Ciclo de vida de los destinos turísticos y estrategias de comunicación: los casos de España y Chile

Abstract

A tourist destination’s life cycle constitutes one of the most relevant themes in the analysis of tourism competitiveness. It shows the evolution of a destination over time and can identify the most coherent strategy to follow. This article proposes to apply the tourist destination life cycle model to evaluate the competitive situation of the destinations at different stages in the model, in order to analyse the business strategies that optimise their positioning. Thus in order to carry out this analysis, Richard Butler’s 1980 theory on Tourist Destinations’ Life Cycles is the reference framework that will be used, and the use of promotional tools at different stages in the destination’s life cycle will be analysed using the case study as a methodological tool. Given the current situation of established tourist destinations, the afore-mentioned method has been applied in the Spanish (destination in phase of stagnation) and Chilean cases (destination in the early development phase as a tourist destination) to make a diagnosis of the situation. It is therefore hoped to offer a better understanding of tourist destinations’ life cycles, taking into account that the Butler model is a diagnostic and not a decision-making tool, and its application in this analysis is of an exploratory manner.