Specialization versus generalization of tourist promotion in Europe

Abstract

This paper analyses the level of specialization of several international tourist information on/off line campaigns of different tourist organisations that promote and trade the tourism in the highest European tourist receiver countries. The methodology used in this research consists in a multivariable comparative analysis with a descriptive statistical nature, with a longitudinal sight of consecutive samples (2005–2011) from on/off line promotional documents of France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Results of this scientific work confirm (1) a general promotional and trade offer and a specialization with limited features (2) that offer similar tourist features, as Culture, Urban and Nature Tourism (3) with clear predominance of traditional print campaigns against the electronic ones (4) and more differentiation index of online campaigns.