THE “DESTINATION IMAGE” FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF THE CHINESE TOURIST. A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF COMMUNICATION OF THE TOURISM PRODUCT

Abstract

The idea of this thesis was born in occasion of a stage and research period conducted at B-sm@rk S.r.l. in the area of tourism marketing and management. During my training, I took care of some projects about the “Destination Personality” defined as the set of human characteristics associated with a destination. One of these projects, that I will discuss as a case study in my dissertation, has been commissioned by SAVE Group S.p.A. - Venice (VCE) and Treviso (TSF) Airport, a firm that primarily works in the area of Veneto, and therefore willing to focus its attention both on Venice and on the development of tourism of inner areas too. In my opinion literature still poorly deals with the theme of the perception of the destination from the point of view of the Chinese tourist. This issue is gaining importance nowadays, due to the high percentage of Chinese tourists all over the world. A percentage that is meant to grow in the next years. In my dissertation, I will examine the knowledge of the topic of “Destination Personality” from the point of view of Chinese tourists. The goal of the “Destination Personality” is to create a personality of the destination that has to be unique and has to mirror the perception that the tourist has of himself. This index can be analysed to understand the state of mind of the tourist and to adjust the right marketing actions to attract more tourists and create a sophisticated project. As observed so forth, there is a problem of communication with the tourist. The percentage of Chinese tourists is growing, and the touristic entities are not able to cope with them in the most efficient way. It is therefore necessary to define the right communication objectives and policies to hit the target. My purpose is to give some suggestions regarding marketing actions that the institutions should adopt to attract tourists, according to their needs and wants.