An exploratory investigation into destination marketing and place marketing in Cheshire and Warrington : the need for organizational ambidexterity

As a result of globalisation and increased competitiveness, in the twentieth twenty-first century, destination marketing has become one of the principal ways that nations, regions and cities compete to attract visitors. Very many places across the world have set up destination marketing organisations to differentiate nations, regions and cities and to attract tourists and investment and many of these were constituted as public-private partnerships, particularly in England. A new Government Tourism Policy was introduced in England in 2011 and it was progressively implemented over a number of years after that date. The principal canon contained in that policy document was that the previous financial support from the public purse that destination marketing and destination management organisations (DMOs) had enjoyed was to be progressively discontinued and the private sector was expected to fill the funding gap that would emerge. This begged the question of whether the private sector was willing or able to fill that gap. As the answer to that question was unknown at the time that the new policy was introduced and implemented it presented an existential threat to DMOs. This DBA thesis explores that scenario through the lens of one particular organisation, Marketing Cheshire, which is the body responsible for promoting the sub-region of Cheshire and Warrington. Despite the focus on one particular sub-region the literature draws on the strategic approaches adopted by DMOs throughout England and in an international context. The research was informed by a broadly interpretivist stance and it involved conducting semi-structured interviews with DMO chief executives and chief officers across England and also with key stakeholders of Marketing Cheshire. Through the use of Template Analysis, it was found that DMOs across England faced some similar but also many different issues and that no one solution to the problem was applicable to all DMOs. Nonetheless many examples of best practice emerged and it was possible to make clear recommendations over Marketing Cheshire’s strategic choices. One of the key recommendations is that Marketing Cheshire should move from destination marketing (largely promoting tourism) to place marketing which involves promoting the place across the whole visit, work, live, study and invest agenda. DBA theses are expected to make contributions to both theory and to practice. This thesis is believed to one of the first instances in which the theoretical concept of organizational ambidexterity is applied to DMOs. The researcher is a university academic who teaches events management and international tourism management students and one of the practical contributions the research makes is to inform that teaching. The other practical contribution is the analysis of Marketing Cheshire’s strategic options which could be used to inform that organisation’s future trajectory. The final chapter in the thesis is an account of the reflective learning that occurred over the duration of the DBA programme.