Universitat de Girona: Lloret de Mar Field Trip- EMTM
28th January, 2021 - When knowledge meets the practice
Part of EMTM cohort 2019-2021 visited the coastal destination of Lloret de Mar to make a rapid appraisal of the destination. Lloret de Mar is what can be considered a mature destination and the students had an opportunity to engage with the DMO representatives as well as various stakeholders such as hotel and casino managers, tour guides, the local police chief, among others. Aside from the various meetings they got a chance to participate in some tourist activities such as Nordic walking on the Camí de Ronda!
Some of the questions raised were: How the destination was working towards presenting a unified image? Why collaborate with neighbouring destinations? How do you bring stakeholders with differing interests together? How can a destination cope with the enormous challenge posed by COVID-19?
Lessons learnt were that DMOs are far from just marketing organisations and that they have a complex role of managing the destination which includes the difficult task of bringing the myriad stakeholders together in order to achieve a unified vision for the destination. Additionally, the students learnt how destinations are leveraging on technology more so big data, to better understand their markets and to identify areas for improvement for the destination. Also apparent was the need for collaboration amongst destination stakeholders as well as neighbouring destinations. The students also saw first hand, the difficulties faced by tourism businesses as a result of COVID-19. This brought out the importance of collaboration between the government and the private sector. A much-needed step in tackling the health challenges faced as tourism businesses prepared to reopen after a period of closure.
In the end, the students had a chance to present their recommendations to further the destination’s vision, enhance the brand image and visibility, and what opportunities COVID-19 might present for sustainable development of Lloret de Mar going forward.