Destination Marketing

Each year, millions of dollars are spent on producing and distributing brochures by the travel and hospitality industry. Surprisingly, little research has been done to examine their effectiveness. This article reports one of the findings of an exploratory study on the effectiveness of brochures. Using data collected from 2,400 information-inquirers of a destination, the study found that brochures have different impact on the users in terms of the role they play in the decision process. Specifically, brochures have more influence on those users who have no prior experience of the destination than on those who have. It is therefore suggested that market segmentation is needed to target these two different type of brochure users.