Place branding and the representation of people at work: Exploring issues of tourism imagery and migrant labour in the Republic of Ireland

Tom Baum, Niamh Hearns, Frances Devine

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper addresses destination brand image in tourism marketing and assesses the contribution of tourism ' s workforce to such image and branding, considering the role that employees play in visitors ' interpretation of their experience of destination and place. The focus of this paper, therefore, is on the role of people in the image of place and the potential for contradiction in imagery as the people who inhabit and work within a place change over time. At the same time, both those who promote a destination and those consuming the place as visitors may well have expectations that are fixed in imagery that does not accord with that held within the wider community. The location of this paper is Ireland where the traditional promotion of the tourism brand has given a core role to images of people and the friendliness of the hospitality of Irish people, represented by largely homogeneous images. Recent growth in the ' Celtic tiger ' economy has induced unprecedented and large-scale migration from countries across the globe to Ireland, particularly into the tourism sector. This paper raises questions with regard to the branding of Ireland as a tourist destination in the light of major changes within the demography and ethnicity of its tourism workforce.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)45-60
JournalPlace Branding and Public Diplomacy
Volume40
Issue number1
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 10 Apr 2008

Bibliographical note

Reference text: OF
Baum, Hearns and Devine
14 Place Branding and Public Diplomacy Vol. x, y, aa–bb © 2007 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 1751-8040 $30.00
perhaps unparalleled at a national level,
encompassing non-national migration to both
urban and rural locations. Furthermore, the
Irish experience of such mobility is one of
intensity over a very short period of time, with
no signs of imminent abatement. Such changes
within the labour force, especially in work that
directly confronts the visitor in the ‘ boundary
spanning ’roles ( Bateson and Hoffman, 1999 )
that represent the tourism sector at point of
delivery provide challenges to both the
desirability and practicability of maintaining the
myth of traditional Irish service as represented
in brand marketing. Further questions can be
raised regarding the impact of tourism-related
migration on aspects of the culture of host
communities. Phillips and Thomas (2001) , in the
context of Wales, raise a range of questions
regarding the impact of in-bound tourism on
the status and use of the Welsh language. The
widespread in-migration of employees to rural
areas, in Ireland, may well raise similar concerns
in terms of both language and wider cultural
attributes and, as a consequence, act to dilute
the very features of Irish life that are core to
the marketing of the destination.
Tourism branding and marketing in Ireland
has either not woken up to the evident cultural
and economic change within society and, in
particular, tourism ’ s workforce or it has chosen
to ignore this reality in the perceived interests
of providing its main markets with images that
they expect from the country. A strategy, based
on the latter, may refl ect Azarya’s (2004)
argument that tourism destinations, seeking to
promote the ‘ primitive ’(and traditional images
of Ireland may be said to fall into this
classifi cation) need to promote their own
marginality. If they are not marginal to and
different from the everyday, globalised
experience of their visitors, they cannot attract
the attention of potential tourists. As a result,
‘ every effort is made … . to keep display as
genuine as possible, though still under tight
control. … . All [agencies] join forces in
maintaining this marginality, turn it into a
saleable commodity and maximise its
commercial value for all involved ’( Azarya, 2004:
964 ). Whichever explanation rings more true,
they run the real risk of fuelling visitor
dissatisfaction when expectations engendered by
marketing do not match the reality of their
interpretation in the heritage sites, hotels, pubs,
restaurants and airline check-in desks that
visitors use while in the country. Authenticity
of tourism representation, in this context, may
need to refl ect a contemporary reality rather
than a staged idyll, refl ective of a lost past.
Clearly, reconciling such representation in image
terms is a real challenge to tourism in Ireland
in branding, marketing and, indeed, in training
and development terms. A failure to address this
challenge may have serious long-term
consequences for Irish tourism at a destination
and individual business level as visitors recognise
the disparity between what the brand promises
and what reality actually delivers.
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Keywords

  • Tourism
  • migrant labour
  • Ireland
  • brand marketing
  • interpretation
  • authenticity

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