An Examination of Destination and Business Place Identity along the Wild Atlantic Way (Ireland) Tourism Route

An examination of the layers of business place identities resulting from the creation of a road tourism route: an exploration of the Wild Atlantic Way Proposal and originality (500 characters) This paper is focussed on the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW) in Ireland and explores the concept of entrepreneurial place identity in terms of tourism routes. Place identity has been shown to be important for tourism entrepreneurs as it affects their self- efficacy (Haller, Assaker and Lee, 2013) and their strategies (Mottiar, 2016). This paper seeks to explore how tourism businesses have altered their identity as a result of the WAW. In particular have they incorporated the WAW proposition into their own marketing? Is there a hierarchy of place identities that these businesses display? Methodology (250 characters) The results presented here will be the first phase of this project and are based on netnographic research of tourism business websites and their social media channels. Using a structured framework, place identities are examined and compared via visual and textual analysis.