The international journal of tourism research tập 13, số 04, 2011 07 + 08

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH Int J Tourism Res 13, 307–309 (2011) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.858 Editorial Marketing Innovations for Sustainable Destinations The genesis of this special issue arose from papers presented at the third Advances in Tourism Marketing conference held in Bournemouth, UK, in September 2009 This conference, which built on the previous successes of the first and second conferences held in Mugla, Turkey, and Valencia, Spain, in 2005 and 2007 respectively, set out to explore, analyse and evaluate the state of the art in tourism marketing from an international perspective and bring together academic researchers, policy‐makers and practitioners from around the world This was achieved with over 160 delegates present at the conference including representation from the private and governmental sectors as well as a number of leading publishers in the field of tourism With papers submitted to the conference covering a considerable breadth of thematic areas, this special issue seeks to bring together a select number of papers that offer specific insight into innovative aspects of marketing and the means by which such activity leads to the greater sustainability of destinations It is hoped that the papers selected for inclusion in this special issue, and that successfully navigated a second round of blind peer reviews, help raise levels of awareness of issues not traditionally associated with the management and marketing of destinations and evoke critical insight into what we consider to be innovative marketing themes In view of the above, the first paper by Alvarez and Campo focuses on Turkey as a destination and the determination of the effect of controllable and uncontrollable sources of information on the country and destination image as two separate constructs Their paper establishes the greater influence of the controllable sources (promotional video) as opposed to the uncontrollable ones (news video) via the selection of a pre‐post experimental design, with a control group Therefore, the study findings demonstrate that tourism promotional information improves Turkey’s destination image and its preference in terms of visitation, in contrast to the news, which does not affect the image in any significant manner The second paper by Kimbu offers many interesting insights into the development of tourism in the Central African sub‐region generally and the particular issues and challenges being faced by those trying to develop tourism in Cameroon more specifically Although sub‐Saharan Africa has performed well of late vis‐à‐vis tourism growth during the last five years, with average growth rates of +12% in 2006 and +6% between 2007 and 2010, there remains considerable diversity in the rates of growth of the individual countries with a number falling well behind the rates of growth being experienced by countries located in Eastern and Southern Africa Many of the problems attributed to the likes of Cameroon have been put down to an inability to position, promote and market the wider destination in a manner commensurate with the demands of the international marketplace and the consequent Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 308 expectations of tourists Finding resources to properly fund the development of tourism has been challenging, whereas the overall political commitment to tourism more broadly has been inconsistent at best By drawing on an in‐depth knowledge of the country and its particular context, Kimbu offers an insightful paper, which brings home the considerable challenges that exist for those wishing to successfully market such destinations and for the myriad of public and private sector stakeholders that are eager to move the destination forward and so reach its potential in what clearly is a very challenging and difficult marketplace Coles and Fenclova offer a very different paper in that they focus their attention on the means by which low‐fares airlines contribute to the development of destinations where they exercise their rights to fly By taking a very novel and innovative stance, Coles and Fenclova examine the charity component of corporate social responsibility activity among low‐fares airlines flying to and from the UK rather than focusing on the well‐trodden path of the actual business model itself As a concept, responsibility is now an accepted dimension in the governance and management of tourism destinations In an increasingly neoliberal political context where the state is either unwilling or unable to regulate and fund travel and tourism, voluntary relationships among stakeholders are viewed as more important than ever in serving to mediate the sustainable development of destinations As a key destination ‘citizen’, low‐fares airlines have a crucial and increasingly responsible role to play in the development of destinations As such, this engaging paper offers some very valid insights into how low‐ fares airlines interact with local ‘destination’ communities and citizens in this regard and how they are embedded in tourism business models and functions The paper examines critically the means by which low‐fares airlines understand their socio‐cultural responsibilities and, in particular, how these are manifested through their charitable activities The paper begins by outlining the relationship between corporate philanthropy and contemporary corporate social responsibility before offering a conceptual framework upon which the subsequent empirical analysis is based Interestingly, although the lean production model of low‐fares Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Editorial airlines not naturally suggest a positive inclination towards charity and philanthropy, the paper concludes that their scope and spread are in fact far more widespread than one would have imagined The fourth paper by Lee and Arcodia again takes a very different direction in that it investigates the role of regional food festivals for destination branding and the characteristics of regional food festivals that contribute to building a destination brand Food festivals have grown exponentially in number in recent years in many countries, whereas interest in food tourism has become an increasingly recognized form of recreation and tourist attraction Although previous studies have explored the role regional food festivals can play in economic development more broadly and the development of regional tourism more specifically, this study explicitly looks at its impact on branding and attempts to migrate the research focus away from similar studies that have focused on sport events and large events in metropolitan areas to food generally and food in regional destinations more explicitly With vastly different structures and levels of community involvement and commitment required than the previous types of events, food festivals are a worthy source of research scrutiny with their contribution to the development of destination brands most appropriate Due to the increased number of regional food festivals and the paucity of knowledge in existence as to their organization and contribution to the destination, Lee and Arcodia are correct to highlight the need for such research on the role of regional food festivals for destination branding to respond to the increasing interests on regional development and on the festival management techniques to maximize its role in building a destination brand The next paper, by Ene and Schofield, highlights the extent to which the short‐break market has been under investigation from the perspective of consumer decision‐making research, despite its considerable economic importance for so many destinations The paper adopts a strong theoretical stance in that it examines consumer decision making in the budget short‐break city market and adopts an integrated approach to the problem domain by adapting and extending Hansen’s (2005) consumer decision‐making framework to include cognitive, affective and Int J Tourism Res 13, 307–309 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Marketing Innovations for Sustainable Destinations conative dimensions Although a number of consumer decision‐making models have featured motivation, supply, demand, value, price, quality, cues, information and emotions in an attempt to improve understanding of the process, frequently in the tourism domain, such models have assumed a vacation scenario and its associated criteria such as extensive information search and high levels of risk and insecurity, items not always apparent in the context of short breaks Hence, despite the growth in demand for breaks of a short duration, and their obvious economic importance to so many destinations, Ene and Schofield justly argue the case for more research in this domain and the need to question the lower risk, lower involvement and more limited information search behaviour often attributed to such patterns of consumption Therefore, this paper responds to these challenges and sets out three clear objectives, namely, the need to identify the dimensions of budget city break consumer decision making; examine the role of emotions in budget city break decision making; and, analyse the characteristics of dimension‐based a posteriori budget city break market segments The sixth and final paper in this special issue by Schmallegger analyses the case of the Flinders Ranges, a rural‐remote destination in South Australia; documents the strategies that the regional tourism system has used to diversify its market base; and identifies the factors that have allowed the system to develop internal systems‐of‐innovation dynamics Schmallegger highlights the considerable decline in visitors to Australia’s Outback since the late 1990s, with much of this decline attributed to traditional loyal markets such as organized coach tours, backpackers and the long‐distance self‐drive transit market and the inability of Outback destinations to adapt to changing market trends over the past decade and diversify their destination experiences to attract new alternative origin markets This paper does, in fact, strike at the very core of the purpose of this special issue because what appears to be lacking in the Outback of Australia are the very marketing innovations destinations require to ensure longer‐term sustainability, most notably in the Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 309 arena of product development and destination marketing to redefine their image and market position However, for such activity to occur, Schmallegger argues that destinations need to be able to operate as ‘systems of innovation’, which engage the whole range of public and private sector organizations involved in tourism in processes of collective change Interestingly, the paper concludes that the Flinders Ranges tourism system has only been able to overcome internal structural weaknesses by the importation of externally trained entrepreneurs and public sector leaders with questions remaining over the efficacy of centralized state and regional tourism organizations in supporting such change In bringing this introduction to a close, the editors hope that the diversity of the papers included in this special issue offer some genuine insight into the multitude of issues, challenges and opportunities that face those responsible for the management and marketing of destinations Finally, the editors would like to extend their thanks to the many colleagues who kindly reviewed papers for this special issue and the timely and professional manner with which all reviews were undertaken REFERENCES Hansen T 2005 Perspectives on consumer decision making: an integrative approach Journal of Consumer Behaviour 4(6): 420– 437 ALAN FYALL International Centre for Tourism & Hospitality Research, Bournemouth University, UK METIN KOZAK Mugla University, Turkey LUISA ANDREU Universitat de València, Spain JUERGEN GNOTH Otago University, New Zealand SONJA SIBILA LEBE Maribor University, Slovenia Int J Tourism Res 13, 307–309 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH Int J Tourism Res 13, 310–323 (2011) Published online 21 February 2011 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.838 Controllable versus Uncontrollable Information Sources: Effects on the Image of Turkey Maria D Alvarez1,* and Sara Campo2 Department of Tourism Administration, Bogaziỗi University, Istanbul, Turkey Marketing Department, Autónoma University, Madrid, Spain ABSTRACT The study aims to determine the effect of controllable and uncontrollable sources of information on the country and destination image as two separate constructs The research is carried out in the context of Turkey as a developing country through the use of a pre- and post-experimental design with a control group The study establishes the greater influence of the controllable sources (promotional video) as opposed to the uncontrollable ones (news video) The findings show that tourism promotional information improves Turkey’s destination image and its preference in terms of visitation in contrast to the news, which not significantly affect the image Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Received 16 September 2010; Revised January 2011; Accepted 10 January 2011 Keywords: country image; destination image; information sources; experimental design; Turkey INTRODUCTION T he concept of country image has been studied extensively from various perspectives including tourism and international marketing Country image has mainly *Correspondence to: Dr Maria D Alvarez, Department of Tourism Administration, Bogaziỗi University, Hisar Kampỹs, Bebek, Istanbul 34342, Turkey E-mail: alvarezm@boun.edu.tr been investigated in relation to the country of origin effect, which determines that the image of a country may influence the perceptions of the products that are manufactured there (Lee and Ganesh, 1999; Laroche et al., 2005) In contrast, the tourism literature has primarily focused on the image of countries as tourism destinations, which has been found to affect satisfaction, loyalty and perceptions of quality (Chon, 1990; Baloglu, 2000; Bigné et al., 2001) Although these two constructs have been analyzed under different viewpoints, more recently, researchers have called for the need to investigate the impact of tourism activities on both country and destination image as two different albeit related constructs (Mossberg and Kleppe, 2005; Campo and Alvarez, 2010) Image is a dynamic concept (Gartner and Hunt, 1987; Chon, 1991; Fakeye and Crompton, 1991; Gartner, 1993) that may change due to previous experience (Dann, 1996) or when the individual is exposed to various sources of information (Martin and Eroglu, 1993) In this sense, several studies have been used to determine how this additional information influences the image formation process (Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; McCartney et al., 2008), and researchers have distinguished between those sources that originate from marketing activities and which are managed, and those that cannot be controlled for such as news, movies and other media However, there is insufficient research regarding the effect of uncontrollable sources of information on the image of a country (Sönmez and Sirakaya, 2002) as well as a lack of comparative studies of controllable versus uncontrollable sources Additionally, recent research that investigates Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Controllable versus Uncontrollable Information Sources the difference between country image and destination image (Mossberg and Kleppe, 2005; Nadeau et al., 2008; Campo and Alvarez, 2010) indicates that there is a need to separate both concepts when analyzing the effect of communication strategies on the image of a country It is therefore important to establish to what extent marketing communications and other information related to the country has a varied influence on the general country image and the destination image Thus, the main objective of the research is to determine the effect of controllable versus uncontrollable sources of information on the country and destination image as two separate constructs The research specifically compares the influence of audiovisual information, using a promotional video as the controllable source and a news video as the uncontrollable one This effect is investigated in the context of Turkey as a developing country In order to assess the varied influence of these sources of information on the two image concepts analyzed and to provide a better comprehension of their influence through a separate analysis of perceptual changes (Sönmez and Sirakaya, 2002), an experimental design is used PREVIOUS RESEARCH The image of a place has been defined as ‘the sum of beliefs and impressions people hold about places Images represent a simplification of large number of associations and pieces of information connected with a place They are a product of the mind trying to process and pick out essential information from huge amounts of data about a place’ (Kotler et al., 1993, p 141, as cited in Kotler and Gertner, 2002, p 251) In parallel, destination image is determined as ‘a totality of impressions, beliefs, ideas, expectations and feelings accumulated towards a place over time’ (Kim and Richardson, 2003, p 218) Image is thus defined as a complex construct that includes cognitive evaluations related to beliefs, as well as affective ones, including feelings and emotions (Baloglu and McCleary, 1999) Several studies have also advocated the existence of a third component of image, the conative one, which refers to the behavior of the individual following the evaluation of the place (Gartner, 1993; Parameswaran Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 311 and Pisharodi, 1994; Dann, 1996; Choi et al., 2007) Image is also generally considered as being multidimensional in nature, and including the individual’s evaluation of various aspects regarding the place (Baloglu, 1997; Gallarza et al., 2002) Nonetheless, authors such as Echtner and Ritchie (1991) and Stepchenkova and Morrison (2006) stress the need to include a holistic as well as an attribute-based evaluation Thus, a common conceptualization of image establishes that the cognitive and affective components contribute to the formation of the overall image construct (Lin et al., 2007; San Martín and Rodríguez del Bosque, 2008) Despite the similarity of these two conceptualizations of image, recent studies propose that, when applied to the context of countries, the general image of the country, and that of the place as a tourism destination need to be distinguished From a theoretical perspective, Mossberg and Kleppe (2005) determine that country image refers to a combination of generic associations that are unrelated to a specific context, while destination image encompasses the tourists’ view of the place and its tourism attractiveness In the case of developing countries, the destination image may be significantly more positive than the more general country image as shown by studies relating to Nepal (Nadeau et al., 2008) and Turkey (Campo and Alvarez, 2010) The process by which image is formed may also be different for the country in general and the destination Image formation may be defined as ‘a construction of a mental representation of a destination on the basis of information cues delivered by the image formation agents and selected by a person’ (Tasci and Gartner, 2007, p 414) Thus, information regarding the place may be obtained from varied sources, and the individual may rely on different information when considering the country from a tourism perspective or from an economic, political or sociological point of view For example, diverse sources of information, including historical events, culture and traditions, the level of industrialization and the products commercialized as ‘made in’ (Roth and Diamantopoulos, 2009) may lead to a composite or stereotyped evaluation of country image In contrast, the destination image may Int J Tourism Res 13, 310–323 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 312 be affected to a greater extent by other different kinds of sources such as photographs, articles written about the destination and promotional activities carried out by various tourism stakeholders Thus, it is paramount that research is carried out to establish to what extent country and destination image may be influenced by various information sources The literature on the image formation process has been significantly influenced by Gunn (1972) and his pioneering dual theory that establishes that image is developed both internally, through experience and visitation, and externally, through information sources received Gunn also distinguishes between the induced image, created through promotional efforts, and the organic one, resulting from news items and other non-paid for sources Based on this distinction, Gartner (1993) states that the image formation process is based on a continuum in which sources (or agents, using Gartner’s terminology) can be classified into eight different levels according to their degree of autonomy from and control by marketers The first type of induced agents includes traditional paid sources such as TV and print ads Information from tour operators, product endorsements and other more autonomous sources follow News, information received from friends and relatives, and finally visitation are at the other end of this continuum Following this literature, several studies differentiate between the controllable and uncontrollable sources of information and determine that the less controllable sources may be more effective due to their higher credibility (McCartney et al., 2008) Specifically, Butler (1990, cited in Kim and Richardson, 2003) states that the information transmitted through news and movies has a greater effect on the destination image formation due to its more trustworthy nature News items and popular culture may portray places and have a significant impact on how these destinations are viewed, especially due to their often high level of accessibility and reach (Kim and Richardson, 2003) Similarly, mass media is also seen as an important information source, as it not only transmits but also interprets the information, thus having a strong influence in the formation of perceptions (Hall, 2002), including destinations A significant relationship between Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd M D Alvarez and S Campo the affective destination image and the type of information source has also been found in previous research (Baloglu and McCleary, 1999) In lieu of previous experience at the destination, visual information regarding the place is thought to be particularly effective in projecting images as it provides a vicarious experience of tourism services that are intangible in nature As image is formed by cues, visual promotional material is important to communicate the dimensions of the destination to an individual who has not visited the place before (Tasci and Gartner, 2007) Thus, advertising and other ways of conveying visual information are important for marketers as these sources allow them to select various attributes and aspects of the place in order to induce a particular image (Tasci, 2009) However, these promotional efforts may be undermined by autonomous sources such as movies or TV news items that may also portray visual information and transmit aspects of the destination out of the control of the marketer (Tasci, 2009) Particularly in the case of Turkey, the international press has contributed to create a negative image through its coverage of the political problems in the country, especially those related to the Kurdish and Armenian minorities (Manỗo, 1999) Historical, geographic and political factors have also influenced the views regarding this country For example, Boria (2006) states that the predominantly unfavorable image that the Europeans hold of Turkey is based on historical reasons, which include the crusades and the incursions of the Ottomans in European territory On the other hand, Turkey’s position in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East has resulted in its frequently being perceived as similar to neighboring countries such as Iran, Iraq and Syria (Öztürkmen, 2005) Wars and terrorism in the region have also contributed to the poor perceptions regarding Turkey (Sönmez and Sirakaya, 2002) Thus, studies carried out from the tourism perspective (Sönmez and Sirakaya, 2002; Tasci et al., 2007) or within the political and historical context (Manỗo, 1999; Fuller, 2004; Boria, 2006; Hỹlsse, 2006) have remarked on the mainly negative image of Turkey Despite these unfavorable results regarding Turkey’s image obtained in previous studies, its tourism destination image may be very Int J Tourism Res 13, 310–323 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Controllable versus Uncontrollable Information Sources different Recent studies have determined that initial negative perceptions of Turkey are changed through the tourists’ visitation of the country (Alvarez et al., 2009) Its wealth of historical, cultural and natural resources, which are important attractions for tourists, may explain this finding Furthermore, in relation to Turkey, there seems to exist a significant difference between its negative image from the political point of view and its tourism destination image (Öztürkmen, 2005; Alvarez and Korzay, 2008) Therefore, the case of Turkey represents an interesting area of investigation to evaluate the differences between country image and destination image Following these studies, the present research aims to analyze the influence of audio-visual sources of information that are used for promotional objectives and are controllable by the marketer versus that of the uncontrollable mass media information broadcasted by the international press within the context of Turkey The effect of the information received is assessed for both the country and the destination image as two separate constructs Furthermore, the impact of these sources on the intention to visit and preference for the destination is also considered METHODS The research is based on the use of an experiment in line with the studies of Kim and Richardson (2003) and Tasci et al (2007) in order to compare the influence of controllable versus uncontrollable sources of information on the image of Turkey as a country and as a tourism destination The use of experimental methodology was deemed to be appropriate in order to establish causal relationships and to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the image formation process (Sönmez and Sirakaya, 2002) With this in mind, the data were collected at two points in time, using a pre- and post-experimental design with a control group In order to obtain a relatively homogeneous sample and eliminate random sources of error, the research was conducted using undergraduate tourism students in one of the main universities in Spain as subjects Homogeneous samples, such as those supplied by students, Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 313 have been found to be suitable for theory building studies as random sources of error may be eliminated (Calder et al., 1981; Burnett and Dunne, 1986) Therefore, the input of the students was obtained in class during both phases of the research, and the participants were offered a small academic incentive to increase the response rate In addition, in order to further reduce the heterogeneity of the sample, only students of Spanish nationality and those who had not previously visited Turkey were included as subjects in the research, thus increasing the internal validity of the experiment The data were collected through a survey in which the respondents were required to evaluate the image of Turkey as a country and as a tourism destination and to determine their intention to visit it In the first phase of the research carried out in the spring of 2008, a total of 198 questionnaires were obtained from the undergraduate tourism students, representing approximately 70% of all those enrolled in the three-year tourism program at the university where the investigation was completed The other 30% includes those students who are either not Spanish nationals or who have visited Turkey in the past In the second stage, which was carried out six weeks after the first one to minimize recollection, the same subjects were assigned to three different groups While two of the groups were exposed to the research stimuli before being requested to complete the same questionnaire again, the third one was used for control purposes and only filled in the survey In this second phase, 180 questionnaires were obtained, of which 157 were filled by those students who had also participated in the first stage At both points in time, the students were identified in the surveys to compare the responses before and after the exposure to the stimuli Two stimuli were selected in order to include both controllable and uncontrollable sources of information for comparison purposes As part of the marketing communication sources that can be controlled for, a promotional video of Turkey as a tourism destination produced by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism was used This audio-visual material was being utilized at the time of the research to promote Turkey in Spanish and other foreign television Int J Tourism Res 13, 310–323 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 314 M D Alvarez and S Campo Table Descriptive statistics on the level of knowledge regarding Turkey Level Level Level Level Level Level a of of of of of of knowledge knowledge knowledge knowledge knowledge knowledge on on on on on on historical aspects cultural aspects political aspects economic aspects the country in general the touristic attractions Meana Standard deviation 2.78 3.09 2.40 2.36 3.19 3.63 1.34 1.30 1.26 1.13 1.12 1.32 = completely unknowledgeable; = completely knowledgeable channels and had successfully been used in the study of Tasci et al (2007) It included an overview of the natural and cultural attractions of Turkey and its tourism resources On the other hand, as part of the uncontrollable information sources, the researchers selected a news item about Turkey that had previously been emitted on Spanish television The news video was chosen after reviewing the audio-visual items on Turkey available on the websites of the main Spanish press channels on the month before the research The chosen piece explained in a neutral and objective tone the political situation of Turkey and the polarization of the Turkish society due to the ban to use headscarves in universities Both of the videos used as stimuli were of comparable length in order to ensure that all the respondents were required similar processing effort.1 Similarly, the employment of a single audio-visual format to convey two different sources, controllable and uncontrollable, was based on the need to use a comparable medium Therefore, instead of contrasting different sources in varied formats (see Gartner, 1993, for a list and a detailed description of the characteristics of diverse sources), a single one was preferred Further research may build on the findings of the current study by comparing several controllable and uncontrollable sources that use different media in a more comprehensive fashion Given the dynamic nature of images, and the fact that tourists may review their opinions The videos used can be accessed through the following links: news item — http://www.elpais.com/videos/ internacional/Turquia/levanta/prohibicion/velo/ universidades/elpvidint/20080207elpepuint_5/Ves/; and promotional video — http://www.kultur.gov.tr/ EN/belge/2-21524/eski2yeni.html Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd regarding the country and the destination after visitation or when exposed to further information (Martin and Eroglu, 1993; Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; Kim and Richardson, 2003; Alvarez et al., 2009), only those respondents who had not previously visited Turkey were kept as study subjects Furthermore, the researchers attempted to control the level of knowledge through the inclusion of questions in the survey in which the respondents were asked to evaluate their knowledge regarding historical, cultural, political, economic and general aspects of the country together with their level of information regarding tourism resources Table summarizes the descriptive statistics on these questions, and determines that the level of knowledge of the respondents about Turkey is quite low, especially concerning economic and political issues Measurement and scales The country image and destination image constructs were measured using a multidimensional perspective to include cognitive, affective and overall dimensions The researchers went through an extensive scale development process where a comprehensive listing of items from existing scales (Han, 1989, 1990; Martin and Eroglu, 1993; Baloglu and Brinberg, 1997; Baloglu and McCleary, 1999; Altınbas¸ak, 2004; Beerli and Martín, 2004; Passow et al., 2005; Lin et al., 2007; Tasci et al., 2007) were collected, tested and refined through the use of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis into more parsimonious measures.2 These analyses are not included in the current paper, but can be provided to those interested in greater detail upon request Int J Tourism Res 13, 310–323 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Controllable versus Uncontrollable Information Sources These analyses yielded a cognitive country and destination image component measured through 12 and items respectively and represented by four different dimensions (refer to Table 2) The cognitive country image is measured by the factors ‘notoriety and reputation’, ‘security’, ‘level of development’ and ‘respect for liberties’ The cognitive destination 315 image also encompasses four dimensions: ‘notoriety of the destination’, ‘cultural attractions’, ‘tourism services’ and ‘entertainment and leisure’ Similarly, the affective country and destination image measures include a single dimension with six and five items respectively In order to measure the stability of the scales, the data were collected in two Table Scales used in the research Cognitive country image: indicate the level of your agreement to the following statements (1 = highest disagreement level; = highest agreement level) Notoriety and reputation (alpha first period = 0.56; second period = 0.67) Turkey is an important country (CC1) Turkey is a well-known country (CC2) Turkey is a country with a good reputation (CC3) Security (alpha first period = 0.73; second period = 0.79) Turkey is a secure country (CC4) Turkey is a peaceful country (CC5) Level of development (alpha first period = 0.82; second period = 0.81) Turkey is an economically developed country (CC6) Turkey is an economically stable country (CC7) Turkey is an industrialized country (CC8) Turkey is a technologically developed country (CC9) Respect for liberties (alpha first period = 0.79; second period = 0.84) Turkey is a country that respects liberties (CC10) Turkey is a country that respects human rights (CC11) Turkey is a country that respects international laws (CC12) Affective country image: seven-point semantic differential scale (alpha first period = 0.87; second period = 0.89) Dislike — like (CA1) Distrust — trust (CA2) Does not inspire me confidence — inspires me confidence (CA3) Do not admire — admire (CA4) Annoys me — does not annoy me (CA5) Arouses bad feelings — good feelings (CA6) Overall country image: in general, my opinion of Turkey as a country is totally negative — totally positive (seven-point scale) Cognitive destination image: indicate the level of your agreement to the following statements (1 = highest disagreement level; = highest agreement level) Notoriety of the destination (alpha first period = 0.59; second period = 0.53) Turkey is an exotic destination (DC1) Turkey is a popular destination (DC2) Cultural attractions (alpha first period = 0.77; second period = 0.90) Turkey has interesting cultural attractions (DC3) Turkey has interesting historical attractions (DC4) Tourism services (alpha first period = 0.70; second period = 0.71) Turkey has high quality accommodation (DC5) Turkey offers high quality tourism services (DC6) Entertainment and leisure (alpha first period = 0.70; second period = 0.68) In Turkey, there are a variety of leisure and entertainment options (DC7) There are good shopping alternatives in Turkey (DC8) Turkey has a good nightlife (DC9) Affective destination image: seven-point semantic differential scale (alpha first period = 0.86; second period = 0.90) Unpleasant — pleasant (DA1) Exciting — peaceful (DA2) Boring — entertaining (DA3) Sad — cheerful (DA4) Unfriendly — friendly (DA5) Overall destination image: in general, my opinion of Turkey as a destination is totally negative — totally positive (seven-point scale) CC, cognitive country image; DC, cognitive destination image; CA, affective country image; DA, affective destination image Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Int J Tourism Res 13, 310–323 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 386 D Schmalleger, A Taylor and D Carson Figure Visitors to Outback Australia 1999–2009 (Tourism Research Australia, 2010) THE NEED FOR REJUVENATION IN OUTBACK AUSTRALIA The recent weak performance of Outback destinations suggests that the destination life cycle of Outback tourism has entered a stage of decline or at least stagnation (Faulkner, 2002; Prideaux, 2009), which threatens the long‐term viability of tourism in these areas To manage successful market transition and rejuvenate declining destinations, destination systems need to, first and foremost, recognize and accept that their traditional market is in fact changing (Faulkner, 2002; Schmallegger, 2011a) If destinations fail to recognize the need for change (because they seek to maintain old market and industry structures), they will be unlikely to develop new marketing and development approaches and will remain unable to capture new markets (Figure 2b) In his study on rejuvenation processes of the Gold Coast in Queensland (Australia), Faulkner (2002) noted that some of the major barriers to rejuvenation were inertia and institutional lock‐in that stifled the development of new management and marketing practices An entrenched fixation on products and experiences that were successful in the past caused key decision makers in the destination to resist change A similar scenario has recently occurred in Central Australia Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd (Northern Territory), which has long been one of Australia’s most iconic Outback tourism destinations with major tourist hubs such as Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Alice Springs Since the 1970s, Central Australia has developed into an international mass tourism destination – a process which has been mainly reliant on large‐scale investment in infrastructure and marketing by government and external resort operators (Schmallegger and Carson, 2010) Due to large sunken costs involved in destination development, the Northern Territory Government (as the destination’s key decision maker) has refused to explore alternative development approaches to protect and sustain previous forms of development It has largely refused to admit to obvious market changes and has instead invested even more in marketing existing development to declining sightseeing markets (Schmallegger and Carson, 2010) The destination’s mass tourism development path has become locked‐in and has failed to diversify Faulkner (2002) argued that rejuvenating a maturing or declining tourism destination requires fundamental changes to past management and marketing practices Most importantly, it requires the whole tourism system to recognize that approaches of the past will no longer work in the future Yet, once this need for change has become recognized, destinations Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Rejuvenating Outback Tourism through Market Diversification 387 Figure Market transition management model (Schmallegger, 2011a) are still at risk if they not have the capabilities and the knowledge to develop appropriate strategies to capture new markets (Figure 2c) For example, Central Australia’s mass tourism development path has become so focused over time on government investment and external investors that the destination has failed to develop a local base of entrepreneurial skills that could develop new strategies to diversify the destination (Schmallegger and Carson, 2010) To attract and capitalize on new markets, destinations arguably have to adopt new approaches to destination development and marketing For such innovation to happen, destinations cannot rely on the actions of individuals but need to operate as regional tourism innovation systems (Figure 2d) Regional tourism innovation systems have the capacity to engage the whole range of public and private sector organizations involved in the destination in processes of collective change (Carson and Jacobsen, 2005; Hall and Williams, 2008; Hjalager et al., 2008) Through interactions and knowledge exchange, they develop a climate for innovation that encourages individual businesses and organizations within the system to create and implement innovative ideas within a collaborative and competitive environment To analyse a destination’s capacity to Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd operate as a regional tourism innovation system, Carson and Jacobsen (2005) developed a ‘system‐of‐innovation’ framework for regional tourism destinations This framework includes information on the entrepreneurial capabilities and economic competence of system stakeholders, their network and cluster dynamics, knowledge creation and exchange mechanisms, as well as the role of various levels of government in stimulating new tourism strategies (Carson and Jacobsen, 2005) Remote regions will naturally face more challenges than urban centres in developing regional innovation systems They are characterized by geographic isolation and dispersal, a lack of private sector entrepreneurs, a lack of critical mass of resources and infrastructure, a lack of skills and access to relevant knowledge, low levels of networking and learning dynamics and a lack of internal political control over decision making (Virkkala, 2007; Doloreux and Dionne, 2008) What adds to the problem in remote tourism destinations is that tourism development and marketing are often dependent on funding from centralized government agencies (Wanhill, 1997; Hall and Boyd, 2005) Although regional tourism organizations (RTOs) exist for Outback destinations in Australia, they are funded (and ultimately controlled) by the STOs In many cases, RTO Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 388 offices are not located in the respective regions but in the major population centres (i.e state capitals), meaning that decisions regarding regional tourism marketing and development are mostly co‐ordinated from outside Centralized co‐ordination and government intervention in tourism are not uncommon, as government is commonly believed to be responsible for absorbing or preventing expected ‘market failure’ on a destination level (Jenkins, 2000; Lennon et al., 2006) Remote destinations are highly susceptible to such market failure due to their inherent structural weaknesses and are therefore even more likely to rely on government investment and co‐ordination How remote destinations can overcome their structural weaknesses and adopt processes of innovation to achieve successful destination rejuvenation remains an important question The following case study looks at the Flinders Ranges in South Australia The Flinders Ranges destination has recently started to successfully diversify its destination experience to differentiate itself from the rest of the Outback and combat decline in traditional visitor markets (Schmallegger, 2009, 2011a) The research investigates the strategies and processes that the regional tourism system in the Flinders Ranges has employed to rejuvenate the destination It examines the various roles of public and private sector stakeholders in the diversification process and identifies the factors that have allowed the system to develop internal systems‐of‐innovation dynamics METHODS The findings presented in this paper are part of the results from a larger study that analysed the capacity for innovation of the Flinders Ranges tourism system (Schmallegger, 2011b) Data were drawn from 54 in‐depth interviews that were conducted between March 2008 and March 2009 The aim was to interview a range of private and public sector stakeholders involved in the Flinders Ranges tourism system to obtain the widest possible variety of opinions and perspectives on tourism development in the region The sampling process used a combination of purposive sampling and ‘snowballing’ (where new interview participants were recruited based on Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd D Schmalleger, A Taylor and D Carson recommendations from other participants) Interview participants included private tourism operators, local government representatives, members of the RTO (Flinders Ranges and Outback SA Tourism [FROSAT]) and the STO (the South Australian Tourism Commission [SATC]), representatives from the two economic development boards responsible for the Flinders Ranges (the Northern Regional Development Board and the Southern Flinders Ranges Development Board), managers of local visitor information centres, and external tourism consultants and project managers Table gives a brief outline of the composition of the interview sample Interviews were semi‐structured and followed a broad interview guideline based on Carson and Jacobsen’s (2005) ‘system‐ of‐innovation’ framework for regional tourism destinations The guideline included questions about the past and current tourism development strategies employed by the various private industry and government players involved in the Flinders Ranges tourism system More specifically, interview questions sought to identify (i) who the main innovators and driving forces were behind new tourism development strategies; (ii) how and why new strategies were developed; (iii) what sort of network, collaboration and knowledge exchange mechanisms were set up within the tourism system to implement new strategies; and (iv) how government agencies were involved in stimulating new development strategies All interviews were audiotaped and subsequently transcribed and analysed against Carson and Jacobsen’s (2005) framework, using qualitative content analysis and thematic coding (Veal, 1997) Interview data were supplemented with secondary data obtained from newspapers and public documents (e.g regional/local economic development plans and tourism strategies), minutes from council or tourist board meetings, as well as brochures and websites from local operators and tourism associations Data were triangulated to uncover the major barriers and success factors that the tourism system has experienced in the process of rejuvenating the destination and becoming a tourism innovation system Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Rejuvenating Outback Tourism through Market Diversification 389 Table Sample of interview participants Type of interview participant N Private business owners Farm/station owners offering farm‐based tourism products Tourist resort owners Caravan park owners Owners of hotels (combined accommodation and restaurant facilities) Other accommodation providers (B&Bs, hosted accommodation) Restaurant/café owners Guided tour operators Other business owners involved in tourism marketing committees Tourism managers of FROSAT and SATC Representatives of regional development boards Local government representatives Visitor information centre managers Tourism project managers and consultants Total 35 3 3 3 54 B&B, bed and breakfast; FROSAT, Flinders Ranges and Outback SA Tourism; SATC, South Australian Tourism Commission THE FLINDERS RANGES The Flinders Ranges are part of the largest regional tourism destination in South Australia —the Flinders Ranges and Outback SA region —which comprises almost two‐thirds of the whole state (Figure 3) The Flinders Ranges are a range of mountains stretching some 400 km in length, commencing around 200 km north of the state capital Adelaide The area is divided into three subregions: the Southern, Central and Northern Flinders Ranges The Southern Flinders Ranges are the most densely populated area and include the council districts south of Port Augusta: the Port Pirie Regional Council (with the main towns Port Pirie and Crystal Brook), the District Council of Mount Remarkable (Melrose, Booleroo Centre and Wilmington), the Northern Areas Council (Jamestown, Laura and Gladstone), the Orroroo/Carrieton Council and the District Council of Peterborough The Central Flinders Ranges comprise the areas north of Port Augusta including the Flinders Ranges Council (Quorn, Cradock and Hawker), the unincorporated townships of Parachilna and Blinman and a number of pastoral stations outside the main towns The Central Flinders Ranges host the Flinders Ranges National Park, which includes Wilpena Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd Pound—a scenic craterlike rock formation—as its most famous attraction The rugged and very remote Northern Flinders Ranges include the mining towns of Leigh Creek and Lyndhurst, the small townships of Copley and Beltana, the Aboriginal communities of Iga Warta and Nepabunna, the Arkaroola and Warraweena conservation sanctuaries and the Vulkathunha‐ Gammon Ranges National Park Increased tourism activity in the Flinders Ranges began in the 1970s when the major roads north of Port Augusta were sealed and the region became more accessible to independent tourists and organized coach tours (Soil Conservation Council of South Australia, 2004) Independent tourists were primarily self‐ drive tourists from Adelaide (usually couples or families) who were on a camping holiday (Delforce et al., 1986) Non‐commercial activities, such as bushwalking and sightseeing around Wilpena Pound and the Flinders Ranges National Park, as well as further north at Arkaroola, dominated itineraries of tourists throughout the 1970s and the 1980s (Flinders Ranges, Outback SA Tourism, 1983) The Flinders Ranges were also a popular transit destination for coach tours on their way from Adelaide to Alice Springs Tourism products along the way, including accommodation, restaurants or guided tours, were concentrated Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 390 D Schmalleger, A Taylor and D Carson Figure Map of the Flinders Ranges (adapted from Flinders Ranges, Outback SA Tourism, 2007) around a few bigger resorts in the vicinity of Wilpena Pound and Arkaroola These places were regularly visited by coach tour operators because they offered facilities that could cater to larger groups Tourism products outside these main hubs were relatively few and far between This clustering of tourism products persisted until the mid 1990s when economic restructuring, fluctuating commodity prices and a long‐term period of drought encouraged more local farmers and pastoralists to diversify their incomes and develop tourism operations on their properties (Northern Regional Development Board, 2008) With the help of a range of government‐sponsored economic support programmes (such as the drought relief funding), pastoralist families have since developed a range of farm‐based tourism products, such as accommodation in converted shearers’ quarters and adventure four‐wheel drive (4WD) tracks on pastoral properties In addition, new in‐ migrants increasingly started to open up small tourism businesses across the region from the mid to late 1990s These trends have resulted in a more dispersed and small‐scale type of tourism development, with several new bed and breakfasts (B&Bs), cafés, restaurants and guided tour Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd operations being set up in places that had usually not seen many tourists in the past REJUVENATING THE FLINDERS RANGES According to data from the NVS and IVS (Tourism Research Australia, 2010), total visitor numbers in the Flinders Ranges have declined by around 3.7% between 1999 (about 445 000 visitors) and 2009 (about 428 000) The Flinders Ranges have lost a considerable part of their international visitor market, with international visitor numbers having decreased by about 33.7% between 1999 and 2009 However, their domestic visitor market (which accounts for up to 90% of the total visitor market) has remained relatively stable The decline in the international market can be explained by a strong decline in the international backpacker market (−33.2%) and the international coach market (−14%) Also, domestic coach travel has declined by over 25.8% between 1999 and 2009, whereas self‐drive travel (in private or rented vehicles, camper vans and motorhomes and 4WD vehicles) has increased by over 10% The number of tourism businesses in the Flinders Ranges appears to have increased Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Rejuvenating Outback Tourism through Market Diversification over the past decade A comparison of product listings in the regional visitor guides (2000–2008) showed an increase from around 100 advertised tourism businesses in 2000 (including accommodation, restaurants, cafés and tours) to around 145 tourism businesses in 2008 Data from the National Regional Profiles (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2010) showed a similar trend, with tourism businesses (including accommodation, restaurants and cafés but not tours) having increased from 111 in 2004 to 135 in 2007 These trends suggest that the Flinders Ranges tourism industry has started to adjust to changing markets – away from a highly concentrated mass market (such as coach travellers and backpackers who used to consume products from a small number of large resort operators and tourism clusters) to a more dispersed and low‐volume self‐drive market (which is more likely to use small businesses such as B&Bs, caravan parks and restaurants/cafés in different places) In addition to changes in the industry structure, there have been a number of attempts since the mid 2000s by local tourism operators and organizations to diversify the Flinders Ranges tourism image and develop new market niches The most notable initiatives have been as follows: (1) the increasing development of high‐end accommodation facilities (such as luxury self‐contained villas and hosted farmstays) to attract the growing wealthy baby boomer market and exclusive fly‐in charter tourists; (2) the development of high quality food and wine experiences based on typical ‘bush foods’ and Outback‐style cuisine (e.g kangaroo, emu or camel products; products made from the local native quandong fruit; bush spices; and local wine from the Southern Flinders Ranges); (3) the development of the ‘Mountains of Memory’ geotourism strategy aimed at rebranding the region as a geotourism destination (following the discovery of ancient fossil fields in the region); (4) the development of a cycling tourism strategy focusing on the development and marketing of infrastructure and products for the special interest cycling market; Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 391 (5) the introduction and promotion of new tourist activities, such as mountain biking, camel safaris, water cruises, hot air ballooning and associated guided tour products; and (6) the introduction of new annual events, including a week‐long culinary festival (‘Tastes of the Outback’), an art festival (‘A Brush with Art’), mountain bike competitions (‘Fat Tyre Festival’, ‘Tour Up Over’), and a music festival (‘Rock the Mount’) ISSUES AND SUCCESS FACTORS IN THE DIVERSIFICATION PROCESS Image and product diversification in the Flinders Ranges has been a very slow and challenging process One of the major challenges was the past lack of capable tourism entrepreneurs in the region With the exception of a few larger resort operators (such as Wilpena Pound Resort, Rawnsley Park Station and Arkaroola Resort), many local business owners could be classified as ‘constrained’ or ‘non‐entrepreneurs’ (Ioannides and Petersen, 2003) whose willingness to invest and become committed to tourism on a full‐time basis was limited In particular, farmers and station owners diversifying into tourism often considered tourism as a part‐time secondary business activity that was clearly subordinate to farming interests They were often resistant to spending time and resources on upgrading or changing their tourism products to not upset or compromise farm activities A common strategy for them was to offer tourism products that had a very limited service component and required little contact with tourists Examples included ‘B&Bs without breakfast’, self‐ contained accommodation in shearers’ quarters (where tourists have to bring their own food and linen) and 4WD tracks where tourists pay for access to private station tracks Other businesses might be more into [tourism] and invest a lot more (…) whereas we will always be farmers Tourism is a sideline for us I mean, it’s been really handy and the [4WD] track is just easy money We’ve got the infrastructure here and the tourists just come, pay Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 392 the money, and off they go (Station owner, Central Flinders Ranges) Many local operators with a farming background had what Kneafsey (2000) and Baum (1999) described as a strong inherited ‘dependency culture’ in tourism They had apparently become used to the fact that government was usually providing financial support and protection for the farming sector (through crisis relief funding, major infrastructure investment and single‐desk commodity marketing boards) and expected the same level of government support in tourism For example, local operators mostly expected local and state governments to invest in new tourism‐related infrastructure, such as interpretation centres, public art displays, heritage attractions, hiking trails or public resting areas In some towns, local government had to step in as an entrepreneur and raise funding for new tourism attractions (such as the historic Steamtown railway precinct in Peterborough) to compensate for the lack of private sector investment Local operators also expected government to pay for local brochures and marketing campaigns and to provide small businesses grants to upgrade existing accommodation facilities We are all very much dependent on grants So it really depends on how active council is in getting grants If council is active in getting grants for tourism projects, like the one in Orroroo or the one in Peterborough, then lots of stuff is happening in tourism If not, there is not much you can with it (Member of local progress association, Southern Flinders Ranges) In addition to the lack of entrepreneurial commitment, the traditional focus on producing homogenous bulk commodities (such as wool and grain) appears to have limited the ability of many local farming businesses to think ‘outside the square’ and identify new product niches in tourism Many interview participants acknowledged that locals used to be less creative in their product and marketing strategies in the past and often opted for the easiest and least investment intensive product options (such as converting old shearers’ quarters or station tracks into tourist infrastructure) Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd D Schmalleger, A Taylor and D Carson Local operators were highly risk averse and preferred to copy product ideas from other operators once these products had proven viable This ‘copying mentality’ created a very homogenous product structure throughout the 1990s While local operators were happy to open up farm‐based accommodation and 4WD tracks (because their neighbours were doing the same), they did not appear to recognize the need for other complementary products (e.g restaurants and cafés, guided tours and activities, arts and craft, entertainment and events) to build an overall destination experience for visitors There needs to be more experiences that people can sort of package up If they are opening up their 4WD tracks or converting their shearers’ cottages into B&Bs or whatever, that’s fine, but it still needs to be more happening than just providing access and converting some buildings It’s got to provide some core experiences Or what Rawnsley was doing They provided access to a completely different market with their new ecovillas, rather than just doing the same that everybody else is doing (Member of SATC) New innovative product ideas in tourism were further constrained by a relatively low degree of competition between local operators As many of them had a background in farming, they were used to delivering raw materials to national wholesalers for pre‐ arranged prices They were not used to thinking competitively in tourism and did not seem to recognize the need to differentiate their products from their neighbours’ products to gain competitive advantage Instead, they considered each other more as fellow business owners who shared a common destiny in farming and pastoralism They seemed to empathize strongly with each other, and motivations to outperform other operators were rather low I suppose it’s good that more of these sorts of things [converting old shearers’ quarters] happen around here because we’ve had some really bad years out here, which were really tough for all of us (…) And now there’s more of us doing it, and we all show support for each other Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Rejuvenating Outback Tourism through Market Diversification I don’t think we see each other as competitors (Station owner, Central Flinders Ranges) Despite these challenges, the tourism system has managed to slowly increase its product diversity over the past decade One of the key factors in this process was the increasing number of in‐migrants who became local tourism entrepreneurs from the mid to late 1990s They included amenity migrants (who moved to the region for a lifestyle change), marriage migrants (who moved to the region by marrying into local families) and return migrants (who moved back home after having gained education and/or work experience elsewhere) Confirming previous studies in rural and peripheral tourism destinations (Kneafsey, 2000; Luke, 2003; Müller, 2006), these in‐migrants were more likely to recognize product gaps and address new market niches in the Flinders Ranges When we first came here (…) I just noticed that the food generally became more boring the further north you went You get burger or snitzel but nothing else So, I knew I had to something in this direction Same with coffee! You couldn’t get a good cappuccino or a good latte up here when I was a tourist (In‐migrant, operating a restaurant/hotel in the Central Flinders Ranges) In‐migrants introduced and strengthened several new product streams, such as high‐ end accommodation (including new luxury B&Bs and hosted farm stay accommodation), food and wine experiences (new cafés, restaurants and cellar doors), new activities (such as mountain bike tours and competitions, camel safaris, water cruises and hot air ballooning) These product streams were then picked up and supported by the RTO and STO In‐ migrants were frequently experienced travellers and had a good understanding of visitor demands They were generally well educated, had very good external connections for promotion and product distribution (e.g with external tour operators and the media) and better access to external funding and knowledge sources They appeared less risk averse than local operators and less likely to rely on Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 393 government investment for the development of new product ideas [S]o many times I hear from people ‘Why isn’t the Tourism Commission doing anything?’ or ‘Council should be doing this!’ And I just think ‘You know what? Why don’t you just get off your arse [sic] and just go out there and it yourself?’ Support will come It’s just too easy to sit back and wait for everybody to it for you (In‐migrant, operating a guided tour business in the Central Flinders Ranges) In‐migrants gradually developed into new tourism role models and provided inspiration for local operators who were willing to take tourism more seriously Many local operators, driven by their ‘copying mentality’, have since started to imitate new product ideas introduced by in‐migrants – a trend that has lifted the standard and diversity of tourism products in the area over the past few years For example, several local operators have started over the past five years to upgrade their accommodation facilities into more high‐end accommodation offers Some have started to offer new guided tours or have opened new cafés focusing on regional produce Others have started to participate in the hosting of special interest events, such as mountain bike competitions, the ‘Tastes of the Outback’ food and wine festival or the ‘A Brush with Art’ event Some of the smaller ones have been really influenced and inspired by what [Operator A] does, and they are now trying to the same with what they have got and improve their standards So, a lot of them are upgrading their accommodation now, and they are a lot more committed to it (Regional tourism development officer) A second key factor in stimulating greater product diversity in tourism has been the ‘import’ of skilled public sector tourism leaders, such as tourism development officers within the regional development boards Again, these public sector leaders were in‐ migrants (or return migrants) who were trained and educated externally and had worked in leading tourism positions elsewhere before moving to the Flinders Ranges They Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 394 had the knowledge and experience required to manage more complex tasks such as strategic planning, grant writing and obtaining market knowledge from external experts They had a good understanding of market dynamics and had the ability to recognize gaps in the regional product offer For example, the regional tourism development officers were fundamental in driving new product development strategies, such as the implementation of the cycling tourism strategy in the Southern Flinders Ranges and the increased focus on developing food and wine experiences Something that we probably have to work on in the Southern Flinders Ranges, especially when you get away from the Ranges as such, is to be different (…) So really we have to make a point of difference And what the Southern Flinders Ranges is trying to is cycle tourism as a point of difference And that’s where [the regional tourism development officer’s] work is so important because he is constantly out and trying to identify new trends and opportunities and communicate them to the operators (Local government representative, Southern Flinders Ranges) Public sector leaders have also started to recognize the need for increased knowledge production in the region to encourage new development In the past, market research into changing market trends and visitor demands used to be almost non‐existent in the region Local operators did not see a need for monitoring market trends and conducting their own research Instead, they expected SATC and FROSAT to inform them about new trends or development and grant opportunities Even FROSAT used to rely on SATC for conducting market research and feeding knowledge into the region However, local operators and former marketing managers confirmed that the top–down diffusion of market knowledge from SATC to the region (and in particular to small operators) has traditionally been limited According to representatives from SATC, knowledge support for small businesses (particularly in remote regions) was not a priority for the STO Research produced by SATC (information on market trends, new marketing Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd D Schmalleger, A Taylor and D Carson opportunities and commissioned in‐house research studies) was often reserved for contracted clients and not passed on to regional marketing managers or local businesses, unless they specifically asked for it It was not until recently that tourism development officers and tourism consultants working in the region recognized the need for more targeted market knowledge and started to conduct their own research into new product development opportunities, such as cycling tourism or food and wine tourism We did a good survey this year with ‘Tastes’ [of the Outback] We found that something like 36 percent of our Adelaide market were from the eastern suburbs, which is our high disposable income market, and like 48 percent were travelling in a 4WD (…) So that’s really helped us in trying to find new partners for these events and sponsors But also, we can target our market now a bit better I mean, we WANT those people with a bit more disposable income! So that was some good research and that went back out to all of the Tastes operators (Tourism project manager) Public sector leaders have also been fundamental in the creation of a new networking and learning culture among the local tourism industry Prior to 2000, networking and collaboration between local operators, and also between local government districts, across the region used to be very limited due to strong industry fragmentation This fragmentation has been the result of the way state‐enforced tourism boundaries were defined in the past The FROSAT destination was set up by SATC to include the various local government districts of the Southern Flinders Ranges, the largely unincorporated areas of the Central and Northern Flinders Ranges, as well as the vast and very remote Outback SA region However, this state‐driven definition of tourism boundaries did not consider historically embedded boundaries that used to separate the Southern from the Central and Northern Flinders Ranges and from the Outback SA region For example, people from the agriculturally dominated south had a very limited history of working with people from the Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Rejuvenating Outback Tourism through Market Diversification pastoralism and mining‐dominated north and did not consider themselves as belonging to one and the same region The very sparsely populated Outback SA was considered a whole different region again, which had little in common with the towns in the Flinders Ranges As a result, industry stakeholders from different subregions had limited motivations to form cross‐regional networks for marketing or joint product packages People have to link their products and become a bit better with packaging It seems kind of basic but it hasn’t been a big thing in this area There has only been a casual sort of intermixing of businesses in the past, particularly between the north and south (…) It maybe exists within some of the bigger businesses but it is certainly not a culture out here (Regional tourism development officer) In 2002, representatives from the Northern Regional Development Board initiated the development of tourism‐specific industry cluster groups to encourage operators to increase internal collaboration and capacity building These cluster groups later merged to form a destination‐wide Flinders Ranges Tourism Operator Association (FRTOA), which is now run by volunteering operators (including locals and in‐migrants) This association has since taken a leading role in creating a platform for operators to meet and network on a regular basis and share new knowledge and ideas The group has started to organize regular training forums for ‘constrained’ operators to increase their skills in marketing and product development Guest speakers from SATC and other external speakers have increasingly been invited to these forums to make external market knowledge more accessible to the local industry For example, past training forums have included seminars on brochure and Web design, the use of new information and communication technologies, interpretation skills for guided tour operators, media management skills and seminars on how to package products with external tour operators This has created unprecedented levels of enthusiasm among local operators as they started to discover the benefits from joining training forums and from networking with Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 395 more professional and experienced tourism operators in the FRTOA group Operators almost unanimously agreed that the formation of FRTOA has increased the level of collaboration and networking in the region Another good thing is that it [FRTOA] encourages that sort of cohesion within the region They have now started to think about ‘How can we package things? How can we say ‘Come to the Flinders for three days and stay here, this, eat there, and that!’ Instead of just all pushing their own barrels So, collaboration and clustering, or whatever you might want to call it, has become much stronger in these terms (Tourism consultant) The FRTOA association has also increased the level of self‐confidence and internal cohesion among the local tourism industry as it provided a platform for operators to mobilize against state government marketing strategies Small and ‘constrained’ operators increasingly joined the association following discontent with the way SATC and FROSAT had traditionally been marketing the region Small operators used to feel very frustrated as marketing activities by SATC and FROSAT were seen as primarily focusing on the promotion of large tourist resort operators and iconic tourism hubs instead of the smaller operators and townships Small operators felt that funding support was only available to large businesses and other government priorities (e.g Aboriginal tourism businesses) that provided the desired destination images that SATC could use to promote the state internationally FROSAT or SATC, they are always over‐ promoting certain places and really just pushing particular spots and operators They shouldn’t be pushing individual operators so much but rather the area as a whole and the small communities, because the Flinders Ranges really is a lot of small businesses and they are the people who would need the support from the tourism commission And that’s where FRTOA is so good for us (Small local operator, Central Flinders Ranges) Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 396 The FRTOA group was the driving force behind the implementation of the ‘Mountains of Memory’ geotourism strategy, a project that sought to rebrand the Flinders Ranges The project received $250 000 worth of external funding from the federal Australian Tourism Development Program and resulted in the development of a new branding strategy, a communication and marketing strategy, a geotourism interpretation strategy, a merchandising strategy and a training and capacity building programme for local operators The local tourism industry strongly supported the project because operators considered it as an operator‐driven initiative for the Flinders Ranges only, instead of a state government‐ driven project for the whole of the FROSAT destination The geotourism strategy was clearly an attempt on behalf of the FRTOA to differentiate the region from the larger Outback SA area However, integrating the new Flinders Ranges brand with general marketing efforts from FROSAT and SATC was difficult FROSAT’s marketing brochures and the destination website were bound to follow SATC’s branding and marketing guidelines They had to promote both the Flinders Ranges and the Outback SA and, therefore, could not incorporate a separate Flinders Ranges brand South Australia Tourism doesn’t really want another brand around in the market They’ve got their ‘Brilliant Blend’ logo and they use that for their boundaries But the FRTOA certainly see the Flinders as a significant and separate product (…) FROSAT is not interested in the stuff that has come out of the ‘Mountains of Memory’ branding strategy (…) FROSAT is compelled to things across the regions so it won’t just purely Flinders stuff If we want purely Flinders stuff we have to it ourselves (Tourism project manager) The fact that the private sector, dominated by small‐scale operators, was able to conduct and implement a major tourism development strategy ultimately resulted in increased financial and in‐kind marketing support from SATC After the completion of the geotourism project in 2008, the region became officially recognized as one of Australia’s ‘National Landscapes’ – a Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd D Schmalleger, A Taylor and D Carson marketing programme introduced by Tourism Australia to promote Australia’s most iconic landscapes to international key markets This has somewhat converted the Flinders Ranges into a tourism ‘hot spot’ for SATC aiming at attracting more international marketing coverage for the state CONCLUSION This research has suggested that the ability of a tourism system to rejuvenate a declining tourism destination appears to be largely dependent on two major factors: (i) the ability and willingness to recognize decline and accept the need to change the past patterns of tourism marketing and development, and (ii) the ability to engage the entire system with its collective of stakeholders in processes of change that can result in new innovative marketing and development strategies (Faulkner, 2002; Carson and Jacobsen, 2005; Schmallegger, 2011a) The literature suggests that the capacities of peripheral regions to function as regional innovation systems are limited due to issues such as geographic isolation, a lack of infrastructure and resources, a lack of entrepreneurs, a lack of skills and access to relevant knowledge, a lack of network dynamics, and dependence on external decision makers (Virkkala, 2007; Doloreux and Dionne, 2008) This research has looked at the case of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, a remote destination that has been affected by substantial market changes and visitor decline over the past decades The research has examined how the Flinders Ranges destination has been able to stimulate processes of change and diversification in tourism to attract alternative markets The research found that market diversification in the Flinders Ranges has been a very recent process that only emerged relatively slowly over the past five to six years Before that, the region was struggling with the same difficulties and barriers to innovation that have commonly been documented in the peripheral tourism literature (Ioannides and Petersen, 2003; Hall and Boyd, 2005) The tourism system was mainly reliant on a small number of large resort operators but had otherwise little local entrepreneurial capacity Like in Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr Rejuvenating Outback Tourism through Market Diversification many other Outback destinations, products were very homogenous, and the destination lacked clusters of complementary experiences to help attract alternative markets (other than coach travellers, backpackers and domestic self‐drive travellers looking for camping and budget accommodation) Despite clear evidence of decline, the RTO and the STO contributed very little to encourage change and diversification Instead, state‐ funded marketing continued to promote experiences, attractions and businesses that used to be the major drawcards for the region in the past Similar to the situation in Central Australia (see Schmallegger and Carson, 2010), destination marketing practices by the RTO and the STO appeared to have become somewhat ‘locked‐in’, albeit for different reasons In Central Australia, the government sought to ‘protect’ past forms of large‐scale government investment in tourism by refusing to accept decline and investing even more to sustain existing tourism structures In the Flinders Ranges and Outback SA, the failure to recognize the need for change was more likely linked to the fact that the region was simply not considered a marketing priority by the STO in the past The region was neither a tourism hotspot for large external investors (such as national or international hotel chains and tourism wholesalers) nor a popular destination that could attract high volumes of international tourists As a result, there used to be very limited marketing and financial support for small local tourism operators and few efforts to stimulate more local entrepreneurship and diversify the destination experience The main reason the destination has still managed to stimulate market diversification is that the Flinders Ranges tourism system has been able to ‘import’ external people and knowledge and use these external resources to enhance the local industry base The introduction of new people (through amenity, marriage and return migrants, as well as externally trained public sector leaders) has been instrumental in recognizing the need for change and diversification Unlike local operators, in‐migrants were not constrained by entrenched and outdated marketing and development practices in tourism They were able to recognize gaps in the existing product Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 397 structure and had the required skills and motivations to implement new ideas and business models Although previous studies have often commented on the potential to harness in‐migrants (in particular amenity migrants) for tourism development in rural and remote regions (see, e.g Kneafsey, 2000; Luke, 2003; Müller, 2006), the actual role of in‐ migrants as innovation leaders has not been well explored to date and may warrant some further investigation The results of this study suggest that in‐migrants played a fundamental role in increasing the region’s innovation capacity by becoming role models for local ‘constrained’ operators and stimulating learning among the local industry Imported public sector leaders were a driving force in the creation of more proactive and collaborative industry networks such as the FRTOA group, which eventually lead to the development of the geotourism branding strategy and the achievement of ‘National Landscape’ status Again, these new projects were dependent on imported people who managed to stimulate new practices, such as networking and collaboration, among the local industry and enabled the system to implement new industry‐driven initiatives It is important to note that, once such initiatives gained some momentum, the STO and the RTO were actively supporting them through financial and in‐kind contributions However, it was not the STO or the RTO to identify and kick‐ start new initiatives in the first place Recent strategies by imported public sector leaders to focus more on internal knowledge creation also suggest that external people have come to recognize that they cannot rely on state and regional marketing organizations to generate knowledge and drive new development initiatives Knowledge is often described as a key in innovation processes (Carson and Jacobsen, 2005; Doloreux and Dionne, 2008; Hall and Williams, 2008) – yet most STOs appear to be doing a poor job in producing and disseminating knowledge to regional (particularly remote) destinations It appears that the traditional focus of STOs on marketing and promotion diverts funds and attention away from tasks such as research and development (Jenkins, 2000; Lennon et al., 2006), meaning that they are likely to be in a poor position to Int J Tourism Res 13, 384–399 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/jtr 398 drive market innovation Being primarily concerned with promotion also means that STOs face substantial conflicts in admitting to market failure (and thus recognizing the need for research and new strategies to change past practices) As observed in the Northern Territory (Schmallegger and Carson, 2010), STOs may be reluctant to admit to a market failure as it would cast a poor light on the destination performance and could compromise promotional efforts The discussion above raises questions about the role of state government‐funded tourism organizations in tourism innovation processes Whereas STOs claim to play a fundamental role in supporting regional tourism destinations and stimulating their capacity to innovate (Hall and Williams, 2008; Hjalager et al., 2008), this study has shown that STOs were only marginally involved in recognizing the need for change and developing new strategies Instead, the ability of the Flinders Ranges destination to diversify and respond to market decline was primarily reliant on the initiatives of (imported) private sector actors backed by the support from (imported) public sector leaders This research is of relevance to other destinations, not just in remote areas, that are currently struggling with declining tourism markets It points to the need for tourism systems to recognize themselves as such and to actively take steps to reduce their reliance on government initiatives and investment for the stimulation of innovation and rejuvenation Although there may be a role for institutions like STOs in the diversification of tourism products and experiences at local levels, the failure of these in bringing about such developments in Outback Australia (despite clear evidence of declines in market shares and visitor numbers) should remind regions of the importance of internally generated processes ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia (RGSSA) and the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC), who provided funding for the Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd D Schmalleger, A Taylor and D Carson fieldwork of this study The views expressed herein not necessarily represent the views of the RGSSA or the DKCRC REFERENCES Australian Bureau of Statistics 2010 National Regional Profile Available at http://www.ausstats.abs.gov au/ausstats/nrpmaps.nsf/NEW+GmapPages/ national+regional+profile?opendocument (accessed 14 June 2010) Baum T 1999 The decline of the traditional North Atlantic Fisheries and tourism’s response: the cases of Iceland and Newfoundland Current Issues in Tourism 2(1): 47– 67 Carson D, Jacobsen D 2005 Knowledge matters: harnessing innovation for regional tourism development In Regional Tourism Cases: Innovation in Regional Tourism, Carson D, Macbeth J (eds) Common Ground: Melbourne; 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