ABSTRACT
Tourism is a business and, along with other businesses, the tourism industry of an area includes amongst its most important potential assets intangible factors such as the symbols and slogans used, the perceived quality and the customer base together with any brand name and underlying associations. These are the assets which Aaker (1996) argues comprise brand equity and are the primary source of competitive strategic advantage. Therefore a brand should have a clear and distinct image that truly differentiates it from its competitors. To do this Aaker argues it is necessary to create a broad brand vision that recognises a brand as something greater than a simple set of physical attributes. This broad brand vision is based on brand associations made up of, for example, associations with quality and with a particular way of relating to the customer. Whilst Aaker developed this argument in relation to companies it may equally be applicable to tourist destinations, particularly as the associations can be shown to be more enduring and more resistant to imitation by competitors than a specified set of product attributes which can be imitated and surpassed. Aaker argues that if this is the case it is much more difficult to duplicate the unique values, peoples and programmes of an organisation than to copy a product.
