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d travel intermediaries. Benefits for the traveller include ease of decision making through reduced search costs, reduced risk, and possibly enhanced brag value.The focus of most research reported to date has been concerned with the development of destination brand identities and the implementation of campaigns (see for example, [Crockett and Wood, 1999], [Hall, 1999], [May, 2001] and [Morgan etal., 2002]). One area requiring increased attention is that of tracking the performance of destination brand positions over time. That is, the extent to which destination brands39。 positioning and repositioning campaigns have been effective in enhancing brand equity consistent with that intended in the brand identity. This is an important gap, given: i) increasing petition (see Morgan, Pritchard, amp。 Piggot, 2002), ii) the increasing level of investment by destination marketing organisations (DMO) in branding since the 1990s, iii) the plex political nature of DMO brand decision making and increasing accountability to stakeholders (see Pike, 2005), and iv) the longterm nature of repositioning a destination39。s image in the marketplace (see Gartner amp。 Hunt, 1987). In terms of metrics for DMOs in general, a number of researchers in various parts of the world have pointed to a lack of market research monitoring effectiveness of destination marketing objectives, such as in Australia (see [Carson etal., 2003] and [Prosser etal., 2000]), North America ([Masberg, 1999] and [Sheehan and Ritchie, 1997]), and Europe (Dolnicar amp。 Schoesser, 2003).4. Destination branding positioning and The rationale meaning The aim of this study was to track the brand positions held by a petitive set of nearhome destinations between 2003 and 2007. For this purpose the efficacy of a hierarchy of consumerbased brand equity (CBBE) was trialled. CBBE was first promoted by (Aaker, 1991) and (Aaker, 1996) and more recently by (Keller, 1993) and (Keller, 2003) to supplement traditional balance sheet brand equity measures. The rationale underpinning CBBE as a brand performance metric is that consumer perceptions of the brand underpin any financial estimate of future earnings estimated in the financial measure of brand equity. Since a financial balance sheet brand equity measure will be of little practical value to destination marketers, the concept of CBBE is worthy of consideration by DMOs. However, the potential of CBBE for destinations has only recently attracted the attention of academic researchers (see [Boo etal., in press] and [Konecknik and Gartner, 2007]).