Destination Strategies to Enhance Secondary and Niche Tourism Products: Literature Review and Case Study

Abstract

The topic of this article is enhancing destination competitiveness, with particular interest to entrepreneurial strategies able to valorise secondary and niche attractions. A literature review reveals that, by means of cooperation, local stakeholders could increase success of mass destinations, while promoting the discovery of niche attractions, with a positive impact on the whole territory. Also, the role of DMOs is important, facilitating cooperation among between private and public stakeholders and among private companies. Destination branding strategies could be set, to define the competitive advantages of a territory, leveraging on synergies among primary and secondary attractions. The specific case study of Liguria is proposed and analysed by means of a questionnaire, spread among potential tourists, so to investigate their perceptions about both the capacity of the territory to offer secondary tourism products and the existence and effectiveness of collaborative strategies among local stakeholders. This Italian region has a tourism concentrated during summertime (bathing season), but possesses other specific features, that could differentiate the offer and potentially attract tourists also in other periods. The questionnaire, in fact, reveals that many tourists also like to explore the inland, which should therefore be further promoted. It also emerges than about 9% of tourists didn’t take advantage of secondary tourism products, not being aware of them, while about 46% believe that secondary attractions could be interesting for tourism, but are not adequately exploited, due to the lack of both strategic cooperation among local businesses and direct promotion.