Developing Regional Destination Marketing Systems

Many regional and rural centres in Australia view tourism as an increasingly important area of economic opportunity (Commonwealth of Australia, 2002). With the Internet as an increasingly important source of information for travelers (Zhou, 2004), destination marketing systems have an important role in distributing this information. Destination marketing systems store and distribute information about a diverse and comprehensive range of tourism suppliers, visitor attractions, and events in a particular destination region (Crichton & Edgar, 1995; Frew & O’Connor, 1998). Tourists require a wide variety of information on geographical regions, facilities, attractions, and activities at destinations (Buhalis & Spada, 2000), which destination marketing systems collate and deliver.