The promotion of a tourist destination by its sensorial perspective definition

In the last years there has been a special attention towards sensory marketing and experiential economy (Hulten, Broweus & Dijk, 2009). Some related contributions (Kim, Ritchie & Tung, 2010; Volo, 2010) in tourism have payed attention to a possible service customization in terms of sensorial stimuli that can be effective for the customers (Scott, Laws & Boksberger, 2010). The literature has recently emphasized the importance of the senses through which to perceive and know an area for a more complete tourist experience (Cherifi, 2015; Liu, Wang, Liu & Deng, 2005). Considering that the brand of a tourist destination expresses its identity and it should represent the synthesis of its promotion, the purpose of the paper is to understand to what extent the brand strategies of a destination consider the sensorial perspective in the tourist and promotional communication to consumers. In other words, it want to investigate what importance is dedicated to the five senses, through which to discover a territory, from a Destination Management Organization and Tourism Institution, focusing the analysis on the institutional websites dedicated to the tourist promotion of the Italian Regions. A content analysis of the websites has been carried out by adopting an inductive and qualitative approach (Weber, 1990; Zhang and Wildemuth, 2005). The analysis has shown what are the interpretive categories of the phenomenon (the senses) that, more than others, are the subject of attention from the Italian Regions (and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano) within the institutional web communication. The study offers some prescriptive remarks in terms of destination strategy and highlights the policy implications for an adequate promotion of the territory, further potentially enriched by considering a sensorial brand definition.