Integrated marketing communication in tourism – an analysis. Case study: Muntenia and Oltenia

The multitude of factors interfering in the process of image formation and the way in which they act in a unique combination, similar to a genetic code for a consumer, influences the image study of a tourism destination in the direction of becoming a complex process. In the marketing activity of each destination, the analysis of the importance of destination’s resources represents an essential step, however, as the multifaceted tourism product presents (in combination with, as well as through other policies – price, distribution etc.) a strong diversification, the distinction between the real, objective situation of the destination’s resources and the lack of their communication, on the one hand, and the distinction between the real situation and the way in which the resources are “presented” (in the direction of maximising or minimising them), on the other hand, can constitute a barrier in the path of formulating and/or fulfilling the marketing objectives and, respectively, the communication ones. In this context, in the authors’ opinion, in aid of a positioning strategy as accurate as possible – starting point in the integrated marketing communication strategy, a radiography of the tourism resources, their place and their reflection, in relation to those communicated through the different promotional instruments (examples, books, guides, online tourism agencies, social media etc.), is permanently imposed, all the more in the case of a macrodestination like Romania, and should be carefully monitorised.