Eureka! Institutional Repository

Usual consumer products are generally connected directly to their manufacturer and their manufacturer’s country and image. Yet, many products may not be connected to the image of the country they are actually produced in, but the country where the company originally started business, even though that most of such products are made in third countries. Tourism is by far more complicated: products have to be produced at the same time and place the tourist and the destination co-exist.. Furthermore, products themselves cannot be separated from the image of the place they are produced in. Tourism products can get an even harder riddle: a destination image may not even be compatible with the image of the respective country! The same problems apply to destination branding as well. Whereas in consumer products, companies can affect their brand and image, destinations can hardly do so. Even where a Destination Management Organization exists, it usually acts just as an advisory commission and it rarely has any actual authority. This paper will address the unexplored complication of tourism destination, and it will try to suggest a step-by-step policy framework targeting onto achieving communal cooperation in destination management and destination / country image and branding.