DRA Model and Visual Online Learning Material in Tourism

Abstract

Destination competitiveness is a growing interest area in tourism and plays a role in a destination’s image and therefore its performance. Visual Online Learning Materials (VOLM) can contribute to the competitiveness of emerging tourist destinations as long as they can convey emotion, feelings and information. VOLM can also contribute to skills development and display evidence of credibility/ trustworthiness. This paper outlines how marketers tasks to include the most pertinent and attractive information in their VOLM are facilitated by Dale Robinson Anderson (DRA) model, by stimulating potential tourists to feel concerned about their things-to-do in Post-Colonial, Post- Conflict and Post-Disaster destinations (PCCD destinations). To this end, this paper therefore presents the results of applying the DRA model to an online platform with the objective of educating consumers at a pre-visit stage, and potentially increasing visitors to emerging market destinations. The highly interactive experiences related to learning about a PCCD destination in a pre-visit stage can be easily shared within an edu-game community to meet the needs of tourists to set realistic expectations about the places they intend to visit.

Keywords: Tourism, Emerging Markets, PCCD Destination, DRA Model, Haiti, Visual Online Learning Materials

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