In July 2022, Santa Monica and Brighton launched a number of activities to promote their relationship as friendship cities. This series of events can be viewed through the lens of Encoding and Decoding.
In the case of Santa Monica, we can treat the the California Cocktail-themed event organized at the bar and a mural exhibition organized by an artist at the pier are both examples of encoding in this campaign.
Decoding refers to the receiver’s understanding of Encoding. They decode the message through the symbols in the Encoding in an attempt to understand the travel experience provided and form expectations of the two destinations. According to Hall’s theory, there are three possible positions in the Decoding process, namely Dominant Position, Negotiated Position and Oppositional Position, the last one of which are counterproductive to the development of tourism, and it should be treated with caution in the promotional process. Therefore, care should be taken in the promotion process. According to Barry J. Babin and Eric G. Harris statement “Our consumer behavior tells who we are”.
So, in my opinion, the target that tourists choose to visit reveal their interests and values, for example, they look forward to experiencing different cultures, food cuisines, and so on, through which they can achieve an identity as “tourists”. So, during the process of Decoding, Event Promoters Need to Meet the Consumer’s Imagination.
In this type of campaign, messages from competitors or other destinations may be defined as noise, which may affect the receptivity of potential visitors to the Santa Monica Loves Brighton campaign. For example, most people come to the UK to visit large cities such as London and Manchester, which means they are unlikely to consider Brighton as a destination. The appeal of London and Manchester to tourists is what makes Brighton so attractive. Therefore, promoters need to make an effort to think about how to minimise or eliminate the interpretation of noisy on potential customer service to the promotional message Decoding during the Encoding process.
References：
Babin, B. J. and Harris, E. G., 2021. Consumer Behavior. 9th ed. Australia: Cengage Learning.
Santa Monica Travel and Tourism.Santa Monica Loves Brighton. Available at https://www.warc.com/SubscriberContent/article/mma-smarties/santa-monica-travel-and-tourism-santa-monica-loves-brighton/en-GB/149165
