Destination marketing network: A case in Da Nang, Vietnam
Xuan Dam Dong, Thi Quynh Trang Nguyen, Thi Phuong Thao Nguyen, Nguyen Tran Bao Tran/ MICA 2018 Proceedings
International Conference on Marketing in the Connected Age (MICA-2018), October 6th, 2018
Danang City, Vietnam
Destination Marketing Network: A Case in Da Nang, Vietnam
Xuan Dam Donga*, Thi Quynh Trang Nguyenb , Thi Phuong Thao Nguyenb,
Nguyen Tran Bao Tranc
aInternational School of Management and Economics, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam
bFaculty of Tourism and Hospitality, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam
cFaculty of Business Administration, University of Economics, The University of Danang, Vietnam
A B S T R A C T
Tourism destination is a collection of various individuals, groups, and organizations directly or indirectly
participating in tourism development at destination. Interactions and collective actions of these actors are
necessary to promote and market a destination. This is the reason for a wide recognition of collaborative
marketing in tourism destination and networking between actors, aimed to get people visiting the destination.
However, involvement of external stakeholders from other sectors and other destinations is less concerned in
destination marketing network research compared with internal stakeholders; subsequently, aim of this paper
is to fill this research gap by identifying involvement and position of external stakeholders in destination
marketing network. Da Nang city, located in central of Vietnam, is selected as a specific case of networking
for tourism destination marketing. A quantitative network analysis is conducted, using secondary data
collected from news articles in Da Nang, Vietnam. The result identifies a network of inter-organizational
relationship for marketing Da Nang tourism between a range of stakeholders including stakeholders from
other sectors, other destinations, and countries. The findings also show a significant participation of tourism
business sectors and less involvement of local residents in marketing activities as well as a less interaction
between local residents and other stakeholders.
Keywords: tourism destination; destination marketing; marketing network; social network analysis, Da Nang
tourism
1. Introduction
A tourism destination consists of various stakeholders from many sectors in local, national, and international
level (Del Chiappa & Presenza, 2013). Almost all activities related to tourism development and management in a
destination involved a set of actors who interact and communicate with each other. Subsequently, network
analysis is highly appreciated in tourism destinations studies regarding to destination management, marketing,
and governance (Scott, Baggio, & Cooper, 2008).
Networking between organizations and individuals within and outside a tourism destination is recognized as
an important condition for the effectiveness of destination marketing (Aarstad, Ness, & Haugland, 2015, Del
Chiappa & Presenza, 2013, Morrison, 2013). Although in tourism literature, network approach has been
employed to understand structure of tourism destinations and roles of tourism stakeholders in marketing
activities (see for example Del Chiappa & Presenza, 2013, Nogueira, & Pinho, 2015, Presenza and Cipollina,
* Corresponding author. E-mail address: dongxuandam@gmail.com
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2010), these studies focus on internal stakeholders of destinations and tourism industry. Meanwhile, external
stakeholders from other destinations and other sectors might be involved and play an important role in promoting
destination image in regional and international level. Furthermore, there is no scholarly academic research using
network analysis in Vietnam to understand tourism destination marketing. Therefore, this study tries to bridge
this research gap in marketing network research and Vietnam tourism research by providing an application of
network analysis in the context of tourism development in Vietnam.
In doing so, a social network analysis is conducted to visualize the position of tourism stakeholders and their
linkages into a graph of destination marketing network. The destination selected in this paper is Da Nang city – a
provincial destination located in central coast of Vietnam. Interactions between tourism organizations gathered
from news articles and previous relevant academic studies are used to analyze destination marketing network.
The result of this analysis reveals a network of around seventy organizations for marketing the destination. In
this network, provincial destination management organizations play a critical and central role in connecting
various organizations in marketing and promoting tourism destination. This paper has demonstrated the
involvement of multi-stakeholders and their connections in marketing a tourism destination, which contributes to
the success of destination marketing.
The paper is constructed around four sections. The first two sections provide a theoretical background of this
research, including definitions of tourism destinations and destination marketing, aimed to inform the importance
of networking in destination marketing. The third section presents the case of destination marketing network at
Da Nang, which is resulted from a quantitative social network analysis based on secondary data. The final
section discusses findings, contributions, and practical implications for managers and practitioners.
2. Tourism destination
In literature, tourism destination is a fundamental and primary unit of tourism study. World Tourism
Organization (UNWTO) defined a local tourism destination as “a physical space in which a tourist spends at
least one overnight”, which “includes tourism products such as support services and attractions and tourist
resources within one day’s return travel time” (UNWTO, 2007, p. 1). Traditionally, a tourism destination has
been considered as a geographic territory such as a country, a region, an island or town, a rural area, a city, a
resort or a range of experience (Hall, 2000; Page & Connell, 2006). They are separated with others areas by
physical boundaries and have their own administrative management (UNWTO, 2007). Destination is a
combination of different kinds of products, services, and tourism experience that locally provide for tourists
(Buhalis, 2000). According to this perspective, it is undoubted when Saraniemi and Kylanen (2011) considered a
destination as a unit of action to co-create experiences through the interaction of different private and public
stakeholders such as firms, organizations, hosts, and guests.
From a marketing perspective, tourism product of a destination is a combination of different components
(single services such as transportation, hospitality and entertainment) that build up a complete and systemic
product to match needs of tourists. Therefore, a tourism destination has been regarded as agglomerations of
facilities and services conducted to satisfy and serve customers (Cooper, Stephen, Fletcher, Gilbert, & Fyall,
2005). Providers in tourism industry make efforts to understand customers’ behaviours, culture, and
characteristics, then design and deliver exclusive products to satisfy customers’ desire, as “a destination can also
be a perceptual concept, which can be interpreted subjectively by consumers, depending on their travel itinerary,
cultural background, purpose of visit, educational level and past experience” (Buhalis, 2000, p. 97).
From a customer perspective, tourism destinations are places where they travel to, visit, and stay temporarily
for one or many purposes but not making money or migration purposes (Page & Connell, 2006). With them, a
destination might be a resort, an event place, a conventional and business centre, an environmental destination, a
daily-visit or a short-break destination (Page & Connell, 2006). In addition, with tourists, tourism products are
experiences and feelings that they perceive after consuming these products. Subsequently, a tourism destination
is seen as a whole product (Saraniemi & Kylänen, 2011), and suppliers try to deliver as much as positive
experiences and emotions for their customer.
There is no single definition of a tourism destination, and no independence between these approaches, as
tourism destinations are taken more about granted than defined (Pearce, 2014). The view of a tourism destination
as a geographic entity with cultural characters and image is the most important for marketing (Raun, Ahas, &
Tiru, 2016). These create unique selling proposition and unique emotional proposition that are used for
destination branding and positioning (UNWTO, 2007).
Generally, from all above-mentioned definitions and approaches, there are several key characteristics of a
tourism destination. Firstly, a tourism destination is a geographic area where has administrative boundaries,
which means that a tourism destination can be a country, state, province, territory, region, city, and locality
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(Morrison, 2013). Secondly, a tourism destination is a place for tourists to have at least an overnight (Morrison,
2013; UNWTO, 2007). Thirdly, key elements of destination are attractions, public and private amenities,
accessibility, human resource, image and characters, and price (UNWTO, 2007). More importantly, all of
definitions and perspectives on tourism destination recognize the co-location, proximity, and interconnectedness
of a variety of international, national, regional, and local individuals, groups, and organizations and a complexity
of their relationships and interactions. Agglomerations of tourism destination stakeholders including private
sectors, government agencies, non-profit organizations, other individuals and entities related to tourism
(Morrison, 2013) have given a rise for a kind of tourism organizations that play as coordinators and work based
on a network of inter-organizational relationship, called destination management organizations.
3. Destination marketing network
Destination marketing is one of the functions of destination management, aimed to get people visiting
destinations through marketing and promotion programmes (figure 1) (UNWTO, 2007). Destination marketing is
defined as “a continuous, sequential process through which a destination management organization plans,
researches, implements, controls and evaluates programmes aimed at satisfying traveller’s needs and wants as
well as the destination’s and destination management organizations visions, goals and objectives” (Morrison,
2013, p. 9). Marketing a tourism destination is a systematic process including five functions: planning, research,
implementation, control and evaluation, called PRICE model for destination marketing (Morrison, 2013). The
PRICE model is corresponding with destination marketing system and an integrated approach of tourism
planning that tries to address five questions: Where are we now?; Where would we like to be?; How do we get
there?; How do we make sure that we get there?; How do we know if we got there? (UNWTO, 2007).
Elements of destination
Attractions, amenities, accessibility, human
resource, image, price
The Destination Management Organization
Leading and coordinating
Marketing
Getting people visiting destination
Delivery on the ground
Exceeding expectations
Creating a suitable environment:
Policy, legislation, regulations, taxation
Fig. 1. Destination management roles (UNWTO, 2007, p. 4)
An important condition for the effectiveness of destination marketing is a broad and intensive involvement of
many organizations and individuals within and outside the destination, connected and coordinated by destination
management organizations (Morrison, 2013). Partnerships and collaborations between destination management
organizations and other organizations, and between organizations related to tourism destinations are a key for
effectiveness and efficacy in destination governance and in branding strategy and positioning (Del Chiappa &
Presenza, 2013). Aarstad, Ness, and Haugland (2015) emphasised that destination marketing and branding
depend on collaborative relationships and stakeholder involvement, as these relationships bring great benefits for
the destinations, such as budget, shared information, greater expertise, increased marketing appeal, and shared
facilities (Morrison, 2013). Moreover, with the impact of the Internet, “destination marketing has changed from
passive to active promotion, from one-way to interactive marketing” (Mistilis, Buhalis, & Gretzel, 2014).
Breukel and Go (2009) had found the evidence of impact of information and communication technologies on
destination marketing, suggesting a more dependence and interaction between organizations.
The interdependence of various stakeholders and the fragmented resources of a tourism destination makes
tourism destination marketing become a more complex task (Lemmetyinen & Go, 2009). Potential partners for
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destination management organizations in destination marketing are tourists, other destination management
organizations, tourism organizations (hotels, attractions, airlines, travel agencies, tour operators), other non-
tourism organizations (banks, automobiles, consumer goods, food and manufactures), digital alliances (social
media, websites), local residents, and social organizations (Morrison, 2013). Furthermore, a tourism destination
is perceived as a social network of interactions and connections between various stakeholders in international,
national, regional, and local level (Presenza & Cipollina, 2010). Therefore, a network approach is perceived as
“fits naturally with tourism destination research” (Scott, Baggio, & Cooper, 2008); and networking is crucial and
effective for mobilizing information and resources, and cooperative processes among tourism businesses
(Bramwell & Sharman, 1999; Buhalis, 2000; Jamal & Getz, 1995; Scott et al., 2008). Therefore, it is recognized
that networks are beneficial for destination management organizations in implementing its functions, as
networking helps to gather intelligence in a destination about opportunities and ideas and to identify resources
needed for the opportunity to be realized (Sheehan, Ritchie, & Hudson, 2007).
Network approaches have been employed in tourism marketing to understand interactions and connections
between stakeholders and the roles of each stakeholder in marketing activities and marketing network (Aarstad et
al., 2015; Del Chiappa and Presenza, 2013; Nogueira, & Pinho, 2015; Presenza and Cipollina, 2010). In these
studies, social network analyses were employed to visualize tourism destination networks, including
management network, marketing network, and human resources management network; then, role and position of
tourism stakeholders in these networks were exposed differently in each network. In their research, Presenza and
Cipollina (2010) found that in terms of the marketing activity, the most important stakeholder is the tourism
bureau, while the least preferred are tour operators, travel agencies, and tourism consortiums. This finding is
resulted from network centrality index. Closeness and betweenness index from this study show that provincial
government and travel agencies place in an intermediate position in the preference scale of hospitality firms.
Another study has demonstrated that the network position of a firm in co-branding strategy has an important and
unique role in the success of destination branding as it impacts on the likelihood of co-branding (Aarstad et al.,
2015). Therefore, Marzano (2008, p. 142) asked for a network analysis perspective to gain “an understanding of
how the centrality of one or more stakeholders within the destination enhances or reduces the ability” of
successful destination branding. Del Chiappa and Presenza (2013) suggested that using network analysis to
access the inter-organizational relationships in a tourism destination could help destination managers improve
their knowledge of the influence of these relationships in destination branding and positioning. Subsequently,
destination managers can implement marketing activities through the collaborations and interactions between
stakeholders. Conversely, this contributes to increase networking between stakeholders in order to increase
commitment of stakeholders towards tourism planning and destination brand strategy and shape a strategic
consensus. Although, network analysis has been applied in tourism research, it is still quite limited in destination
marketing research. Furthermore, these studies focus on networks of internal stakeholders of a tourism
destination. The involvement of external stakeholders is less concerned.
4. Destination marketing network in Da Nang, Vietnam
The case of destination marketing network in Da Nang, Vietnam is selected because of recent achievements
of Da Nang in tourism marketing and branding that leads to a significant growth of tourists visiting Da Nang
compared with other provinces in Vietnam. Da Nang is the centre of economics, political, and socio-culture of
the central Vietnam. Social network theory is used to analyse the interactions of organisations, businesses, and
other relevant organisations who participate in marketing Da Nang tourism between 2014 and May 2018.
4.1. Introduction of Da Nang tourism
Da Nang city is the third largest city of Vietnam, located midway between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and
is bounded by Imperial City-Hue and Quang Nam in the northern and southern respectively. The ideal location
along with various interesting attractions makes Da Nang as a perfect destination for most types of tourists. For
those who keen on exploring culture, Da Nang is an ancient land, closely related with the Sa Huynh cultural
traditions. Many rich collections of Cham artefacts are still to be found in Cham Museum; meanwhile Monkey
and Marble Mountains preserve several historical and religious symbols. For those who looking for out-of-doors
activities, there are many stunning beaches, like My Khe and Non Nuoc. Moreover, if tourists want to get away
from crowded city centre, they can choose to visit Ba Na tourist site that is considered as a miniature of Da Lat.
Da Nang is also a place for authentic local cuisines. The flavourful dishes, such as Mi Quang, Bun cha ca, and
Bun mam are well known through Vietnam and growing in popularity internationally.
With all above advantages, Da Nang is turning tourism into one of spearhead economic sectors and
exploiting a variety of different types of tourism. The three main groups of tourism products are being prioritized
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for development including luxury recreation tourism products; MICE and shopping; and group of products for
cultural, ecological, and handicraft villages tourism (Van Son, 2017). Besides that, the city also diversifies its
tourism products such as religious tourism, culinary tourism, medical and beauty tourism, and beach sports and
recreation tourism. In recent years, there is a significant increase of 4 to 5-star hotels and resorts, convention
centres, entertainment centres and transport infrastructure, which contributes to tourism development in Da
Nang. It can be said that Da Nang has full of necessary elements to become a luxury, MICE, and entertainment
destination.
Looking at the achievements of Da Nang tourism in the past few years, Da Nang continuously affirms its
position on the world tourism map. In 2013, the United States’ Forbes Magazine selected My Khe Beach as one
of the six most appealing beaches in the world. In 2015, Da Nang was listed in fifty-two places where must visit
by the United States’ New York Times. Recently, Airbnb – a website offers online booking accommodation
service - has publicized top 10 global destinations for the 2018, in which Da Nang ranked fifth in booking,
increasing approximately 250 percent. Moreover, the reputation of Da Nang is also reflected in the growth rate
of visitors to the city. According to the Da Nang tourism department, during 2013-2017 period, the number of
tourists to Da Nang increased by an average of 20.06 per year. In 2017, the city welcomed 6.6 million tourists, in
which 2.3 million are international tourists. This number of arrivals rises double those in 2013. The majority of
foreign visitors is from the Republic of Korea, Japan, and China. Interestingly, more than 500,000 Korean
tourists visited Da Nang during the first five month of 2018, accounting for the largest portion of the foreign
arrivals in the city. As analysed by a Korean tour operator - Ticket Monster Inc. – Da Nang was ranked second
out of 10 most popular destinations for South Koreans.
4.2. Social network analysis
A social network is “a specific set of linkages among a defined set of persons, with the additional property
that the characteristics of these linkages as a whole may be used to interpret the social behaviour of the persons
involved” (Mitchell, 1969, p. 2). Each social entity is called as an actor of a social network. The linkages
between actors are called ties. There are more than one ties between two actors (Wasserman & Faust, 1994).
These ties might be risen from friendship, kindship, and interactions (Borgatti, Everett, & Johnson, 2018). A
social network is the space in which individuals/organisations link, are linked, influence, and are influenced by
other actors.
Social network analysis is a mathematical-informed theory that focuses on the relationships among the
entities of a system (Borgatti et al., 2018). Social network analysis can assist to understand the impact of a social
structure and its regularities impact on behaviours of entities (Otte & Rousseau, 2002). Because relations
between entities are “a fundamental component of network theories” (Nogueira & Pinho, 2015, p. 327), network
analysis can help to visualise nodes and links between nodes into graphic models. Thus, network analysis
provides a way to simplify complex relationships between entities by mapping and visualising positions and
connections between them into different graphs. This facilitates a better understand of relationships and the
influence of each actor in other actors. The position of each individual/organisation can be identified within
network structures by conducting quantitative methodology (Shih, 2006). Moreover, network analysis can be
used to analyse organisational interaction (Scott et al., 2008), as network theory also focuses on understanding
organisational structures that connect public and private sectors and build collective actions (Dredge, 2006).
Accordingly, this paper uses network analysis techniques to graph linkages between nodes (tourism
organisations), which helps to identify a network of organisations to achieve a common goal – promoting Da
Nang tourism.
4.3. Methodology
The data for social network analysis is relational data such as contacts, ties, connections, and the group
attachments, used to investigate the structure of social interactions (Scott, 2012). This study focuses on
organisational network; subsequently, the nodes of this network are tourism organisations involved in marketing
Da Nang tourism. A connection or interaction among organisations is identified as a linkage. Network data
might be primary or secondary data (Borgatti et al., 2018). Due to the limitation of time and funding for this
study, secondary data is collected in this study. More specifically, sources of secondary data are news articles
related to marketing activities in Da Nang in the official website of Da Nang tourism department, Da Nang
government, and other formal online journals that are published between 2014 and May 2018. Other research
studies related to marketing activities in Da Nang are collected in scholarly academic research journals. Totally,
there are 256 documents are gathered. Although using secondary data, this still satisfies the requirement of a
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research paper in terms of validity and reality because linkages between nodes of a social network are any
interaction between these nodes.
The data is then imported in NVIVO software that is a computer programme used to support qualitative data
analysis. Content of qualitative data after imported in NVIVO is coded into two themes: organisations involved
in destination marketing and marketing activities. The next step is to import the data of interactions between
organisations involved in a table in excels to identify the connections between organisations. Finally, this excel
file is imported in UCINET software – a computer programme to analyse social networks. Network centrality is
employed to identify position of each actor in Da Nang marketing network. Network centrality presents the
position of an actor within network, which is measured by degree, betweeness, and closeness. Degree is the
number of connections that each actor has, which includes in-degree (number of linkages from other actors) and
out-degree (number of linkages to other actors). The higher the degree value is, the more central the actor is.
Betweeness refers to the way an actor connects to other actors; and closeness indicates the proximity of an actor
to all other actors (Del Chiappa & Presenza, 2013). In this study, network degree is used to assess the position of
each actor in marketing network.
4.4. Findings
Various marketing activities are recorded with collaborations between a wide range of tourism stakeholders.
This study found that there are about 70 organisations participating in marketing Da Nang tourism. These
organisations are divided into governmental bodies, non-profit organisations, business sectors (tour operators,
hospitality firms, transportation firms, marketing and advertising companies, and destination business firms),
tourism associations, media, local residents, and tourism departments from other provinces and countries. A half
of these stakeholders are fundamental hospitality firms and tour operators.
An analysis of out degree and in degree index showed that Da Nang Department of Tourism has the highest
in and out degree, followed by Sun Group (table 1). This means that Da Nang Department of Tourism plays a
central and critical role in marketing network; and this stakeholder has shown its ability in connecting a broad
range of organisations in local, national, and international level (see table 1 and figure. 2). Sun Group is a
hospitality and entertainment group invested fundamental tourism facilities and infrastructure in Da Nang. This
business group has arranged events and festivals to attract tourists and promoting Da Nang image and participate
in other marketing activities held by national and provincial governmental officials in tourism. This firm also has
a close relation with other actors in business sectors, particularly in hospitality business sector. National
Administration of Tourism, Ministry of Culture, Sport, and Tourism, Da Nang tourism associations, and Da
Nang government hold a significant position in this network as the bridge between Da Nang and organizations
from other sectors, provinces, and countries to promote Da Nang tourism image (see table 1 and figure. 2).
Table 1. Critical stakeholders
No.
Stakeholders
Nang Tourism
Out
In
No.
Stakeholders
Muong Thanh hotel
Out
In
degree degree
104
degree degree
12
1
Da
100
9
12
department
2
3
Sun Group
39
19
40
19
10
11
Eden Plaza
11
11
11
11
Ministry of Culture, Sport,
and Tourism
Avatar hotel
4
Vietnam
National
27
28
12
Novotel hotel
11
11
Administration of Tourism
5
6
7
8
Da Nang People's committee
23
23
15
14
20
23
16
16
13
14
15
16
Premier village hotel
11
11
10
10
11
11
11
10
Sea Media travel
Hue tourism department
The Blossom Resort
Da Nang Travel association
Vietnamairlines
Quang Nam Tourism department
This paper also found other stakeholders participating in destination marketing network, although their
participation is still limited and they have less connections with other stakeholders. They are students from a
high school (in and out degree = 1) and other governmental departments in Da Nang (Da Nang television center
and Construction department). The findings also reveal that several national and international stakeholders are
involved in Da Nang tourism marketing network. More specifically, Hue, Quang Nam, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh
are some provinces and cities that collaborate with Da Nang in marketing and promotion activities. Particularly,
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Hue, Da Nang, and Hue are seen as a regional destination positioned as the Essence of Vietnam (Thanh Tâm,
2017). These provinces have many collaborative activities to promote the image and tourism at the region in
other regions and countries (Nhat Ha, 2017). Furthermore, Da Nang destination marketing network involves
international actors such as tourism department from other countries (e.g. Thailand, China, and Indonesia),
World Tourism Organisation, and international media (see table 2).
Table 2. International organizations involved in Da Nang marketing network
No.
1
Name of stakeholders
World Tourism Organisation
Out degree
In degree
5
4
7
3
3
5
1
2
4
7
4
3
5
1
2
Ministry of Indonesia tourism
Thailand administration of tourism
Taiwan tourism department
China travel association
3
4
5
6
China tourism department
Smart Travel Asia journal
7
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Fig.2. Da Nang Destination marketing network based In-degree and out-degree index
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5. Discussions and conclusions
This paper aims to identify a network of organizations who involve in destination marketing of Da Nang
(figure 3). The finding confirms a central and critical role of Da Nang Department of Tourism in this network
and its ability to connect other organisations in the network. This result is consistent with those in other studies.
In this network, stakeholders are not only from Da Nang and tourism industry, but also from other sectors, other
provinces, and countries. They are involved in marketing activities under the coordination and connection of Da
Nang Department of Tourism, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, and Da Nang government. A half
of actors of this network are from business sectors, including hospitality firms, tour operators, transportation
firms, media, and marketing and advertising companies. The result of this research facilitates the argument that
“the destination management organization must create a strategy for tourism promotion, match resources (from
the destination management organization and other entities) to the strategy, and implement it through the tourism
stakeholder network (Sheehan et al., 2007, p. 72). Importantly, Da Nang also cooperates with tourism
department of other provinces and other countries to promote Da Nang tourism and attract visitors to Da Nang.
This finding is different with those in other studies, as in the previous studies, involvement of actors from
outside destinations were not recorded. This might be explained by the reason that these studies were limited in
exploring the involvement of actors located within destinations. In addition, there is a fact that getting contact
and collecting data from stakeholders outside destination are a difficulty if researchers have a limitation of time
and budget for their research.
Fig.3. Da Nang marketing network
It is worth noting that the finding of this study shows that the involvement of local residents who do not
participate in tourism is extremely limited. Only an actor from this type of stakeholder is recorded, which is
students from a high school. This might be because of the reason that local community is often one of the
stakeholders least linked with tourism destination governance and development processes (Bornhorst, Ritchie, &
Sheehan, 2010). Moreover, to implement marketing and promotion activities for destinations, a large amount of
budget is required; hence, destination management organizations usually encourage involvement of large firms
who have financial resources, ideals, knowledge, and experience in marketing and promotion activities.
However, it should be noticed that local residents have a crucial role in providing ‘hospitality atmosphere’ or
uniqueness of a destination, which means that local people might be a unique selling proposition to differentiate
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between destinations because local residents by themselves are a tourist attraction of local destinations. Then,
because local resident’s behaviours can influence on tourists’ feelings, this could contribute to create unique
emotional proposition. Accordingly, hospitality of local residents is one of significant factors in creating positive
emotions and experiences for tourists; and involvement of local residents is particularly beneficial for tourism
product development and destination branding.
This research provides a graph of inter-organizational relationships in Da Nang marketing network including
actors and their position in the network. The data used in this research is collected from news articles and
previous academic studies. This is a limitation of the study, as not all actors who participate in marketing
activities are provided in these documents. Therefore, there is a need for further studies that have a more
intensive investigator of stakeholders involved and their connections.
However, the actors mentioned in collected documents usually have a fundamental role in the marketing
activities. This is due to the reason that marketing a destination is a common and public target that not all
individuals and organizations willing to be involved; hence, organizations who have a significant contribution in
these activities tent to publish their involvement as a way to promote their organization. Moreover, as above-
mentioned, there is a difficulty to investigate involvement of stakeholders from other destinations and countries
by using methods like quantitative survey and interviews, as contacting and approaching these stakeholders is
not an easy work, even impossibility. In this case, secondary data has been considered as an alternative way that
enables researchers to achieve the research objectives. This means that, although this paper based on secondary
data, it still satisfies requirements of a research work in terms of validity and reality.
In conclusion, this paper provides an evidence of a wide collaborative marketing network at a tourism
destination. In Vietnam, Da Nang is considered as successful in promoting its image and tourism, which is
illustrated through the growth of tourists and tourism development in Da Nang. It is undeniable that networking
is unavoidable in all tourism activities and development in tourism destinations. This is due to the characteristics
of tourism destination and tourism industry; conversely, networking benefits information and knowledge sharing
and transfer, communication, cooperation, and innovation; subsequently, networking contributes to achievement
of tourism development, marketing, and management.
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