Applying the Hollywood scriptwriting formula to destination branding

Abstract

This paper examines the prospects of applying the Hollywood scriptwriting formula to a destination transforming a range of potentially disconnected tourist destination experiences into a more immersive, interrelated narrative and thereby generating a cohesive destination brand that has an emotional and personal bond with tourists. A step-by-step conceptual model, based on Hollywood’s scriptwriting formula, is developed, contextualised and employed for the case study destination of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The model offers destination management organizations an innovative new method of developing a destination brand centred on storytelling while the findings demonstrate that the scriptwriting approach creates a narrative for the destination that connects the various experiences in an experiential framework which carves out a brand that promises strong emotional and experiential benefits for tourists. This paper provides an original and novel rethink of how to construct the destination experience and formulate the destination brand, employing scriptwriting capabilities, rather than traditional marketing concepts.