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Advertising and Publicity: Suggested New Applications for Tourism Marketers

Hull College of Business at Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia

William Norman

Travel and Tourism Institute at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina

Kenneth F. Backman

Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina

This research explores two of the basic tools used by tourism marketers: advertising and publicity. Message stimulus is the independent variable and consists of two parts: message presentation (i.e., publicity or advertising) and message sequencing (i.e., publicity only, publicity then advertising, advertising only, or advertising then publicity). Four dependent variables are organized in two categories: message acceptance (i.e., perceived credibility, message strength) and message response (i.e., attitude toward the destination, purchase intent). Results of the study show that publicity, in either presentation or sequencing, created significantly higher mean scores than advertising for credibility, message strength, and purchase intent. This study reaffirms that publicity is an important element in the tourism marketing mix. Furthermore, it suggests that a publicity-then-advertising strategy is most effective at persuading potential tourists to visit a specific destination.

Key Words: communication • advertising • publicity • perceived credibility

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