The USA is nominated the first place in global travellers rank in 2009 according to FutureBrand, a consulting firm.That is mainly due to the so called “Obama factor”. In my opinion, it is an interesting result, because Obama’s “brand reputation” highly affected the ranking.
As a result of the survey, experts commented on “brand reputation” having a stronger impact on a country’s rank compared to last year. A major event or a great influencer such as the US election with President Obama as the winner, or the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing, China made the awareness of the country higher. Since the survey’s start in 2004, Australia had been awarded first place for three years, but now the USA took over for the first time. Experts predict that the 2010 the FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the Vancouver Olympic Games in the same year will also contribute to build up their brand recognition.
Although Europe has strong country brands due to its historical background, travellers nowadays prefer to get more valuable experiences for their expenses, for instance, a different range of local activities rather than just visiting tourist spots. Some of the European countries such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany are ranked with respect to people’s awareness, familiarity, consideration, decision/visitation, and advocacy. However, in terms of preference, Australia, USA and New Zealand are ranked higher than their European counterparts. As far as I am concerned, I think European countries have to pay more attention to the new trend and adapt to these changes and not rely on history alone.
In order to create a country’s brand for the future, it is considered to be important to maintain its infrastructure and create artificial attractions from the visitor’s point of view. Some experts predict that China, South America, Southeast Asia, Central and Eastern Europe will become the next fast growing tourist destinations in the near future.
In my point of view, China has a big potential to grow in its field of tourism because of its rich cultural heritage together with the effects of the Olympic Games. Please take a guess which of the country’s tourism industry will grow significantly over the next years?
Probably anywhere out of the Euro zone! Turkey has enjoyed an influx of Western European tourists due to it being a generally cheap destination.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as people look for adventure or eco-tourism, New Zealand wins that! South Africa comes second, it is such an amazing country that I can forsee the World Cup will see a huge rise in tourism and they deserve it!