Branding tourism destinations II.: online appearance and communication of the brands of Hungarian destinations

Abstract

OBJECTIVE OF THE ARTICLE
Internet has restructured and dynamited the tourism sector, creating an unavoidable communication channel for the touristic players. These changes holds possibilities, as well as challenges for the tourism destinations (those areas, which possess infrastructure and services so as to be the end of a journey for travelers.) Among the new intermediaries created by the changes held by internet, the so called destination management organizations can sell the tourism service suppliers in the area. This chance possess great challenges in the dynamic, fierce and transparent competition, mainly in the virtual area. The objective of this article is to analyze how the Hungarian destinations use the online communication tools, particularly in the regard of communicating their brands, with the focus of the newest online trends. It was important to research the branding strategy of the destinations, and to analyze how successful do they crystallize their uniqueness, and differentiate themselves through logos, and slogans.

METHODOLOGY
This research was made through structured content analysis, with the help of the students of Budapest Metropolitan University, in co-operation with the Hungarian Tourism Destination Management Society. During the research the self-applied destinations were analyzed so as to introduce the best practices, and the development needs.

MAIN RESULTS
According to the results, it can be seen that the Hungarian destinations are getting conscious regarding their brand building strategy. Though in few cases there is a lack of distinction regarding crystallizing their uniqueness in the frame of messages, further on meeting the requirements of online trends.

PRACTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS
Among the development recommendations the conscious situation-, market analyses is needed and to crystallize the uniqueness of the destination. These steps should be made through researches, and community-based planning. Further on the objective is to create logos and slogans based on these uniqueness, with the segmented use of the web and social media platforms, on a way that meeting the needs of mobile-, and search engine optimization.