ABSTRACT
Marketing a regional tourism destination to different groups of global travellers can be viewed as an act of diplomacy. One needs to target and narrate certain local signs, symbols and metaphors, while avoiding others. Choosing one’s marketing story means understanding how the presentation is received by members of other cultures. Tourism marketing is not only crucial to the tourism industry itself, but spills over into how other sectors located at the destination will be perceived by foreigners. Thus, tourism marketing of a destination needs to be targeted in culturally relevant ways, in order to appeal to the nationalities one wants to attract. Not only pleasure-tourists but also technical visitors such as workforces, business investors or business owners obtain tourism information when choosing one region over another for their outbound engagements. Since destination management organisations (DMOs), also named ‘visit-organisations’, produce marketing and branding campaigns targeted to different tourist groups, they can be regarded as important key players in the symbolic production of a region.
