Chapter 1: introduction

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1 Introduction This chapter includes a review of the existing literature relevant to tourism issues regarding Corfu as a destination, an introduction to[.]

Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction This chapter includes a review of the existing literature relevant to tourism issues regarding Corfu as a destination, an introduction to tourism as a phenomenon and the impacts (positive and negative) of it, a highlight of the key areas of Corfu as a destination – including history, geography, cultural and natural heritage, and an introduction to the case which enables the reader to understand why this study was important to be conducted and its contribution to the body of knowledge 1.2 Research Background The researcher selected this topic for his dissertation driven by the fact that there has been a steady decline in sales (see tables 1.2 and 1.3) during the last few years, and the DMO received great criticism for that as it is the responsible body for the island’s tourism promotion and branding Furthermore, the researcher had worked for the DMO in the past and during his occupation he identified certain weaknesses in its operation and a lack of a professional operational framework Through the recommendations included herein, he wishes to suggest new policies and promotion techniques that can lead to better results and increase the overall effectiveness of the DMO operation regarding the destination promotion 1.3 Introduction to the island of Corfu Corfu is located in the North-Western part of Greece and is considered to be an island with a strategic position in Greece and with a different cultural identity from the rest of Greece Therefore, an analysis of its geographical position, its historical and cultural background, the climate, the transports and the development of the tourism industry in Corfu will be presented in the following sections of this chapter 1.3.1 Geographical Position Figure 1.1 –Map of Greece Figure 1.2- Satellite Image of Corfu Source: http://el.wikipedia.org Source : http://maps.google.com Corfu Prefecture includes the island of Corfu, the Diapontia Islands (Othoni, Erikoussa and Mathraki ) and Paxi and Antipaxi islands It has sea borders with Albania and Italy and it is close to the other Greek Prefectures of Lefkada, Ioannina, Thesprotia and Preveza It occupies 592.877 square kms (about 229,000 square miles), and with the addition of the smaller islands of the Prefecture it reaches a total size of 641.000 square kms with a relatively large coastline of 217 kms (about 135 miles) It is the capital of the Region of the Ionian Islands and the second largest island of the Ionian Islands Complex after Cephalonia, with a population of about 112,000 residents (G.N.S.S., 2001), with about 40,000 of them living in the town centre It is the northernmost Ionian Island and a crossroad between East and West; it stands between the Greek west coast and the southern tip of Italy The north-eastern part of the island faces Albania and three seas: the Ionian Sea in the east, the Adriatic Sea in the north and the Mediterranean Sea in the west It is about 27 km (17 miles) wide and 60 km (37 miles) long and has a unique shape like a scythe, which gave the island one of its ancient names, “Drepani” In the North, Corfu is mostly mountainous and the highest point is the Pantokrator mountain with an altitude of 911 meters The beaches offer a variety of choices to the locals and the tourists as there are gentle and sandy beaches but also rocky and steep ones, and this creates a unique natural landscape for the traveller to see and enjoy In the south, there are many tourist areas with Kavos being the most known to the British market; in the eastern and western parts of the island, there are many beaches both sandy and rocky for the travellers to chose from 1.3.2 Historical and Cultural profile In Corfu there are elements of life since the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic Era in many areas “Faiakes” (=Phaecians) was the name for the residents of the island during the Homeric times, which were of a Phoenician origin The first Greek residents of the Island came from Corinth and after the Greek period, Corfu became part of the Roman and then the Byzantine Empire During the Medieval times and the Renaissance, there were many conquerors: Goths and Normans, Venetians, French, Russians and British The Venetians had a great influence on the local population as they stayed for more than four centuries on the island Despite the fact of being a colony of many strong empires, Corfu never lost its Greek identity However, this endowed the island with a unique identity and culture that made it a world-wide known tourism resort for thousands of tourists Corfu, due to its historical course, adopted a different direction in the arts and culture gave birth to great musicians, composers and artists, in general Its unique cultural characteristics are the products of the architectural and social influences that the occupying civilizations left on Corfu and all these elements created a harmonic mixture The Old Town has been figuring on the list of the UNESCO world heritage sites since 2007 and is one of the most lively medieval cities in the world, indeed very well preserved In Corfu, there is also the largest and most beautiful square in Greece and in the whole Balkans, the “Spianada” or “Esplanade” while the Liston arcade is a replica of the “Rue de Rivoli” in Paris The houses in the Old Town are mostly influenced in terms of architecture by the Venetians, the French and some of them by the British 1.3.3 Climate Considering the weather conditions, the climate in Corfu can be characterized as Mediterranean and mild with moderate fluctuations of the temperature During winter, the temperatures are moderate (no less than Celsius degrees) and not go very high during the summer (no more than 35 Celsius degrees) However, in some extremely hot days, the temperature can exceed 40 degrees Celsius and cause thermal stress situations, as Matzarakis (2006) states Corfu has the highest ratio of rainfalls in Greece (1,153 ml) and high levels of humidity throughout the year (Tsoumanis, 2007) In the summer months, there are more hours of sunshine and this is why so many tourists visit Corfu during July and August, when there are more than 350 hours of sunshine Then, the island is full of life due to both the locals and the tourists and due to the ideal climate conditions Table 1.1 : Climatic Data for the Prefecture of Corfu Average Rate Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Air Temp 10 10 12 15 19 24 27 29 23 19 15 11 13 11 11 1 11 12 Humidity (%) 67 66 66 62 60 52 47 44 57 61 67 66 Sunshine 4,1 4,6 4,6 7,8 9,6 12 12,5 11,2 9,6 6,7 4,5 4,6 14 14 14 16 18 21 23 21 18 14 (Celsius) Rain Falls (days) (hours) Sea Temp 24 23 (Celsius) Source : http://www.greece-corfu-hotels.com 1.3.4 Transports In Corfu, the largest port is the one near to the town centre It connects the island with the Greek mainland with several daily routes to the port of Igoumenitsa It also connects Corfu with Albania, major Italian ports (Bari, Ancona, Brindisi and Venice) and the important trade port of Patras (Central Western Greece) In the Prefecture, there are three smaller ports, two in the north (Kassiopi and St Stefanos of Avliotes ) that connect Corfu with the Diapontia Islands complex and one in the south (Lefkimmi) that connects Corfu with Igoumenitsa There is also a large marina in Gouvia, just outside Corfu town, another one in Benitses on the south-eastern coast of Corfu while there are more than 10 small ports with facilities for small ships and boats As for the air transports, the Corfu International Airport “Ioannis Kapodistrias” connects the island with Athens (capital of the Greek State) and Thessaloniki (second largest city of the country) and with the other Ionian islands It also has daily connections with the major European airports during the tourism season (early May to mid October) with around 400 flights on a weekly basis, either with scheduled or with charter flights 1.3.5 Development of Tourism in Corfu Corfu became a tourism destination for the Europeans in the 1950’s and it was one of the first massive tourism destinations This was attributed to its attractive natural environment and the local culture and architecture The first Club-Med village opened in Corfu in the early 50’s and resulted in massive tourism flows from France (Forlough, 1993) Until the 1970’s, Corfu received both high and medium income tourists , but in the 80’s and 90’s it became a massive tourism destination and attracted mostly low income tourists due to the appearance of “packaged” vacations that presented a higher demand This resulted to a series of environmental, financial and social impacts In Corfu, there are 415 hotels with 22,951 rooms and 43,291 beds according to S.E.T.E (2005), but they have to improve the quality of the offered services Tourism is nowadays the number one sector of the local economy, but at the end of the 90’s there was a decline in sales because the tourist product of Corfu was downgraded Recently, there were efforts by all the involved stakeholders to reverse the situation, however with no impressive results for the moment In north-east Corfu there are many villas constructed by British tourists and this is the kind of tourism development that should be followed from now on As a conclusion, it is assumed that Corfu depends on tourism , as about 82% of the locals are involved in the tertiary sector of the economy (Services) and it is vital for the local economy, for the development of the island and for the employment of the local population to have a healthy and growing tourism sector that will satisfy the visitors of the island 1.3.6 DMO of Corfu The DMO of Corfu is a public organization funded by the Ministry of Tourism through the G.N.T.O Being a public body makes the DMO slightly ineffective in its operations as it follows the public sector framework and it is staffed with people whose studies are not directly related to the tourism industry The legal entity of the DMO currently is that of a “Prefectural Committee for Tourism Promotion” The case is extremely interesting as a research case study since by analysing different stakeholders’ views and opinions about the DMO’s effectiveness and the issue of branding, the results will lead to proposals that can reverse the decline in sales (see tables 1.2 and 1.3) and improve Corfu’s brand name, if of course they are taken into consideration by the DMO executives Table 1.2: Diachronical Development of Arrivals in Corfu Airport Year Arrivals 1997 677.581 1998 785.389 1999 880.495 2000 963.315 2001 978.644 2002 959.800 2003 905.022 2004 822.598 Source: Civil Aviation Authority of Corfu Note: More updated available info until 2004 Table 3: Diachronical Development of Arrivals from Italy at the Port of Corfu Year 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Source: Central Port Authority of Corfu Arrivals 185.755 139.272 137.078 168.258 138.086 160.089 145.494 153.921 136.903 120.271 Note: More updated available info until 2004 1.4 Previous Research on Tourism in Corfu In the past, there have been some studies about tourism in Corfu island, but not relevant to DMOs or branding The tourism scientific references - (studies or others) – include the following sectors of interest: local tourist small and medium accommodation providers and their perceptions about tour operators’ power (Bastakis, Buhalis and Butler, 2004) referring to Corfu as an area of interest, Sustainability and diversification in coastal Regions (Bramwell, 2004) , socio-economic impacts of tourism (Tsartas, 1992), Socio-cultural changes and policy issues related to coastal and insular areas in Greece that occur as a result of the tourist development (Tsartas, 2003), The lack of tourism flows to Corfu during winter due to the fact that tour operators don’t send tourists, in relation to golf tourism (Panagiotakopoulos, 2007) , Casino development (Moussas, 1994), The loss of appeal as a lifestyle destination in combination with the appearance of “all-inclusive” packages (Zografos, 2007) and The consideration of policies to restructure the declining seaside resorts (Paraskevopoulos and Stamou, 2006) There is another reference to Corfu as a sunny place, ideal for retirement migration ( Lazaridis et al., 1999) The previously stated studies show that there is a gap in literature as regards the tourism marketing of Corfu and more specifically through the use of branding techniques We also observe a lack of body of knowledge related to Corfu’s DMO, its structure, promotion tools and activities In the University of Surrey, there have been some dissertations in the past, related to tourism in Corfu or in combination with other competitive tourism destinations in Greece, but these involved other areas, such as hotel animation (Bodouroglou, 2000), competitive advantage of Rhodes in contrast to Corfu and Crete (Diakosavva, 2001), marine tourism and the environmental impacts on the Corfu Gouvia marina (Giannou, 2001), customer loyalty in chain hotels in Corfu (Prifti, 2000), impact of satisfaction on the tourists’ behaviour in Corfu (Stouki, 2002) and the influence of tour operators over small and medium sized accommodation providers in Corfu (Voulgaris, 2004) Besides all these, there are literary references to Corfu in poems, in Homer’s Odyssey, in novels and in travellers’ books, such as Lawrence Durrell’s “Prospero’s Cell” (1945), Gerald Durrell’s “My family and other animals”, James Chatto’s “The Greek for love : A memoire of Corfu”(2007) which was a best seller in England and Canada and the book “A cuisine in Corfu” (1997) by the same author and his wife Wendy Martin 1.5 Research Aims and Objectives There are some reasons that made the researcher choose the subject of DMOs & Branding and examine the case of Corfu First of all, it is the increasing importance of the brand name and image in the tourism industry (Richardson and Cohen, 1993) in the recent decade, as there are many competitive “sea and sun” destinations The DMO, as described earlier, operates under the umbrella of the Prefecture of Corfu and follows the public sector procedures and methods Therefore, the researcher tries to investigate the views of the tourism stakeholders about the DMO given the fact that the DMOs nowadays play an important role in branding and promoting a destination (Sotiriades and Avgeli, 2007) On the other hand, the researcher observed a lack of literature about both DMOs and the concept of branding in case studies or previous dissertations related to Corfu These facts motivated him to conduct the current study with the following key question: “Does the local DMO play an effective role in branding and promoting the island of Corfu?” Based on that question, the researcher will examine the overall effectiveness of the DMO by interviewing key stakeholders of the local tourism industry and providing accurate findings This will cover a gap in the literature and provide a ground for further research The objectives of this study, as also described in page 30 were:  To examine the effectiveness of the Prefecture of Corfu DMO operations regarding destination image and branding, destination marketing and other tourism-related issues by interviewing different stakeholders,  To examine whether it is possible for Corfu to target new markets and rebrand,  To come to conclusions on a more effective operation of the DMO and alternative/new branding and promotion techniques and new policies,  And to outline the ideal DMO of Corfu, its optimum operation and the roles it should have 1.6 Organization of the dissertation This dissertation consists of four more chapters, besides the introductory one The Second Chapter includes an extended literature review on DMOs and destination branding and marketing issues with key highlighted areas that have a significant influence on the DMOs operational effectiveness The Third Chapter concerns the Methodology and the selected research methods that match the research objectives which provided the researcher with useful and accurate results The Fourth Chapter includes the data Analysis and a detailed description of the answers with a summarization of the common answers to each question and, in some cases, an explanation of the contrasting opinions The Fifth and final Chapter will provide certain recommendations and proposals to be followed by the DMO and future research guidelines Chapter 2: Literature review 2.1 Introduction Tourism nowadays is one of the largest industries worldwide, employing about 210 million people in all continents and having a high contribution in the GDP of many countries, especially those depending on tourism (Holden, 2005) Mediterranean coastal and island destinations depend on the tourism industry (Igoumenakis, 1997) and such a case is Corfu (the case examined in this dissertation) It is essential to create and handle a strong brand name effectively and, by considering destination branding and the competitive environment the destination marketing organizations (DMOs) operate in, it is understood that by this procedure (branding) the desirable benefits will emerge because, through Destination branding, an identity and a positive image is built and a specific destination may be distinguished and identified by means of various brand elements (Prebensen, 2007) In this chapter a literature review will be provided in relation to the DMOs and their roles regarding destination marketing and management and to the broad topic of destination branding and the existence of interconnections between DMOs and destination branding will be examined 2.2 Destination Marketing & Management – DMOs and their roles Historically, in DMOs the “M” stands for Marketing while recently there has been a discussion in literature about the swift from Destination Marketing to Destination Management Organizations 2.2.1 Organizational Structure and legal entity: DMOs have different names and forms They can be National Tourism Organizations (NTO), Regional Tourism Organizations (RTO) or Local Tourism authorities (LTA) (Pike, 2008) According to the same author, there are lots of different names for DMOs A short list includes: agencies, authorities (British Tourism Authority), boards (Corfu Tourism Promotion Board), bureaus, centres, coalitions, companies, commissions, councils, corporations, destinations (Destination Northland), directorates (Crete Tourism Directorate), developments (North East England Development Agency), institutes, ministries (Greek Ministry of Tourism Development) , offices, organizations (Cyprus Tourism Organization) and Regions During the ΄90s, new types of names such as “Τravel”, “Τourism” and “Visit” (Visit Cambridge ) were “introduced” The organizational structures of a DMO can vary depending on the destination’s “quality” of offered products and services, the funding levels (Gartrell, 1994) and the type or character of the destination.(Morrison et al, 1998) Some represent a single 10 ... opinions The Fifth and final Chapter will provide certain recommendations and proposals to be followed by the DMO and future research guidelines Chapter 2: Literature review 2.1 Introduction Tourism... The Third Chapter concerns the Methodology and the selected research methods that match the research objectives which provided the researcher with useful and accurate results The Fourth Chapter. .. Organization of the dissertation This dissertation consists of four more chapters, besides the introductory one The Second Chapter includes an extended literature review on DMOs and destination