TRAVEL JOURNALISM

Influence of Sponsorship on Honesty in Travel Journalism

Abstract

Various elements of brand identity contribute to brand image development; however, the role of marketing communications is particularly important in achieving brand image effects. In the case of advertising, two separate elements of communications, a message and a medium, combine to deliver particular brand image values. In the case of sponsorship both the message and media elements are not separate, but are inextricably linked and imagery is delivered by association with particular activities and events. Presents the result of focus group research which sought to examine the images transferred by different categories of sponsorship, i.e. sports and arts. The results show that goodwill, which is generated amongst consumers as a result of corporate sponsorship involvement, varies by sponsorship category. The results have important implications for sponsorship managers in terms of the choice of sponsorship category and the manner in which sponsorship investments are leveraged.

AcknowledgementTable of Contents

Chapter 15

Introduction5

Chapter 211

Literature Review11

Travel Journalism: The Search for a Definition11

The development of commercial sponsorship19

Chapter 321

Methodology21

Theoretical foundations of paper21

Research study23

Case examples in sponsorship image effects25

Case A: Barclay's Bank and the English football league (Jones and Dearsley, 1989)25

Case B: Memphis Cigarettes and football (Bachmayer, 1986)27

Case C: Philips and Dire Straits (Kohl and Otker, 1985)27

Chapter 430

Findings30

i) The goodwill factor in commercial sponsorship30

Goodwill varies by sponsorship category30

Goodwill varies by degree of exploitation31

ii) Image of sponsorship categories32

iii) Latitude to exploit34

Chapter 535

Discussion35

The Ethics of Travel Journalism36

Chapter 639

Conclusion39

Chapter 1

Introduction

Much academic consideration of travel journalism to date has focused on the place of travel media as an adjunct to tourism. Far less attention has been given to situations in which travel journalism mediates environmental conflict. Attempts by tourism public relations practitioners to influence media representations of tourism products are widely acknowledged (Dore and Crouch, 2003; Fursich and Kavoori, 2001; Mackellar and Fenton, 2000; Moss, 2008; Weir Alderson, 1988). Yet travel journalism is not always apolitical, nor is its coverage invariably restricted to commercial tourism products and traditional tourism sites within a destination. In the latter half of last century, Tasmanian political activists with interests ranging from environmental protection to gay law reform invoked tourism in their attempts to encourage, shame and pressure governments into altering policy (Croome, 1990; Lester, 2007). This decade, the flow of news between interest groups and international news journalism evident during those battles has found a tributary in travel journalism. As this paper will show, the result is international travel journalism that occasionally subverts traditional expectations of the genre, not to mention public relations strategies and media production practices. So while many scholars advocate further analysis of travel journalism on the basis of the economic value and cultural influence of tourism in a globalized world (Cocking, 2009; Fursich 2002a; Fursich and Kavoori, 2001; Santos, 2004a), this paper argues that travel journalism is also worthy of academic consideration for its cosmopolitan potential.

Commercial sponsorship represents one of the most rapidly growing sectors of marketing communications activity. The scale and recency of development in the sector is evidenced by the fact that world-wide sponsorship expenditure ...