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Marketing the Beautiful Black Sheep: Studying the Image Creation Process of Destinations with Social Problems through a Dialectical Approach of Myth Makers using Photo Elicitation and Story Telling Claudia Guarin Natalie Krainski Christoph Luenser Table of Contents I Table of Contents Index of Tables and Figures ............................................................................................. III 1 Background ...................................................................................................................3 1.1 Literature Review ...................................................................................................4 1.2 Structure of the Paper ..........................................................................................14 2 Methodology................................................................................................................15 2.1 Procedure .............................................................................................................16 2.1.1 Data Collection from Destination Marketing Organizations and Travel Agencies / Tour Operators...............................................................................18 2.1.2 Data Collection from Consumers .....................................................................19 2.2 Analysis.................................................................................................................22 2.2.1 Destination Marketing Organizations and Travel Agencies / Tour Operators.23 2.2.2 Consumers ........................................................................................................24 3 Limitations ..................................................................................................................27 4 Analysis........................................................................................................................29 4.1 Back to the Roots: History of Tourism in Mexico and Colombia.........................29 4.2 Destination Marketing Organizations and Travel Agencies / Tour Operators....31 4.2.1 Stories and Myths told in Promotional Material ..............................................41 4.3 Consumers ............................................................................................................50 4.3.1 Barbara – ‘Mexico: a Country with many Faces’ and ‘Latin America: the Wheel of Poverty without End’.......................................................................51 4.3.2 Sabrina – ‘Mexico: a Country with Many Faces’, ‘Colombia: too risky to step out of the Bubble’ and ‘the Wheel of Poverty without End’...........................56 4.3.3 Andreas – ‘Mexico: a Country with many Faces’ and ‘Colombia: a Virgin Place’ ...............................................................................................................60 4.3.4 Stephanie – ‘Mexico: a Country with many Faces’ and ‘Colombia: a Virgin Place’ ...............................................................................................................65 4.3.5 Martina – ‘Mexico: a Country with many Faces’ and ‘Colombia: the Wheel of Poverty without End’.......................................................................................69 4.3.6 Richard – ‘Mexico and Colombia: Countries with many Faces’ and ‘Latin America: too risky to step out of the Bubble’ .................................................72 Table of Contents II 4.3.7 Christian – ‘Mexico and Colombia: Countries with many Faces’ and ‘Colombia: a risky Adventure’........................................................................76 4.3.8 Tobias – ‘Mexico and Colombia: Countries with many Faces’ .......................82 5 The dialectical Image Building Process of Destinations with Social Problems - Mexico and Colombia................................................................................................89 6 Conclusion, Managerial Contributions and Further Research .............................95 References............................................................................................................................97 Appendix ...........................................................................................................................105 Index of Tables and Figures III Index of Tables and Figures Table 1: Destination Marketing Organizations and Travel Agencies/Tour Operators.........31 Table 2: Existential-Phenomenological Interviewees ........................................................109 Figure 1: Long Qualitative Interview: Stages of Analysis ..................................................26 Figure 2: Mexico – Palm Beach meets Ancient Culture ....................................................107 Figure 3: Oaxaca, Mexico ..................................................................................................107 Figure 4: Colombia - 12 Reasons for going to Colombia ..................................................107 Figure 5: Italian in Love with Colombia ............................................................................107 Figure 6: Happy Natives.....................................................................................................107 Figure 7: Tourists with Natives ..........................................................................................107 Figure 8: Australian in Love with Colombia......................................................................108 Figure 9: Barbara's Traveling Experience in Mexico ........................................................110 Figure 10: Barbara's typical Tourist Package Trip to Mexico............................................110 Figure 11: Sabrina's Traveling Experience in Mexico .......................................................110 Figure 12: Sabrina's Traveling Experience in Colombia....................................................110 Figure 13: Andrea's Traveling Experience in Mexico........................................................111 Figure 14: Andrea's Traveling Experience in Colombia ....................................................111 Figure 15: Stephanie's Traveling Experience in Mexico....................................................111 Figure 16: Stephanie's Traveling Experience in Colombia ................................................111 Figure 17: Martina's Traveling Experience in Mexico.......................................................111 Figure 18: Martina's Traveling Experience in Colombia ...................................................111 Figure 19: Richard's Traveling Experience in Mexico.......................................................112 Figure 20: Richard's Traveling Experience in Colombia ...................................................112 Figure 21: Christian's Traveling Experience in Mexico.....................................................112 Figure 22: Christian's Traveling Experience in Colombia .................................................112 Figure 23: Tobias’ Traveling Experience in Mexico .........................................................112 Figure 24: Tobias' Traveling Experience in Colombia.......................................................112 Colombia – the only risk is wanting to stay! 1 “Colombia – the only risk is wanting to stay!” “Right, I heard about the story of the politician Ingrid Betancourt who was kidnapped for about six years and released by the Government from the grips of the “FARC” about one year ago. They say that the kidnapping risk is decreasing and the “FARC” is getting weak, hopefully. It would be a great step for Colombia. But wait – where am I? It’s a tourism fair, right? So do those people really want me to think about kidnapping and the Guerrilla? That’s kind of strange...” (Anonymous, ITB Berlin, 2009) These thoughts are not totally surprising once you think of the violent history and bad reputation Colombia has suffered from during the last decades and in addition being confronted with a slogan telling you “Colombia – the only risk is wanting to stay”. But why did the Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) 1 of Colombia choose such a radical and polarizing slogan? Something that is totally different from the recommended route all their successful ‘big brothers’ in tourism are taking? There must be a good reason behind choosing this virgin path that in the history of destination marketing has not been touched until now. Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, etc., all of them have certain social problems in their countries as Latin America in general is considered to be risky. However, the DMOs of those countries use advertising campaigns that focus on modern myths by showing breathtaking and magnificent landscapes, beautiful and happy natives enjoying their time, spectacular sights, music, traditional dances, etc. These thoughts came into our minds while visiting the Internationale Tourismus Börse 2009 in Berlin 2 (ITB Berlin), constructing the base for an interesting journey into the image building process of destinations with social problems. This fair is one of the best opportunities for DMOs to present their countries in all its beauty, highlighting the unique characteristics that make these countries so special and a ‘must go’ for the next holidays. While looking at the numerous settings that have been created with passion and fantasy in order to bring something of the advertised country 1 Destination marketing organizations are non-profit entities aiming at the promotion of touristic offerings in order to increase tourism (Gretzel et