This is a timely, useful, and accessible text that could be valuable for academics interested in DMOs and place branding, and senior level practitioners in DMOs, as well as instructors interested in looking at DMO policy and marketing practices.
Tom Griffin, Ryerson University, Canada
Annals of Tourism Research 55 (2015) 184-192
Urban Destination Marketing in Contemporary Europe ... Read moreis a detailed and informative, and at times provocative, discussion of the wide and chronic gap (p. 99) diagnosed by John Heeley between the implementation of marketing by destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and the theories, concepts and models proposed by academics.
Clare Inkson, University of Westminster, UK
Tourism Analysis, Vol. 21, pp. 125-129
As a scientist and industry expert John Heeley understands the need to address city managers, urban planners and tourism practitioners, but also students in the field of marketing and tourism. This well-written book is a great contribution especially to any master program in this field. Lecturers will appreciate the richness of examples and practical insights.
Mike Peters, Management Center Innsbruck, Austria
This is a book that challenges the received understanding of the relationships between marketing, cities and tourism. By looking at current practice through a gaze sharpened by critical theories, Heeley is offering a different view of this crucial nexus and to the ways in which cities can drive tourism development.
Alan Clarke, University of Pannonia, Hungary
If there is one quality that pervades the book, it is a practical, down to earth, feet on the ground common sense and as I come from an academic world of often arcane and esoteric theory, I find this book a breath of much needed fresh air.
G.J. Ashworth, University of Groningen, in Tourism Management 51 (2015) Show Less