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It is observed that many destinations are implementing sport tourism offerings to enhance their ability to attract visitors through satisfying their desires of new experiences. This has led to a highly competitive sport tourism market and as a result destinations engage in various marketing techniques and promotional tools to gain an advantage. For that reason this research was undertaken to acquire a greater understanding of the importance of promotional tools to successfully and efficiently market sport tourism experiences.

The construct of this study comprises of two stages. The aim of the first stage is to evaluate the specific tools used to promote sport tourism and sport tourism experiences in Barbados by examining the responses of various sporting and tourism bodies. The second stage of this research was conducted to present and analyze how marketing/promotional tools could contribute to better market sport tourism experiences.

The research found that many of the promotional tools implemented in Barbados during their marketing process correspond with those used internationally. However, problems of poor and insufficient sporting facilities as well as little collaboration between tourism and sporting entities, hamper the success of Barbados as a sport tourism destination. This further minimized Barbados’ ability to market favorable tourism experiences. This therefore shows that while promotional tools are essential in attracting tourists, other elements must also be taken into consideration to ensure sport tourists have positive experiences which would lead to a successful sport tourism destination.

Few studies in this area have been undertaken in the Caribbean. This study attempts to fill this gap by examining the implementation of sport tourism offerings to attract visitors to Barbados.

County strategic tourism marketing plans have appeared as a relatively new instrument in the conceptualisation of the development of tourism destinations in Croatia. This paper illustrate methodology issues and problems that emerged from drawing up the plans (internal and external). The methodology elaborated upon is based on several basic footholds: multidisciplinary approach, state‐of‐the‐art in destination marketing, applicability, simplicity and straightforwardness, bottom‐up approach and unique methodological framework (taking specifics into account). The current experiences of the Institute for Tourism (Zagreb) point out the importance of the continuous monitoring of the SMPs implementation in practice and further methodology improvements.

Government′s role in the marketing of tourism products is examined. Government intervention varies with the economic value placed on tourism. National Tourism Offices are the key agents of intervention; their role becomes more important as competition in the tourism marketplace increases and consumers become better informed and more demanding. Activities may include: collection and control of visitor data, creation and maintenance of trade contacts abroad, provision of literature and expert advice for the travel trade, and regulation and co‐ordination of an industry characterised by diversity and fragmentation.

Although wine tourism in Australia and internationally is well established, marketing research efforts to date have been negligible. Estimates of visitation to wine regions by domestic and international visitors are based on secondary analysis, and these data do not conform to the accepted definition of wine tourism. Economic indicators of wine tourism at the regional level are based on industry estimates and there is no systematic collection of survey data on wine tourism. Wine Tourism marketing issues at the regional level such as market image and branding, regional identity, facilities, infrastructure, wine tourist expenditure, market research and the government promotion are explored and factors to consider when marketing wine regions are identified.

The immense returns generated from tourist destinations have caused governments to invest to a greater extent in developing the tourism industry, with the aim of improving its market share. Scholars and policy makers for tourism destinations are not simply focusing on attracting more tourists but also on improving the competitive position of their destinations. For this reason, destination marketing has become a fountain for future growth and sustainability of tourism destinations in an increasingly globalized and competitive tourist market. The need to maintain a steady growth in tourism gains has increased pressure on marketers and promoters of Zimbabwe as a destination as they strive to attract and convince current and prospective tourists to partake in their tourism offerings. However, the efforts of various destination marketers in Zimbabwe have been undercut by the hyperinflation and unemployment of the country, which have destroyed both the supply and demand of tourism in Zimbabwe, as it became increasingly expensive, and where social unrest has grown. From a political perspective, the country witnessed fights and other forms of mayhem, which labeled the tourism destination unsafe for tourists' visits.

Marketing agility has gained more attention from scholars and managers due to the current and emerging conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has changed the marketing landscape, resulting in a dramatic shift in consumer behavior in the worldwide lockdowns. Consumers sought an efficient response and reaction in real-time to their changing needs, concerns, and priorities. The shift in consumer behavior and demand forced service enterprises to develop dynamic marketing plans to adjust to the new normal that created unprecedented disruptions in their traditional business. As one of the most dynamic sectors of service marketing, tourism was challenged by the pandemic-related restrictions and contemporary competitive circumstances and faced the destructive, yet transformative impacts of the outbreak. The tourism enterprises all over world were compelled to implement innovations to adjust to the new customer preferences and needs for a sustainable change to develop dynamic marketing solutions. This chapter aims to review and analyze how the tourism enterprises gravitated to a new approach and implemented an agile marketing strategy focusing on the emerging customer priorities, based on analysis of the hotel websites. A functioning group of 4 and 5-star hotels located in Bodrum, Turkey, was selected and their website updates from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to the proliferation of the vaccines were examined considering the official data on inbound, domestic and outbound tourism. The findings provided an insight into the concept of agile in tourism marketing applied to a function characterized by the radically changing conditions that bring in new threats and opportunities.

The smart destination can be defined as a destination that deploys information communications technologies (ICTs) and other technological tools for interactive/participative engagement with prospective visitors. The rationale is to enhance the residents' quality of life as well as the tourists' experiences of the destinations they visit. This chapter discusses about digitization strategies and on marketing superstructures affecting destinations. It advances a conceptual framework through the development of an Attracting, Stay, and Return (ASR) Model that is suitable for smart destinations. It relies on descriptive case studies to conceptualize smart tourism destinations. This contribution reiterates the importance of having a well-designed website that presents appropriate content to entice the prospective travelers' curiosity about destinations. It offers valuable insights and advances new knowledge on smart marketing approaches that are intended to increase the destination management organizations' outreach with tourists at each stage of the ASR Model.

This chapter investigates the current trend toward both creative and experiential tourism in cities in terms of the development and marketing of local attractions.

Creative tourism in cities is profiled through a literature review and further investigated by means of a case study at a local attraction in Toronto, Canada. The choice of a site was one of a creative city and the re-purposing of a formerly industrial site for visitation.

The study of Evergreens Brickworks demonstrated the use of marketing techniques to identify markets and match visitors with experiences. The visitor segmentation method determined that pre-scheduled and bookable activities offered for locals need to be offered on a different basis for tourists, who may be one time visitors to the site. The product-market match process suggested areas in which products could be modified or indeed created.

This practical study offers lessons for other local visitor attractions and their managers desiring to identify market segments and match them with appropriate activities creating experiential tourism at the site level within the creative city context.

While many studies of the creative tourism concept and cities have been undertaken within the context of destinations this research offers a site-specific perspective as well as marketing perspective that will be of practical value to attraction managers.

Many destinations are keen to be a part of the increasing and lucrative luxury tourism market. Before targeting luxury tourists in the marketing efforts, is it essential to understand the meaning of ‘luxury’ and what is considered exclusive? As an emerging luxury destination, Norway certainly offers many attributes that can satisfy the needs of luxury tourists. Marketing luxury provides, nevertheless, challenges for Norway as its main attraction is nature, which is fundamentally free and accessible to anyone. Thus, it is necessary to tailor-make unique nature experiences with luxurious products, resulting in exclusivity and once-in-a-lifetime experiences beyond the masses. Luxury tourists have also been advocated as more sustainable than mass tourists as addition to the issue of carrying capacity; many are also concerned with responsible tourism. Specialist travel agents play an important role in the marketing process as they have first-hand knowledge of luxury tourists as well as acting as guardians of information communicated in marketing. In addition to mainland Norway, the Svalbard islands in the Arctic region may be considered as truly unique and exclusive destinations. While sustainable development is a major concern in Norwegian tourism in general, it is even more vital in the Arctic regions. Therefore, marketing needs to provide a balanced picture of the attractions and attributes in order to become a luxury destination that is sustainable in the long run.

A meta-evaluation is an assessment of evaluation practices. Meta-evaluations include assessments of validity and usefulness of two or more studies that focus on the same issues. Every performance audit is grounded explicitly or implicitly in one or more theories of program evaluation. A deep understanding of alternative theories of program evaluation is helpful to gain clarity about sound auditing practices. We present a review of several theories of program evaluation.

This study includes a meta-evaluation of seven government audits on the efficiency and effectiveness of tourism departments and programs. The seven tourism-marketing performance audits are program evaluations for: Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Minnesota, Australia, and two for Hawaii. The majority of these audits are negative performance assessments. Similarly, although these audits are more useful than none at all, the central conclusion of the meta-evaluation is that most of these audit reports are inadequate assessments. These audits are too limited in the issues examined; not sufficiently grounded in relevant evaluation theory and practice; and fail to include recommendations, that if implemented, would result in substantial increases in performance.