Tamara Mayerhofer

Scientific Essay from the year 2010 in the subject Tourism, University of Innsbruck (Tourism & Service Industry), language: English, abstract: This Paper focuses on the importance of strategic positioning of destinations and its stakeholders in a globalised competitive environment. The theoretical background is based on the research on destinations and destination management, strategic marketing, strategy development and positioning strategies and positioning models. A new theoretic framework from a RBV was developed to identify the most important elements of the successful positioning of destinations and its organizations from a stakeholder perspective. An empirical study was applied to all stakeholders who form a destination by the example of three very successful positioned destinations in the Austrian Alps. The theoretical model was tested by the application of frequency distribution and multiple linear regression analysis. Most of the points were confirmed but also a few rejected which asks for further research. However, the applied model gives a great insight in how stakeholders can successful and sustainable position their organizations and the destination as a whole. It further can be used as a tool to find an efficient positioning strategy for young entrepreneurs or gives helpful advice for stagnating or decreasing businesses to formulate a new positioning strategy or aim for a relaunch.