over-tourism (Beeton, 2016; Weiler et al., 2019).
- Scholars note that more conscious and proactive applications are required to achieve sustainability goals (Armstrong & Kern, 2011; Beeton & Benfield, 2002; Weiler et al., 2019).
- Dodds and Butler (2019) argue that a potential adverse effect needs to be avoided because demarketing is not an alternative to marketing itself.
- Decreasing the satisfaction or reducing the number of undesirable segments might have positive impact on more desirable segments and residents (Medway et al., 2010).
Case-based approach
- This chapter adopts a case-based approach to explore how demarketing strategies can contribute to the sustainability efforts of a destination facing over-tourism; the approach has proven beneficial for research areas where little is known and an exploratory foundation is sought (Denscombe, 2017; Yin, 2014).
- Tourism plays a vital role in the economic and social well-being in both destinations, but over-tourism has more recently evoked tensions related to imbalances between residents and visitors.
- Since 2010, TNZ has directed all international marketing promotion towards the so-called ‘Active Considerer’.
- Such initiatives have turned the focus onto experiences that are ‘authentic’ for Lofoten and that involve the visitors.
- Selective demarketing is the most common initiative across cases which involves product strategy (e.g. redistribute demand towards experience-based tourism), prize strategies (e.g. redistribute demand towards value over volume) and promotion strategy (e.g. redistribute demand promoting immersive experiences over nature).
- The authors findings contribute new knowledge on destination demarketing strategy, and how initiatives in regional contexts are complex and multifaceted.
- This answers the call for more demarketing research for reducing excess demand in many sectors of society (Chaudhry et al., 2019), and for investigating how over-tourism and the environment and culture on which it relies can be demarketed (Beeton & Benfield, 2002; Weiler et al., 2019).
- The authors thus need to discuss the demarketing process in addition to the strategic initiatives invoked in over-tourism situations.
Destination demarketing mix strategy
- The authors results extend prior research that focused on the 4P marketing mix as the foundation of demarketing strategies (e.g. Kotler & Levy, 1971; Lefebvre & Kotler, 2011).
- The findings show that in a over-tourism situation, the rationale for demarketing initiatives is multifaceted, and as such does not comply with Kotler’s original conception of general demarketing as the main strategic initiative.
- The authors findings do not show evidence of ostensible demarketing in either case, probably because it is not possible to discourage tourists from visiting particular places or attractions to enhance exclusivity.
- But as their results demonstrate, the decisions about demarketing mix depend not only on a destination’s DMO, but on the strategic work of stakeholders.
- Whereas partnership between stakeholders is not new in destination development, prior research shows that stakeholders tend to hold a narrow vision of destination planning, including sustainability, strategy and economy (Hatipoglu, Alvarez, & Ertuna, 2016).
- The purpose of this chapter was to investigate how DMOs invoke demarketing initiatives in overtourism situations and explore how demarketing strategies can positively assist in meeting sustainability aims.
- Most of these strategies have proved insufficient, as they are often inconsequentially introduced due to fears of adverse effects and the argument that they do not automatically deflate the demand.
- While investments now flow into infrastructure and facility improvements, DMOs are forced to rethink their marketing strategies.
- Instead, more inclusive forms of demarketing are required, that not only allow the different stakeholders to be involved in the development of demarketing mix strategies, but also ensure that they follow the same aims.
- The authors further argue that redistributive and selective demarketing strategies need to be accompanied by inclusive demarketing, as only stakeholder involvement and engagement can positively contribute to long-term sustainability and the mitigation of over-tourism.
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Frequently asked questions (2), q1. what have the authors contributed in "demarketing strategy as a tool to mitigate over-tourism – an illusion" .
Among others, demarketing initiatives, which aim at discouraging demand, are discussed as an alternative strategic orientation. Instead, the authors find evidence for a mix of mainly selective demarketing, but also synchromarketing initiatives ( redistributing demand spatially and temporally ) and counter-marketing efforts ( tourists ’ code of conduct ). The chapter provides an original contribution to tourism academia and practices while opening avenues for future research, particularly with reference to a demarketing mix strategy and the feasibility of SIDA in times when demarketing could develop as a tool to mitigate over-tourism. Demarketing is not a new concept, but in complex tourism destinations with many attractions, stakeholders and tourists, its potential remains mostly unexplored.
Q2. What are the future works in "Demarketing strategy as a tool to mitigate over-tourism – an illusion?" ?
More empirical data is needed in the future to explore the different stakeholder perspectives on demarketing and to investigate the intentionality behind some initiatives. Furthermore, the effectiveness and feasibility of demarketing strategies in times of multi-voice marketing and the growth of user-generated content open future avenues of research.
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Home Blog Tourism and culture To fight against over-tourism, territories adopt demarketing
To fight against over-tourism, territories adopt demarketing
As the over-visitation of tourist sites is being heavily criticized from an environmental point of view, several territories are starting to change the way they promote themselves, adopting a ” demarketing ” strategy.
What is a demarketing strategy?
Demarketing is a process in which a company develops strategies to reduce the consumption of a product. While traditional marketing often encourages customers to purchase more products, demarketing aims to limit a product’s reach. Companies can use it in a variety of situations to control product use, price, or demand. They may use these strategies for many reasons, including to conserve resources or increase demand.
The demarketing strategy in tourism
In tourism, demarketing consists in showing tourist places as they are, but also in adopting a strategy of silence. To avoid over-visitation, territories stop promoting certain tourist places.
Why do territories adopt this strategy?
For several decades, the increase in purchasing power and the decrease in the price of air tickets have made it possible for many people to travel. Amongst others, Russians and Chinese have started to want to travel the world and visit the most famous places. From these phenomena came the over-consumption of tourism, now exacerbated by social networks. Charging access to certain places to discourage tourists would be discriminatory. Thus, territories use this method to fight against over-visiting.
Has the health crisis pushed territories to adopt demarketing?
New behaviors appeared with the health crisis. The French, who could only travel within France, went to places they thought were not very popular. Except that everyone had the same idea at the same time.
Some territories are not ready to receive so many people at the same time. And when there is no system to control this flow, there are repercussions on the environment and the inhabitants.
Is demarketing the only cure for mass tourism?
Tourism marketing will not be sustainable, as the industry needs tourists to live. We need to turn more to slow marketing and encourage tourists to take their time. This requires rethinking the way we travel. We need to put an end to the over-consumption of tourism, but to do this we need to educate tourists so that they adopt more responsible behavior. In Wyoming in the United States, a natural park encourages visitors not to mention the place where they are on social networks for example. I think that all actors, institutional as well as private, must participate in this reflection.
Is it possible to reconcile sustainable hospitality with customer comfort?
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Demarketing Tourism for Sustainability: Degrowing Tourism or Moving the Deckchairs on the Titanic?
Sustainability
Demarketing is generally recognized as that aspect of marketing that aims at discouraging customers in general or a certain class of customers in particular on either a temporary or permanent basis and has been increasingly posited as a potential tool to degrow tourism and improve its overall sustainability, particularly as a result of so-called overtourism. The paper provides an overview of the various ways in which demarketing has been applied in a tourism context and assesses the relative value of demarketing as a means of contributing to sustainability and degrowing tourism. It is argued that demarketing can make a substantial contribution to degrowing tourism at a local or even regional scale, but that the capacity to shift visitation in space and time also highlights a core weakness with respect to its contribution at other scales. The paper concludes by noting that the concept of degrowth also needs to be best understood as a continuum of which demarketing is only one aspect.
Related Papers
C. Michael Hall
paper presented at TOURISM IMPLICATIONS AND DILEMMAS UIT THE ARCTIC UNIVERSITY OF NORWAY, ALTA, NORWAY, 24-26 September, 2018. By most empirical measures tourism is more unsustainable than ever. Yet while well versed observations on the need for improved management and the new flavourof-the-month term of “overtourism” emerge, the reality is that tourism is tied into growth thinking. Even so-called green growth tourism strategies AKA having your cake and eating it to, still predict continuing increases in emissions and material consumption in the forseeable future. One response to the existential threats that tourism provides is that of degrowth. Degrowth is a strategy to “right-size” the relationship between consumption and production of tourism so as to reduce run down of natural capital while simultaneously achieving socioeconomic and environmental goals. As such, degrowth is concerned not only with greater efficiency but also notions of sufficiency. These are concerns that exist at local, national and global scales given ongoing tourism growth. A multi-scalar framework is presented to illustrate some of the issues associated with achieving degrowth. However, in addition to examining degrowth as a spatial problem within tourism and socio-ecological systems, i.e. degrowing at one scale may “shift” the problem to other locations or scales, the paper also notes that degrowth presents significant ontological and epistemological issues that underlie the choices and decisions that policy-makers face. While practical strategies for achieving degrowth are presented, e.g. demarketing, changes in travel behaviours, changes in marketing strategies, the paper concludes that fundamentally the problem becomes one of post-normal science and the development of appropriate research and policy knowledge to match the complexity of the tourism and associated systems we are trying to change. Keywords: heterogeneous construction, post-normal science, steady-state tourism, complexity overtourism is defined here as a situation in which the number of visitors overwhelms the physical capacity of infrastructure and/or the acceptance by permanent residents of the extent of tourism development and visitation.
Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Karla A Boluk
Tourism studies has a tradition of seeking alternative pathways to economic development that minimise negative externalities for destinations. However, despite discourses that focus on sustainability and conservation tourism’s contribution to global environmental change have continued to increase. Instead, the contribution of tourism to sustainable development should be understood in the context of degrowth processes that offer an alternative discourse to the economism paradigm that reifies economic growth in terms of GDP. A paradigm supported by institutions such as the UNWTO. A steady state understanding of sustainability is postulated that stresses both efficiency and sufficiency in terms of the natural capital and ecological resources on which economic throughput is based. Steady state tourism is therefore defined as a tourism system that encourages qualitative development but not aggregate quantitative growth that unsustainably reduces natural capital. Key words: Degrowth, décroissance, economism, steady-state tourism, sustainable consumption, sustainable tourism, slow tourism. Please note that the figures used in Table 1 in this version are the correct numbers taken from Hall and Lew (2009), as the previous figures had been mistranscribed and this was not picked up at the time of final editing. The journal website is at http://www.anatoliajournal.com/ draft of paper prepared for the special issue of ANATOLIA dedicated to its 20th anniversary.
Tourism Geographies
Rob Fletcher , Ivan Murray
the necessity and consequences of the exponential growth in tourism activity experienced throughout the world over the past half-century have been increasingly questioned by an expanding body of activists and critical researchers. One of the emerging responses within this debate concerns calls for reversing the trend in pursuit of touristic 'degrowth'. this discussion has been inspired by a longstanding body of research problematizing the imperative and consequences of economic growth more generally, initiated by natural and social scientists. this article offers a state-of-the-art overview of the application of degrowth perspectives to discussions of (sustainable) tourism development and outlines a future agenda for research and praxis continuing this important line of inquiry.
Turisticko poslovanje
Prof. Konstantinos Andriotis
Tourism Recreation Research
Rob Fletcher , Macia Blazquez-Salom
This contribution aims to advance consideration of the potential and pitfalls entailed in discussions of degrowth within tourism development. Many mass tourist destinations suffer from saturation impacting local working conditions, access to housing and the collective enjoyment of public goods, among the many common drawbacks of so-called 'overtourism'. Yet proposals to address the negative impacts of mass tourism can become contradictory or even counterproductive. In one manifestation of this dynamic, prominent industry actors increasingly claim to have embraced the agenda of touristic degrowth by focusing on what is euphemistically termed 'quality tourism' (fewer tourists who spend more money), which in reality designates elite travel by the most powerful and wealthy social classes. But just as recession is not degrowth, neither can such elitization be considered genuine touristic degrowth, because it does not address the industry's general eco-social overreach via measures to promote social and environmental justice as degrowth advocates. It could thus instead be labelled 'fake' degrowth. By contrast, fair degrowth is defined by a decrease in the flow of energy and materials per capita, in a planned and democratic way, to contribute to equitable redistribution of resource use and access.
Dr. Adarsh Batra
The levels of marketing, quite often blamed for changing consumer attitudes, promote a materialistic society where status is derived more from the number and type of destinations we visit and leisure activities we undertake, rather than how good we are as caring members of society. Tourism organizations have continued to encourage ‘anyone and everyone’ to visit a particular region, irrespective of how these individuals may behave when they arrive. As we move into the twenty-first century, there is a growing concern for the protection of the environment and the adoption of business policies that will enable to the earth’s resources to be sustained. The new environmentally aware values now emerging are challenging the underlying concepts of marketing. This paper attempts to put forward measures that can be applied to ensure sustainable tourism through marketing strategies suppress or alter demand once critical limits are approached or have in fact been exceeded. * Dr. Adarsh Batra is ...
Susanne Becken
The tourism industry collectively seeks to portray itself as being proactive in embracing climate action, but is the sector doing enough to decarbonise to the extent agreed on in the Paris Agreement? This paper presents a constructive critique of the key mechanisms that presently define the global travel and tourism industry’s attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Six key challenges are identified and each constitutes a major hurdle to rapid and substantial progress. These are: tourism’s embeddedness in the prevailing growth paradigm, the institutionalisation of interests, the nature of policy making, the inadequacy of incremental improvements, the focus on technological efficiency instead of (behavioural) conservation, and the global distribution of tourism. The paper concludes by suggesting that only systemic changes at a large scale will be sufficient to break or disrupt existing arrangements and routines. Tourism academics should contribute to identifying and helping to implement solutions, but this will require much greater collaboration with the industry and government, as well as with researchers from a broad range of disciplines.
Patrizia Battilani
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Moscow metro to be more tourist-friendly
A new floor sign system at the Moscow metro's Pushkinskaya station. Source: Vladimir Pesnya / RIA Novosti
For many years now, Moscow has lagged behind St. Petersburg when it comes to making life easy for tourists, especially where getting around the city is concerned. Whereas the northern capital installed English-language maps, signs and information points throughout its subway system in the late 2000s, the Russian capital’s metro remained a serious challenge for foreign visitors to navigate.
Recent visitors to Moscow may have noticed some signs that change is afoot, however. In many stations of the Moscow subway, signs have appeared on the floor – with large lettering in Russian and English – indicating the direction to follow in order to change lines. Previously, foreign visitors using the Moscow metro had to rely solely upon deciphering the Russian-language signs hanging from the ceilings.
Student volunteers help tourists find their way in Moscow
However, this new solution has a significant drawback. “The floor navigation is visible only to a small stream of people – fewer than three people per meter. During peak hours, this navigation will simply not be noticed,” said Konstantin Trofimenko, Director of the Center for Urban Transportation Studies.
One of the biggest problems for tourists in the Russian capital remains the absence of English translations of the names of subway stations in the station vestibules and on platforms. The Department of Transportation in Moscow has not commented yet as to when this problem will be solved. However, Latin transliterations of station names can already be found in the subway cars themselves.
Finding the right exit
At four of the central stations – Okhotny Ryad, Teatralnaya, Ploshchad Revolyutsii, Lubyanka and Kuznetsky Most – the city authorities have now installed colorful stands at the exits with schematic diagrams of the station’s concourse and surrounding area, which provide information about the main attractions and infrastructural facilities.
The schematic diagrams are the work of British specialists from the City ID and Billings Jackson Design firms, who have already implemented successful projects in New York and London.
According to Alexei Novichkov, expert at the Design Laboratory at the Higher School of Economics, the design of these information booths raises no objections: The color solutions, font, layout and icons are consistent with international standards.
However, the stands do have some shortcomings. “Many questions are raised about the fact that the developers of these maps did not apply orientation to the north, and have provided layouts of the surrounding areas with respect to the exits,” says Novichkov. “A system like that is used for road navigators, but most of the ‘paper’ guides and maps are oriented strictly to north. The subway map is also oriented to north, so people may become confused.”
Muscovites and foreign visitors are generally positive about these navigation elements, with most of them citing the numbered exits from the subway as the most useful feature.
The fact is that many Moscow subway stations have several exits. One of the busiest central stations of the Moscow subway in particular, Kitay-Gorod, has more than a dozen exits. Previously, these exits were differentiated from each other only with signs in Russian referring to the names of streets and places of interest to which they led – making it easy for tourists and those with poor navigation skills to get confused.
Now, when making an appointment to meet a friend, instead of struggling to find the right spot when they tell you: “I'll meet you at the exit to Solyanka Street,” you can just propose to meet under a specific exit number.
“I’ve lived in Moscow for seven years,” says Angelika, a designer from Voronezh, “but I still don’t always know where to go to find the place I need, so the new schematic diagrams will be very useful. Previously, some subway stations had maps, but not with so much detail.”
Teething problems
Foreigners, meanwhile, focus their attention on other elements. “It is good that the new information boards have QR-codes, which can be ‘read’ by smartphones,” says Florentina, a writer from Vienna. But there are also shortcomings. “The English font of the information on posters and in the captions to theaters and museums is too small – you have to come very close to see it well,” she says.
Pleasant encounters on the streets of Moscow
Florentina was also dissatisfied with the fact that such posters are not provided at all subway stations: “When I was trying to find Tsaritsyno Park (a museum and reserve in the south of Moscow) at a subway station with the same name, it turned out to be quite difficult,” she says.
“There are no maps with landmarks for other areas, such as those already in the city center. There were no clear pointers in the English language, and the passers-by I met did not speak in English, so they could not help me,” she adds.
Officials say that the navigation system is gradually being redeveloped and improved. According to Darya Chuvasheva, a press representative for the Department of Transport of Moscow, the introduction of a unified navigation system will take place in stages.
“By the end of 2014, the system will first appear on the first subway stations on the Circle Line. By the end of 2015, we plan to install the system at all major stopping points, subway stations and transport interchange hubs,” says Chuvasheva.
All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
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Demarketing. underconstruction. "Marketing, the management of demand, plays an important role in sustaining tourism by channelling tourists to more resilient places, and visitor management can be used to 'select or deselect tourists, control their flows and influence their behaviour through promotion and education' (Liu, 2003:463 ...
This is the so-called 'demarketing' strategy which dates back to the 1970s when anti-smoking and alcohol ads began to appear. It consists of setting up advertising actions to dissuade the public from consuming a product. In tourism, the idea is to show a tourism destination the way they really are, but also to adopt a strategy of silence.
Demarketing is generally recognized as that aspect of marketing that aims at discouraging customers in general or a certain class of customers in particular on either a temporary or permanent basis and has been increasingly posited as a potential tool to degrow tourism and improve its overall sustainability, particularly as a result of so-called overtourism.
The paper examined the potential contribution of demarketing to more sustainable forms of tourism and to degrowth strategies in particular. Beeton and Benfield [59] (p. 502) suggested that the use of demarketing in tourism had been mostly unconscious and had "not been adequately recognized or actively pursued as a marketing or management tool".
The claim is that overtourism is harming the landscape, damaging beaches, putting infrastructure under enormous strain, and pricing residents out of the property market. It is a hugely complex ...
Demarketing approaches towards balancing demand. Demand exceeds the level at which a tourism business or destination feels able or motivated to supply it. Tourist demand for a destination, site or experience reaches a level that results in negative environmental, economic and/or social impacts and experiences.
Tourism-phobia; Citation. Kodaş, B. and Kodaş, D. (2021), "Demarketing as a Potential Solution to Overtourism Problems in Tourism Destinations", Sharma, A. and Hassan, A. (Ed.) Overtourism as Destination Risk (Tourism Security-Safety and Post Conflict Destinations), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 111-127.
We observed a trend in demarketing research that the tourism sector has been attracting more researchers in the last decade as compared to the healthcare sector, although healthcare sector dominated demarketing research in the previous decade. Our review identified that 'Green Demarketing' has been the most popular variant of demarketing in ...
Demarketing is not a new concept, but in complex tourism destinations with many attractions, stakeholders and tourists, its potential remains mostly unexplored. This chapter presents findings from two tourism destinations: one on a national scale, New Zealand, and one on a regional scale, the Lofoten Islands, Norway. Our results show that ...
the first examples of demarketing in tourism was the attempt by the Republic of Cyprus to exclude groups normally associated with mass tourism through selective advertising Sustainability 2021 ...
Therefore, demarketing a strategy utilised to regulate the level and character of actual and future demand by organisations including enterprises has been applied in the tourism industry. This ...
Demarketing is generally recognized as that aspect of marketing that aims at discouraging customers in general or a certain class of customers in particular on either a temporary or permanent basis and has been increasingly posited as a potential tool to degrow tourism and improve its overall sustainability, particularly as a result of so-called overtourism.
(DOI: 10.1108/978-1-83909-706-520211010) The growing tensions related to overtourism and its influences, such as environmental harm to nature and residents' well-being, loss of authenticity and visitors' satisfaction, have triggered a rethinking of destination marketing strategies. Many destinations consider stricter measures to cope with this situation. Among others, demarketing initiatives ...
Demarketing has long been regarded as a special case of social marketing, particularly with respect to reducing consumption (Peattie and Peattie 2009; Gössling 2010), and its application in tourism has been surprisingly limited (Beeton and Benfield 2002; Armstrong and Kern 2011; Truong and Hall 2013), especially given that tourism was one of the examples used in the original article by Kotler ...
Therefore, demarketing a strategy utilised to regulate the level and character of actual and future demand by organisations including enterprises has been applied in the tourism industry. This paper examines the evolution of the literature on demarketing in the tourism industry between 1989 and 2017, its theoretical and conceptual development ...
The demarketing strategy in tourism In tourism, demarketing consists in showing tourist places as they are, but also in adopting a strategy of silence. To avoid over-visitation, territories stop promoting certain tourist places.
Findings confirm that the tourism demarketing mix significantly affects tourists' perception and intention to reduce revisits to the nature reserves. Lower switching cost partially enhanced the relationship between the tourism demarketing mix and tourists' intention to reduce revisits. Regarding implications, managers can use findings from ...
For instance, one of the first examples of demarketing in tourism was the attempt by the Republic of Cyprus to exclude groups normally associated with mass tourism through selective advertising Sustainability 2021, 13, 1585 5 of 15 and the raising of prices [80]. The demand problem may also shift over time from one of overfull to inappropriate ...
Previously, foreign visitors using the Moscow metro had to rely solely upon deciphering the Russian-language signs hanging from the ceilings. However, this new solution has a significant drawback ...
the various ways in which demarketing has been applied in a tourism context and assesses the rel‐ ative value of demarketing as a means of contributing to sustainability and degrowing tourism. It is argued that demarketing can make a substantial contribution to degrowing tourism at a local or
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