Airport branding: content analysis of vision statements

Abstract

Following the commercialization and privatization of many airports in recent decades, airport management companies have placed greater emphasis on airport marketing and branding. One way of understanding the branding efforts of any organization is to analyze the content and themes of their vision and mission statements. In particular, vision statements provide a statement of the future intentions of companies with respect to their plans to engage with their main stakeholders. This paper aims to contribute to the literature on airport branding by analyzing the content of 91 vision statements of airports from around the world. The analytical framework involves deductive measurement and a content analysis regarding keywords identified in a literature review, in addition to tourism-related elements in airport vision statements. Although there is an intrinsic relationship between airports and tourism development, the academic literature has not thoroughly addressed stakeholder engagement among airports and tourism organizations. For the data analysis in this study, airports were segmented with respect to geographic location, passenger movement, and airport governance models.