A Critical Analysis of the Role of Destination Branding in Developing the Dark Tourism Sector: A Case Study of Cu Chi Tunnels,

Vietnam

Irina Krupskaya Higher Diploma in International Hotel and Tourism Management HTMi Switzerland

Introduction
Cu Chi Tunnels of Vietnam is the system of the secret corridors and paths, which has been constructed by the local citizens during the Vietnam War. The system represents the artificial city and was protecting locals from the bomb raids. The Tunnels had turned into a challenge for the American army to find the local people in them Cu Chi tunnel (Rackl, 2009). Moreover, in 1975 the Government of Vietnam announced the plan of protection of the Cu Chi Tunnels and making them part of the war memorial parks around Vietnam. Moreover, tourists of Vietnam consider the tunnels as a pilgrimage place (Rottman, 2006). Recently, the tunnel system has become the number one of tourism attraction in Vietnam (History, 2012). World of the tourism is highly competitive and in order to be successful in the modern market, the role of the marketers is to create a unique, strong and positive identity of the destination (Qu et al., 2011). Destination image is a basic part of the identity, however, establishing of the image is not the branding itself (Cai,2002). Moreover, the destination image influences positively on customers experience of visiting the place, which, at the same time adds extra value to the destination (Blain et al., 2005). Furthermore, it implies that credible destination branding provides tourists an insurance of eminent experiences, deducts tourist search expenses, and provides a method for locations to initiate a distinctive selling program (Ibid). According to Cai (2002), the branding concept is significant element of the marketing strategies, while the concept of the Brand equity is based on the added value for both organizations and customers.

The term Dark Tourism refers to visiting sites of death and violence, therefore, it has long history, starting from ancient times (Lennon and Foley, 2000). However, it has started to gain academical attention only over the past decade (Biran et al, 2011; Smith, 2002; and Strange and Kempa, 2003). In spite of the growing popularity of dark tourism destination, there is certain academic gap in the field of studies about the dark tourism marketing. The main attention in this area of studies is being paid to the tourist motivation to travel to these destinations, rather then promoting dark sites (Biran et al., 2011, Brown et al., 2012). What is more, another main focus of the dark tourism is an examining the dark tourism experience and the parallel between the dark tourism consumption and the modern day mortality (Biran et al, 2011; Cohen, 2011; and Stone and Sharpley, 2008).

Destination Branding: Definitions, Concepts and Models

Destination Brand Image and Identity International tourists have tendency to seek the remarkable characteristics of various destination, at the same time the uniqueness of the places of attraction is tend to be decreased by cultural influence of the visitors. This paradox leads to the standardization of the services provided (Gunn, 1997). Therefore, tourism destinations are being forced to distinguish themselves from the competitors in order to be prospering and efficient, however, only the properly managed and effectively promoted destinations are able to deal with the growing competition in the tourism industry (Morgan et al, 2004).

Currently, destination branding is gaining popularity in the booming tourism industry, consequently, the number of tourist attractions are implementing the brand-building concept are rising (Garcia et al, 2012). According to Morgan et al (2004) destination branding can be considered as a powerful strategic tool. Branding establishes the positive image of the product or service, which is offered to the customers and gives a product a personality or uniqueness, that helps to differentiate from competitors (Howie, 2003). Besides, by attracting more customers through positive destination image, the tourism contributes significantly to economical sphere of the destination, which helps to provide better economical and environmental aspects for local community (Park and Petrick, 2006). Moreover, destination branding serves as an emotional connection between a destination and tourists (Morgan et al, 2004). According to Cai (2002), destination image influences the consumer decision-making process. However, branding of the destination can face several problems. First of all, the stakeholders of the destination have wide range of interests. Secondly, tourists may not consider the destination as brand. Finally, the perceptions can be different, which means that the stability of the brand is hard to achieve (Park and Petrick, 2006). Nevertheless, for establishing effective destination brand, destination image and identity should be considered as crucial elements of the branding concept (Qu et al, 2011). Brand components, such as awareness of the destination and the its image, are contributory factors to the brand identity. Identity forms purpose, meaning and orientation of the brand and creates the marketing strategies (Keller, 2008).

Moreover, Cai (2002) defines the brand image as the reflection of the customers perceptions of the brand that are demonstrated as brand associations that they are having in their memory. The associations, however, are built on the brand identity, which is created by the marketers (ibid). It is important to create a positive and distinct brand identity thought establishing destination image (Qu et al., 2011). According to Florek et al (2006), by putting emphasis on the unique and advantageous brand associations, a positive brand image can be attained. The tourists perceive the positive impression of the brand image when the associations are applied to recognize the benefits of buying from particular brand, rather than from the competitors (Ibid). However, destinations are multi dimensional, and have more aspects to consider, compare to goods and specific services (Pike, 2005). Destination brand identity is represented by features and services that make one destination different from others (Florek et al., 2006).

Destination Brand Equity According to Kotler (2010, 241), brand equity is added value endowed on products and services. Brand equity adds value to both sender and receiver, which makes the concept of branding a main part of marketing strategies for the organizations (Cai, 2002). At the same time it reflects the marketing outcomes that result from comparisons between the destination, that has established brand image and the same destination if it did not have the brand name (Dasgupta, 2011).

Brand equity is revealed to be as how the customers perceive the brand, how they feel and what they think about the brand, hence, brand equity is also reflected by how the brand can manipulate prices, market share and profitability of the organization (Kotler, 2010). According to Morgan et al. (2011), customers loyalty and preferences, brand awareness is represented in brand equity. Moreover, brand equity, from marketing perspective, is applied to consumer based brand equity, which is significant, but as the same time challenging side of branding (Keller, 2003). As stated by De Chernatony and McDonald (2003), even though the interest in consumer-based brand equity is growing, there is no commonly excepted instrument for measuring it. Moreover, there is a requirement to comprehend the scale to which destination brand campaigns amplify the participation of enterprise related shareholders by illustrating their frequently varying views and concerns (Pike, 2009). These incorporate local tourism undertakings as well as crucial travel mediators such as wholesalers and expert retail organizations (Ibid).

Conceptual Customer-based brand equity model In the course of time academic focus has been put on the development of the conceptual model of measuring the brand equity (Konecnik and Garther, 2007). An amount of research is done in this area by Aaker (1991) and Keller (1993). The main challenge in developing the model is that the destination brands are multidimensional, which includes brand awareness, image, quality and loyalty, consequently, before implementing branding strategies, destination characteristics should be critically analysed (De Chernatony and DallOlmo Riley, 1999).

The most recent model of customer-based brand equity was developed by (Konecnik and Garther, 2007), which incorporated brand equity model designed by Aaker (1991) and Garthers Image Formation Process from 1993.

Customer-based Brand Equity Model (Konecnik and Garther, 2007)

According to Garther (1993), three main elements of the brand image are termed cognitive, affective and conative. Awareness is formed by cognitive component, which explains the customers opinions, knowledge and thoughts about destination (Konecnik and Garther, 2007). On the feeling about the knowledge the affective component is built (Ibid).

How consumers react on the information they possess and how they feel about this knowledge form the conative component and it represents the action step (Cai, 2002). Furthermore, brand equity is the combination of the four dimensions, which at the same time creating the brand value (Konecnik and Garther, 2007). Despite the disagreement with the Cais (2002) model, the main emphasis of destination branding is put on the image. Nevertheless, as soon as the name of a destination gains popularity, brand image goes down to the dimensions and it is covered by the brand. Figure 1 shows what impacts each of the dimensions have on the components. The image of the destination, that the future tourist have in their mind creates awareness of the destination, moreover, awareness the only dimension that influences the cognitive component, which means that with the absence on the awareness, there is no brand equity (Gartner, 1993). However, only when the potential tourists are aware of the destination, the destination can be evolved in the perceived opportunity set (Goodall, 1993). Moreover, according to Fesenmaier et al, (1993), the awareness is necessary resulted in the purchase decision, while the customers can be driven by curiosity. When the awareness toward feelings of the destination is evaluated the effect of the image and quality starting to have more impact on the affective component (Konecnik and Garther, 2007). The importance of the destination image is reflected in the process of assessment and selecting process, however, what is given, as image does not always represent what is really offered by the destination (Gallarza et al., 2002).

The quality, on the other hand, is a challenging dimension because of difficulties in measuring and operationalizing, while destination includes the mix of services, experience and products, and researchers often link quality dimension with pricing (Murphy et al., 2000). The last dimension in the customer-based brand equity is loyalty. Loyalty starts acting in the conative component (Konecnik and Garther, 2007). According to Oppermann (2000), even though, the brand loyalty has been deeply researched, little attention has been put on the destination loyalty. Intention to return and repetitive visitation of the place are the instruments of measuring the destination loyalty (Ibid). If brand value evaluation is adequate to lead to loyalty, all aspects are determined by the comprehensive element. Brand equity is based on the interrelations and increasing value of dimension. However, it is debatable, if the destination image is the core of the branding concept or just one of the dimension (Konecnik and Garther, 2007).

Destination Branding in Tourism Industry

Destination branding in a new field in the marketing concept, however, it is admitted to be an affective marketing instrument (Morgan et al., 2004). According to Park and Petrick (2006) there are number of the reason in implementing the Branding concept to the destination, however, the main one is to manage destination image in order to attract more tourists. Several studies conducted the importance of the implementing the destination branding as a part of marketing strategies (Cai, 2002; Park and Petrick, 2006; Qu, 2011; and Marzano and Scott, 2009).

Qu (2011) evaluate the benefits of establish the brand image for Oklahoma, which is now associated with the Land of Native Americans. It creates the link with the nature, historical heritage of the place and at the same time improving the place of living for the local communities (Ibid). Another study was emphasizing the significance of destination branding from the marketers prospective. Number of countries was asked to implement the destination-branding concept (Park and Petrick, 2006). As the result, it was announced that the destination branding is essential element in competitive market, however, the crucial element in branding strategies is creation of an emotional connection with tourists, though positive destination image (Ibid). Furthermore, the participants also admitted that the destination branding is difficult to manage because of diverse interests of the stakeholders and the marketing organizations are not able to control the process completely.

Destination Branding in Dark Tourism

The concept of the dark tourism is relatively new, however, it attracted many researches attention (Lenon and Foley, 2000; Stone and Sharpley, 2008; Strange and Kempa, 2003). According to Brown et al. (2012), the main interest of the researchers is the tourists motivation to visit the sites of death and disaster, rather than the marketing strategies, which can be implemented to the dark sites. However, dark destinations should be promoted and the destination brand should be established in order to attract more visitors (Ibid).

On the other hand, as it is observed by Stone and Sharpley (2008), the establishing of the destination image of the dark place can be extremely challenging because of the phycological and emotional elements, which are included in the dark tourism. Moreover, according to the Brown et al. (2012), there is a demand in marketing of the sites of violence and death. But the question of whom and how the destination brand and image should be managed is not still opened (Ibid). The Tunnels of Cu Chi have been constructed during the Vietnamese -American war in order to protect the local community from bomb attracts of American soldiers (Rottman, 2006). The Cu Chi Tunnels represents the network of underground corridors and rooms, where the locals were hiding from American troops (Rackl, 2009). Ray (2009) defined the Cu Chi Tunnels as the most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated and generally devastated area in the history of warfare. According to Kaushik (2012),

government of the Vietnam is trying to keep intact the Tunnels and the Area around and transformed them into the war memorial park. The popularity of the tunnels as a tourist attraction is growing constantly, moreover tourists can enter the tunnels and crawl through some parts of the tunnels, which are not dangerous for visitors (Touropia, 2010). Furthermore, crawling through tunnels network provides the distinctive experience and feeling of how the locals were surviving during the war (Kaushik, 2012). However, Vietnamese people built the tunnels, and height and the width are too small, currently, the tunnels have been reconstructed in order to make it possible for Western tourists to visit the tunnels (Ibid). In addition, according to Sharpley and Stone (2009), the Cu Chi Tunnels should be considered as a destination of Dark Tourism.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The concept of the destination branding is relatively new and not studied in depth, however, the marketers are admitting the importance of it in order maintain competition in the currently growing and highly competitive tourism market (Morgan et al, 2004). Destination branding is expected to be beneficial for the both site: the tourists, by creating the unique experiences and the destination stakeholders, by contributing to the economical sphere, through attracting more visitors (Park and Petrick, 2006). Besides creating the positive brand image of the destination, it is also important to consider that the destinations are multidimensional and the combination of the products and services that are provided by the place are creating the destination identity (Florek et al., 2006). The brand identity helps to distinguish the destination from the competitors (Ibid). The core element of the branding is brand equity, which increase the value of the product or service (Kotler, 2010). Researchers of the branding identifies for dimensions of the brand equity, which incorporates brand awareness, image, loyalty and quality (Konecnik and Garther, 2007). However, the model of measuring equity is focused more on the customer prospective, rather than on the marketers (Ibid). In conclusion, the empirical research shows the benefits and challenges of the destination branding in the sender and receiver prospective. However, the main interest of the author is the branding of the dark tourism destination and the lack of the research has been found in this area. The research conducted evaluates the role of the destination branding as an effective marketing tool. Further research can be done focusing more on the destination of the dark tourism.

It is fascinating to know how the dark tourism destinations can be marketed and what the destination image can be established. The conducted research can be useful for the marketers, tour operators, and local communities, people whom participating in the creating competitive and successful destination brand.

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