Nazaré big waves after pandemic waves: Pathways for destination branding

Abstract

Tourism has never been so brutally smacked since the earliest records years in the 50’s. COVID-19 pandemic hit hard every single destination worldwide, as it was never seen before. Nevertheless, this fatality may be envisaged as an opportunity for some destinations to reorganize and set new development pathways. A tourism destination is the result of the interaction of different factors and is also where tourism supply and demand coexist. Thus, adopting a marketing approach in the territorial development domain is justified by the importance of promoting destination uniqueness, supporting territorial competitiveness, building emotional connections and, in the end, attracting visitors. In this context, destinations are increasingly investing on their own brands to create differentiated attributes and highlight their distinctiveness. In this panoply of relationships and interactions, activities and roles, it becomes essential to understand which are the actors who define the strategic and operational destination management, marketing and branding actions. Frequently, each operator seeks the fulfilment of their interests, developing their products or services autonomously, what often translates into contradictory objectives, which are not adjusted to the policies, strategies and image outlined for the destination. In this context, a structure that organizes them and directs individual efforts into a collective movement is fundamental. In Portugal, are often municipalities who assume this important role. With the purpose of establishing innovative destination branding directions for a post pandemic era, we discuss the case of Nazaré municipality, Portugal. This case study highlights local governance responses to a real-time crisis. To fulfill this purpose an in-depth document analysis of the destination tourism policy 2019 and the strategic plan for territorial marketing of Nazaré 2021 was conducted and provided an explorative insight into the case study destination brand approaches before and during the pandemic hazard. Findings reveal conceptual and managerial directions for tourism and marketing researchers and practitioners, particularly concerning planning importance, local supply organization and featured products, tourist’s response to branding arrangements, quality of life of the resident population improvement and investment attraction. 

Keywords: territorial marketing, destination brand, pandemic, Nazaré, case study