This paper is based upon the last piece of empirical research conducted by the late Professor Richard Prentice during one of his frequent visits to Iran.

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ABSTRACT

Local input into identifying and selecting the unique selling points of a destination is an important element in the development of appropriate and culturally sensitive tourism to developing international tourist destinations. Here, a destination appraisal matrix was created and, then, was tested by a group of Iranian tourist industry representatives. The destination appraisal matrix technique can easily be used by tourism marketers in such developing countries, and the matrix proved to be a successful method of initiating discussions on the problem of positioning a destination when normal expertise, structures and resources are lacking and conventional approaches to positioning are difficult or inappropriate. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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