Abstract

A significant characteristic of tourism destinations is their high fragmentation, as several stakeholders operate in these destinations, providing different kinds of services to tourists. There is therefore a need to co-ordinate stakeholders so that they provide tourists with a seamless experience and contribute to the development of the destination brand. Co-ordination carried out by the DMO and the destination brand studied from a supply-side perspective are topics neglected so far, and, in order to fill this gap, this paper aims at showing: how stakeholders are co-ordinated in a destination, to what extent stakeholders are committed to the brand and whether coordination processes have an impact on the destination brand. A mixed method design has been applied to the city of Edinburgh, analysing qualitative data (face-to-face interviews and documents) and quantitative data (an online questionnaire administered to a sample of destination stakeholders). Results show that stakeholders are coordinated through several kinds of mechanisms that have a diverse impact on the destination brand; moreover, stakeholders have a mixed commitment towards the destination brand. From this research it emerged that the role of communication is pivotal and that it is essential for tourist business newcomers to receive information on the destination brand.