Sustainable tourism marketing at a World Heritage site

ABSTRACT | This paper discusses sustainable tourism marketing in the context of a World Heritage Site and contends that a strategic marketing approach for the development of sustainable tourism is vital to the management of a WH site. A review of the literature on sustainable tourism, the WH site tourism ‘service‐ product’ and management of a tourist site is presented. In this study, sustainable tourism marketing is defined as marketing that incorporates social, economic and environmental perspectives in a given region. The paper then reports on the management perspectives and attempts to implement sustainable tourism marketing at a World Heritage site, the Giant's Causeway. The study found that the Giant's Causeway WH site suffers from an overall lack of integrated management and understanding of how to present and deliver sustainable tourism marketing.

Keywords: tourism marketing; tourism service‐product; sustainable tourism marketing; marketing management; World Heritage sites

Gilmore, A., Carson, D., & Ascenção, M. (2007). Sustainable tourism marketing at a World Heritage site. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 15(2/3), 253-264. DOI: 10.1080/09652540701318930