The Place of Heritage and Identity in the Marketing Strategy of Destinations: a Worldwide Approach Based on Dmo Slogans

In the tourist industry destinations are competing against each other to attract visitors. In this race to seduce visitors, cultural tourism (based on heritage and identity) appears as a very popular form of tourism used by destinations. Because branding plays a major role in attracting visitors, this paper therefore examines the slogan of 139 destinations around the world. Findings reveal that slogans tend not to use heritage but instead adopt a neutral position, this is to be explained by the fact that destinations want to appeal to maximum of visitors and also because they appeal to the emotions (as opposed to a cognitive strategy)