Managing participatory destination branding: Insights from the Aarhus resident ambassador program
Journal of Place Management and Development
ISSN: 1753-8335
Article publication date: 7 November 2019
Issue publication date: 16 June 2020
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the contemporary interest in participatory destination branding. Because of a lack of empirical and evaluative studies on this form of branding, the current case study examines a volunteer resident ambassador program, which began as part of Aarhus, Denmark’s year as a European City of Culture in 2017, and has become permanent because of its success.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study is based on official document analyses, participant observations of program activities, and interviews with volunteer program managers and volunteers who greet cruise ship tourists.
Findings
Findings indicate that while the two managers and the volunteers all report on three volunteer roles – personal hosts, place promoters and providers of information – they prioritize and understand the roles differently. Similarly, the volunteers’ encounters with visitors are all unique, and this inevitably results in the conveyance of unruly and incidental destination images.
Practical implications
This unruliness is not necessarily problematic: despite the wide-spread interest in the management of participative branding initiatives, it is seen to be the lack of explicit brand-centered management that fosters the program’s positive outcomes, including authentic and pleasant interactions between volunteers and tourists, which, in turn, result in positive attitudes amongst tourists toward their visit.
Originality/value
This study discovers that positive participatory destination branding outcomes depend on managers respecting the ambassadors’ coveted autonomy, and letting go of control of a destination brand. Because of the growing hostility toward mass tourism in cities internationally, it is also noted that a resident ambassador program’s success is expected to depend on residents’ positive attitudes toward tourists.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the rethinkIMPACTS 2017 organization (a partnership between Aarhus 2017 and Aarhus University) for the funding and complete freedom to carry out an independent study of my choice.
The author would also like to thank the interviewees who shared their invaluable time and insights.
Citation
Trapp, N.L. (2020), "Managing participatory destination branding: Insights from the Aarhus resident ambassador program", Journal of Place Management and Development, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 241-253. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMD-01-2019-0002
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited