Communication in Destination Marketing Case Study: Tallinn European Capital of Culture 2011

The purpose of this paper was to research the role of communication in destination marketing by analyzing the destination marketing campaign of Tallinn European Capital of Culture 2011. The research had a practical focus on determining the goals, if and how were they reached. In addition, attention was paid towards the obstacles of implementing the strategies.The research was conducted by qualitative in-depth interviews with 5 Tallinn 2011 specialists in order to map their opinions, feelings and experiences about communication as a part of destination marketing. The results showed that the destination marketing of Tallinn 2011 would have been unsuccessful without communication. Despite of unforeseen events and political communication, the team of Tallinn 2011 was able to play a decisive role in the destination marketing campaign of TECoC, promoting the city successfully with the most cost-effective ways possible. In its endeavour to prove the willingness of being a European worthy Culture Capital, it can be said that the common practice of communication and destination marketing was contradicted in the sense that unrealistic promises were communicated to target audiences but as the interviews showed, it was the ramification of series of unforeseen events and cannot in any way be blamed on the team of Tallinn 2011.