Annals of the University of Oradea: Economic Science (Jul 2011)
THE BRAND EQUITY OF TOURISTIC DESTINATIONS - THE MEANING OF THE VALUE
Abstract
In today's global economy, each place competes with other places for economic benefits. Destination has become a product that has to be promoted and sold in the most advantageous terms. The work bellow is an analysis of "brand equity" concept for touristic destinations, as found in the specific literature. Destination brands differ from product brands, major distinction being given by their stability/ instability. Brands of products are stable; this constant is maintained by the use of quality standards. Even in case of services, situation can be controlled, as quality standards could be perpetuated by a franchise system. Destinations are not depending on a single person, who decides, but a variety of them, economic agents, businesses, institutions and local population that can create/print form and structure changes of the destination. The concept de brand equity applied for touristic destinations, is something relatively recent. The dimensions of a brand for touristic destinations are: awareness, image, loyalty, quality and value. All these dimensions build the branding equity of a destination. There is interdependency, between quality, image, loyalty and value. In order to determine the perception in regards to the quality of tourism services in Romania, in 2010 a comprehensive study was done among the inhabitants of Oradea city. Through this study we have pursued several objectives: to assess the importance of service characteristics, performance evaluation of tourism services in Romania, tourism personnel evaluation, in terms of evaluation and performance, perception of the quality-price ratio for Romania, compared with other tourist destinations. We call on the exploratory study conducted, as the value of the dimension- destination of the brand equity is given by the price-quality ratio. Using an explorative study on the market of Oradea city, it was highlighted the connection between perception of touristic services, estimation price-quality (value) and the loyalty potential of the foreign clients in proportion with the Romanian tourists, consumers of the Romanian touristic products.
