Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Tourism Management and Hospitality
Year: 2024
DOI:
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The Digital and Online Perception of the Azores and Madeira Brands as Tourist Destinations
Catarina Varão
ABSTRACT:
The construction of the Azores and Madeira Brands will have undergone a laboration based on the constitution of a Name, Symbol, Graphic Representation that identifies them, in the projection of a consistent and memorable form of travel experiences associated with the destination. In practice, it aims to consolidate and reinforce emotional links between the visitor and the destinations and finally reduce the feeling of cost of consumption and risk (Curtis, 2001; Park and Petrick, 2006). A complex process that will have distinct chronological stages in its touristification process between Azores and Madeira, since their tourism path background differ. Everything begins and ends in branding. Extraposed to social networks, in addition to mupis, promotion and advertisements dictated by the “old” marketing, Brand defines itself, in Tourism as a form of benefits suggestion and as a tool to create an image of a destination that is coherent, built from the singularity [of the island] and, consequently, reinforce local identities. What identities? The starting point will be to understand the involvement of resident communities (respect for destination’s integrity, participation of inhabitants as stakeholders in tourism in the island context, perceptions), in the face of what is communicated online and projected in the digital world. Briefly, this article analyzes data usually used by travelers upon their search before choosing an online destination such as Tripadvisor, social networks, chatgpt and a study of the digital antiquity of each destination in order to interpret to what extent coherence is found in the brand image that the destinations of the Azores and Madeira intend to transmit.
keywords: insular touristification; island branding identity; online tourism image; chatgpt in tourism; AI in tourism development