Tourist Quests as Branding Tool

Maria S. Shiro

Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogical University, Volgograd, Russia

Keywords: Tourist Quest, Place Branding, Place Brand, Place Marketing.

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the world economy. Due to the closure of borders,

tourism sector is the most affected. Many countries have focused their efforts on domestic tourism. Place

branding tools allow creating an appropriate image for consumer (in this case, tourists), which let monetize

cultural, historical or natural objects. It is important that modern tourist service consumers have become quite

demanding and often want to go beyond usual excursion routes. An innovative tool to attract tourists to the

place is to carry out tourist quests. Despite its popularity, tourist quests have not been widely developed yet

and often remain a part of short-term sightseeing tours. This paper examines the economic potential of tourist

quests for branding places and developing domestic tourism. The "Let's meet Russia" tourist quest technology

is revealed. Public-private partnership that can ensure the economic effect of place branding is also identified.

The article formulates requirements for places that are seen as locations and can trigger tourist behavior. Main

objective of the "Let's meet Russia" project is to make popular those places that are out of popular tourist

flows. As a result it supports small and medium-sized businesses in the hospitality industry.

1 INTRODUCTION

The issue of forming a place brand today is perhaps

one of the most discussed both in the scientific

community and among practitioners in the field of

regional development. Geo-branding allows us to

solve a whole range of regional development

problems, including attracting investors and tourists,

and increasing population loyalty to state authorities.

Despite the fact that place branding and place

marketing concepts have appeared relatively recently,

they have already become widespread and have fairly

extensively applied a methodological terminology

(

Anholt, 2005

Nowadays, place branding is used to attract

tourists, to increase the region investment potential,

to preserve labor resources and attract new human

resources, to strengthen local product position in the

foreign market. This paper has considered one of such

directions – tourist branding (Ward, 1998). However,

in our opinion, it is the driving force for place

positioning, since when visiting a particular place,

people get acquainted with it for subsequent decision-

making about moving, training, investing or

purchasing any product.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9430-8131

2 MATERIALS AND METHOD

This research makes use of general scientific methods

including analysis, synthesis, generalization,

systematization of data and information. Also, the

given study is based on the works by foreign and

domestic scientists on place marketing and place

branding, as well as on digital tools in this process.

3 TOURIST DESTINATION

BRANDING

Globalization process has largely manifested itself in

new thinking way in human minds. Travel has

become an integral part of human life. Growing

demand for tourist service has led, in turn, to an

increase in competition and, as a result, to the need to

attract to a particular place. In this regard, the

authorities, entrepreneurs and the population face the

task of ensuring that the place is competitive and

attractive for tourists. Meanwhile, for a long time, the

main destination branding has attracted tourists from

Shiro, M.

Tourist Quests as Branding Tool.

DOI: 10.5220/0010593705490552

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure (ISSDRI 2021), pages 549-552

ISBN: 978-989-758-519-7

549

abroad, while domestic tourism has been considered

as an auxiliary one.

For the first time, Philip Kotler in his work

"Marketing places" raised the question of marketing

tools for place branding in the market (Kotler, 2005)

in the early 1990s. At this stage, in the scientific

community and in practice, a number of customary

terms are sometimes perceived as synonyms:

"regional marketing" (Gutman, 2002), "territorial

marketing" (Pankrukhin, 2002). Despite the fact that

some scientists agree that these terms are

interchangeable, most scientists and practitioners

believe that these concepts should be separated. First,

marketing is a more general process that involves

positioning a place in the relevant market. Thus, this

is an exclusively economic process that has clear and

measurable performance indicators (Vizgalov, 2008).

In turn, place branding involves a certain image

created in the minds of direct consumers, which

encourages certain actions to commit. Accordingly,

branding has less measurable economic indicators,

which are often delayed.

3.1 COVID-19 Pandemic Influences

Tourist Service Market

Most economists agree that countries have yet to

assess the national economy losses after the

coronavirus pandemic in 2020-2021. However, it is

already possible to identify industries that have

suffered enormous losses. And in this sense, the

tourism sector is the most vulnerable. The closure of

the borders has made it impossible to develop

external tourism. In turn, this process has had a

positive impact on domestic tourism. Now the regions

are faced with the task of maintaining domestic

tourism rate and not losing it after the borders opening

and the tourist market returning to its usual course. In

this regard, it is the tools of place branding that will

ensure tourist destination in the post-crisis period.

Small and medium-sized enterprises that are

somehow connected with the hospitality industry

have become the most vulnerable during the

pandemic. Many businesses were forced to close,

while others found internal reserves and retained

business; however, its turnover has largely decreased.

In this regard, place branding should be

considered not only as a tool for a region or city

positioning, but also as a supporting and developing

strategy for small and medium-sized businesses in the

hospitality industry.

It is important that stakeholders, including public

authorities and key enterprises, consider the

destination branding process as a set of measures used

to stimulate small and medium-sized enterprises

(Moilanen, 2009).

Given the circumstances prevailing the

coronavirus pandemic, traditional methods of

marketing territories cannot fully provide a way out

to the economic problems (Brand City, 2007). The

current situation requires complex non-standard

solutions. In this paper, we propose to consider tourist

quests to solve these problems.

3.2 Tourist Quest as Complex Place

Branding Tool

Throughout the world tourist quests are increasingly

used as an innovative way to attract visitors and

explore the site. The general development of tourism

service marketing and increasing consumer demands

makes search for suchlike new methods.

The word "quest" is originally English and refers

to search, a subject of the search, search for

adventure, knight's vow fulfillment. As a computer

game genre, quests have become widespread and

therefore naturally transported to the reality. Its

integral element is overcoming difficulties that in the

game format involve solving puzzles, which makes

the quest even more attractive for tourism industry. It

is worth noting that there is problem solution without

which it is impossible to achieve results. American

teachers Bernie Dodge and Tom March identify such

solution as the basis for maintaining interest in the

object of study. From this we can conclude that

dynamic and changing quest nature will ensure a

stable interest in the branding object, in this case – the

place.

At the present moment, short quest excursions are

mostly popular as they help to inform and entertain

visitors.

3.3 Economic Effects of Tourist Quest

as Place Branding Tool

Like any other game format, tourist quests are based

on interest and competition, so this format often

involves several teams to participate. The main task

is to consistently pass through several "stations", and

each one gives a riddle for the next game stage. The

technology for conducting tourist quests is quite fully

revealed in various scientific and applied works.

Despite the fact the vast majority of them consider

a tourist quest as a short-term entertainment and

education, the questing methodology does not change

if game time is up to several days.

Quests make it possible to direct people's actions

in accordance with certain scenarios and it is an

ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure

550

advantage of organizing tourist processes in the quest

format (Svistunov, 2015). This is especially

important for those territories that are not tourist

centers and therefore are hardly known to the public.

So, if a person travels according to his own plan, he

usually includes well-known accessible objects found

on tourist routes. However, one of the place branding

main goals is to develop the territories that have not

yet become popular tourist sites. This is due to the fact

that popular places do not need additional

highlighting and are often themselves triggers of

tourist behavior.

Thus, quest technology can allow expanding

tourist flows towards the places that need additional

positioning and ensuring their popularization

(Borisova, 2010). In turn, if such territories are

attractive for visiting it stimulates investment inflow

necessary for appropriate infrastructure construction.

Quest target audience is mainly young people

aged 18 to 35. This category is the most active and

ready for innovative leisure activities. In addition, one

of the category priorities is to learn new places and

open their horizons, because young people are more

willing to "invest money in impressions". As

innovators, young people are not interested in visiting

well-known places. On the contrary, they want to

discover something new and unique.

In this regard, attention should be paid to small

and medium-sized businesse potential, which involve

small hotels, cafes and restaurants (including ethnic

and themed), souvenir shops and craft workshops,

and etc. For such enterprises, attracting tourists is a

significant problem, since they are often located

outside of well-known tourist flows.

In turn, small business development focused on

servicing and accompanying tourists encourages the

place development as a whole. In addition, place

branding for such territories allows solving a number

of socially significant tasks, such as preventing the

outflow of the young, improving the life standard,

reducing social tension and, as a result, increasing life

satisfaction.

3.4 “Let’s Meet Russia” - Tourist

Quest Technology

In the coming years the Russian Federation socio-

economic development sets one of the priority tasks

to develop tourism potential for the country regions

in the coming years. In accordance with this task, the

authors have proposed the tourist quest project "Let's

meet Russia". It is focused on domestic tourism

development by attracting attention to little-known or

unknown sites.

The main project objective is to attract small

places with appropriate potential (cultural, natural,

ethnic and historical values) to the tourist flow.

"Let's meet with Russia" quest participants will be

directed to promising locations and destinations

within the region tourist development.

In this regard, it is essential to build a public and

private partnership. Common interest coordination

will allow using the quest potential for the

development of certain territories. Thus, building the

game storyline should include building relations

between the state authorities responsible for the

economic and tourist development, commercial

organizations, cultural institutions and scientific

community.

When designing a storyline, the main stakeholders

should stick to the following principles:

 state and local government authorities: should

select sites that need additional support in

attracting tourists (popular sites should

possibly be considered as a starting location,

but not make it the basis of the storyline);

 historians, cultural scientists, local historians:

one should choose such places as locations that

can be obtained from sources available to

participants (the Internet, museum expositions,

mass media, etc.);

 organizers: all locations should be related to

each other by similar topics, locations should

expect accessible transport service;

 small and medium-size businesses serving the

hospitality industry should provide access to

the location and make it available for

participants to receive points for moving to the

next location.

In order to achieve economic efficiency from

place branding by including it in the tourist quest

program, the location must meet a number of

requirements:

 the place is should be accessible to transport

(the tourist quest "Let's meet Russia" isn’t

supposed to include hiking routes);

 the location must hold an object of cultural,

historical or natural significance, its

positioning corresponds to the general concept

of the tourist potential development within the

given territory (for example, if the region is

positioned in terms of its historical potential, it

is not advisable to attract quest participants to

natural sites);

 the location infrastructure should be equipped

by small and medium-sized businesses, whose

development will be facilitated by holding

tourist events (during the course, participants

Tourist Quests as Branding Tool

551

must interact with this organization and

purchase certain products and post in social

networks).

Locations should be selected comprehensively,

and the storyline construction ought to ensure the

following task solution:

 getting to know the territory (in completing the

quest course, participants are required to

independently find key information about the

place, both from open sources and through

contacting the relevant cultural institutions –

museums, ethnic centers, etc.);

 place popularization (the prerequisite for

passing the "Let's meet Russia" tourist quest is

to leave digital evidence – score is awarded

after posting on social networks. Thus, there

the target audience is expanded in proportion to

the number of subscribers for each participant);

 stimulating demand for small and medium-

sized businesses in the hospitality industry

(according to the "Let's meet Russia" tourist

quest terms, to get points for buying tips and to

move to the next stage, a tourist has to make a

corresponding purchase using a QR code and

leave digital evidence in social networks).

Thus, the "Let's meet Russia" quest storyline

should ensure both place economic efficiency and

popularization. Only if the stakeholders coordinate

their interests it is possible to form a tourist place

brand capable of monetizing.

4 CONCLUSION

Creating a brand place is a complex process that

involves the many stakeholders interaction, each of

them is obliged to understand the economic efficiency

degree made from their actions (Buyanova, 2021).

However, for a long time, place branding was

perceived as a kind of auxiliary tool. The COVID-19

pandemic has brought society into a state of

turbulence, and therefore, participants in economic

relations have become more careful in choosing the

appropriate tools.

One of the most vulnerable industries during the

pandemic was the tourism sector, and it made

domestic tourism popular in most countries. New

challenges require the innovative tools use, including

place positioning. A tourist quest can be used as such

a tool. Despite the fact that this format has become

quite trendy in recent years, it has grown to be

widespread only as a type of short-term sightseeing

tours. In our opinion, this format has a significant

potential as a tool for place branding. This article

describes the basic principles of organizing the "Let's

meet Russia" tourist quest. This quest main goal is to

ensure the positioning and branding of territories that

are not in the path of popular tourist flows, which in

turn will stimulate the economic development of

these territories by increasing the efficiency of small

and medium-sized businesses representing the

hospitality industry. Tourist place branding will allow

solving a number of socially significant tasks. The

primary one can be considered an increase in the

living standard of small territories population, a

decrease in the level of outflow of population and, as

a result, an increase in the level of life satisfaction.

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