Location branding : exploring online destination image of Malaysian Borneo

• Main Author: Wong, Siao Fui
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: HF5410-5417.5 Marketing. Distribution of products
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38504/1/24%20PAGES.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38504/2/FULLTEXT.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38504/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sabah

Although Place Branding Theory (PBT) continues to advance in the tourism domain, location branding remains an understudied area. In this digital era, online destination image (ODI) is a vital component of tourism destination brands. ODI, especially User-Generated Content (UGC) is known to influence tourists' selection of travel destinations. In particular, bloggers are a new, trusted source, or, ODI formation agents who utilize travel biogs to convey their experiences. However, the unofficial nature of UGC raises a concern as it could produce ODI similarity for tourist destinations in different locations. An understanding of the formation of ODI could guide location branding. This study explored how Borneo, a geographical location on the world map is portrayed as a tourist destination online. In particular, this study questioned if bloggers produced similar ODI for Malaysian Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak) as both offer similar products, experiences, and promote 'Borneo' (location) as their brand name. A qualitative content analysis (QCA) explored the ODI of a homogenous, purposive sample of 25 biogs and compared it to the ODI projected in respective official DMO websites. The QCA on biogs indicated the ODI of Malaysian Borneo focuses on four experiences: nature (N), adventure (A), culture (C), and also, negative environmental impacts. For bloggers, Sabah is projected by its iconic orangutan, and Sarawak for its wilderness. Whereas, the QCA on DMO websites indicates ODI focused on three tourism attributes: NAC. A comparison of the two QCA data sets showed high ODI congruence suggesting strong location brand image and positioning for both Sabah and Sarawak. Findings also propose bloggers and DMOs use geographical characteristics to produce ODI as images and descriptions focus on physical, human-environment, and human geography. This structure more easily associates place with location for potential tourists. A Location Branding Model (LBM) is proposed which demonstrates the contribution of geography to the existing branding process. This study provides an understanding how UGC contributes to ODI formation, and produces ODI congruence in the case of Malaysian Borneo with implications for location branding in general. The LBM is a novel contribution of this study to the PBT literature and suggestions are made for future work.