product placement and tourism-oriented environments: an exploratory introduction

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the ‘physical’placement of products within tourism-oriented environments. Product placementis usually associated with the incorporationof branded products into media vehicles.However, a type of placement also occurswithin ‘non-store’ spaces used by tourists.Product placement within these spaces mayincrease awareness about certain productsand, ultimately, induce purchases. Tourism-oriented environments may enhance theattractiveness of placed products becausethey enable consumers to interact with andappraise these products before theypurchase them. A number of examples areprovided, which demonstrate that marketersseek to create encounters between touristsand products. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley& Sons, Ltd.

Received 24 September 2006; Revised 27 February 2007;Accepted 13 March 2007

Keywords: product placement; tourism-oriented environments; consumption;encounters.

INTRODUCTION

In their efforts to capture the attention ofconsumers, marketers have become moreinnovative. It has become more common-

place for marketers to use techniques that

influence consumers in a more unobtrusivemanner. One such technique is product place-ment. Research that explores product place-ment has primarily examined the purposefulincorporation of branded products into featurefilms and other media vehicles (Galician, 2005;Balasubramanian et al., 2006; Hudson andHudson, 2006; La Ferle and Edwards, 2006;Maynard and Scala, 2006). Many placed prod-ucts are plainly visible to the audience. Otherplacements, however, are simply scripted. Inother words, some products or brand namesare mentioned by film and television charac-ters, but are not actually seen.

The practice of product placement hasattracted the interest of some tourism scholars.Research that explores cinema-induced tourismhas portrayed travel destinations as placed products (Morgan and Pritchard, 2000; Middleton and Clarke, 2001; Hudson and BrentRitchie, 2006). A destination may receive in-creased visitation as a result of the exposure itreceives from a film. The film Sideways served asa product-placement vehicle for wine tourism inCalifornia’s Napa Valley (Asimov, 2005). In orderto increase the number of television- and film-based placements that will showcase its brand,Hilton Hotels hired a company headquartered in Hollywood that pursues brand-placementopportunities for clients (Lewis, 2005).

Product placement is typically associated withthe media. In this paper, however, the term‘product placement’ is applied to the physicalplacement of products within non-store environ-ments. Products, in other words, are ‘inserted’into non-store environments where they may prompt impulse-driven purchases. Three-dimensional placed products enable consumersto interact with merchandise in a manner that isunmatched by conventional advertisements or

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCHInt. J. Tourism Res. 9, 275–284 (2007)Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.612

Product Placement and Tourism-OrientedEnvironments: an Exploratory IntroductionAdam WeaverVictoria Management School, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand

*Correspondence to: A. Weaver, Victoria ManagementSchool, Victoria University of Wellington, P.O. Box 600,Wellinton, New Zealand.E-mail: [email protected]

media-based placements. Placements that areincorporated into media vehicles cannot besampled or used by consumers in the same waythat ‘physically’ placed products can.

Product placement occurs within environ-ments used by tourists — for example, hotelrooms, commercial aircraft and cruise ships. Ina variety of tourism-oriented environments,marketers position products in ways thatensure that tourists come into contact withthem. Tourism has been theorised as a series ofencounters between individuals, and betweenindividuals and spaces (Crouch, 1999; Crouch,2000; Crouch et al., 2001; Crouch and Desforges, 2003). It may also involve encoun-ters between tourists and placed products.Tourists may be immersed within particulartourism-oriented environments for hours —even days. This paper demonstrates that theseenvironments possess attributes that are con-ducive to ‘physical’ product placement.

‘Physical’ placement can provide touristswith well-orchestrated opportunities to test,appraise and experience products. Theseopportunities are, of course, intended toprompt purchases. Purchases may occur overthe course of the trip or once tourists returnhome. It is possible for tourists to purchasecertain placed products via the Internet.Tourists who stay at certain hotels, forexample, can purchase products from the hotelcompany’s Internet site that are identical to theones that were placed within their hotel room(Trucco, 2004). Although purchase-relateddecisions may be influenced by the point-of-sale environment, consumers do not necessar-ily have to purchase the merchandise on-site.

PRODUCT PLACEMENT: COMMENTARYAND CONTEXT

Many human environments are suffused withadvertisements. A number of observers notethat advertisements seem to have becomeubiquitous (Twitchell, 1996; McChesney andBellamy Foster, 2003; Pappas, 2003; Solomon,2003). As a result, marketers and advertisershave had to develop more innovative ways tocapture the attention of consumers. Placedproducts that appear within media vehicles areseen as one way to bypass the clutter that hasbeen created by the omnipresence of adver-

tisements (Sunderland et al., 2006). This type ofplacement offers a means by which productscan be artfully introduced to consumers. It isintended to persuade inconspicuously.

Presentation, position and placement areimportant to the promotion of products andservices. Many tourism-oriented environ-ments, for example, contain ‘placed’ advertise-ments that are meant to attract the attention ofprospective consumers. It is undeniable thatadvertisements have become a fixture withinenvironments used by travellers. Within air-ports and train stations, advertisements havebecome part of the familiar ambience. Travel-lers have become an audience for advertise-ments that promote products and servicesunrelated to travel. Over time, advertisementsplaced within tourism-oriented environmentsare viewed by many prospective consumers;travellers are ‘consumers in transit’ — or ‘tran-sumers’ (Crawford and Melewar, 2003, p. 86).The relative affluence of travellers means thatthey can be an important market for the advertised products.

Travellers are also an important market formerchandise sold at travel destinations. Manytourists shop over the course of a vacation(Coles, 2004a; Timothy, 2005; Westwood, 2006).Product placement simply transforms placessuch as hotel rooms or cruise-ship cabins intoenvironments where one can view and useproducts that are for sale. It is not unusual fortourists to be immersed within environments— such as department stores, duty-free shopsand craft markets — that are populated withproducts that are available for purchase.However, certain tourism-oriented environ-ments that are not typically associated withretail activity have, in essence, evolved intoproduct showrooms.

‘Physical’ product placement involves themanipulation of environments used by con-sumers. This type of manipulation is by nomeans uncommon. Themed spaces, such ascasino-hotels and theme parks, are constructedin ways that are intended to influence thebehaviour of consumers (Ritzer and Liska,1997; Mayer and Johnson, 2003; Johnson et al.,2004). These environments often have an ambi-ence that is part of the experience they provide.Within many airports, duty-free shops are situated beside — and sometimes even stretch

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Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 9, 275–284 (2007)DOI: 10.1002/jtr

across — the busy pedestrian walkways(Sharkey, 2001; Reed, 2004). The shops arepositioned in a manner that is meant to maximise the number of airport users whovisit them.

Products that are placed within tourism-oriented environments can provide consumerswith a pleasant diversion. A ‘surprise’ factormay accompany product placement; the un-expectedness and novelty of placed productsmay contribute to increased sales. Moreover,retail analysts and marketers have noted thattouch and trial are important to consumers forcertain types of purchases (Underhill, 1999;Peck and Childers, 2003). Product placementoften creates situations where tourists can useand closely examine the merchandise beforethey purchase it. A number of European auto-mobile manufacturers use tourism — factorytours, travel clubs and automobile-themed hol-idays — to promote their products and brands(Coles, 2004b). Tourists, then, are viewed asprospective consumers for products that arenot typically associated with tourism. Productplacement within tourism-oriented environ-ments shares an important attribute withtourism-based initiatives developed by theEuropean automobile makers: tourism-relatedactivities and experiences are used to promotenon-tourism consumption.

Brand promotion may drive certain types ofproduct placement. It has become more com-monplace for brands to be promoted in con-nection with other brands (Leuthesser et al.,2003; Uggla, 2004; Capizzi and Ferguson,2005). Many frequent flyer and rewardschemes have multiple brand partners. Pointscan be accumulated by card holders when theypurchase certain brand-name products; theaccumulated points, in turn, can be usedtowards the purchase of partner-brand prod-ucts. Product placement may be part of a brandpartnership scheme. ‘Branded’ placed prod-ucts may be showcased within ‘branded’ envi-ronments. These ‘branded’ environmentsinclude places such as brand-name hotels andcruise ships.

The use of product placement by privateenterprise does raise concerns about rampantcommercialisation within contemporarysociety. Many commentators have expressedreservations about the widespread diffusion of

advertisements (Goldman and Papson, 1996;McAlister, 1996; McChesney and BellamyFoster, 2003). There is a sense that advertise-ments have become almost ubiquitous.Product placement could be seen as anexample of advertisement ‘creep’ (Beltramini,2003). Indeed, placed products have crept intoa wide variety of tourism-oriented environ-ments. The placement of products within theseenvironments is simply one more techniquethat is deployed by companies in order topromote even more consumption.

There is often an element of stealth toproduct placement. The promotional intent ofproduct placement is not necessarily madeexplicit. That product placement may possessthis surreptitious or covert quality raises animportant question: is it deceptive to placeproducts within a tourism-oriented environ-ment if consumers are unaware of their per-suasive intent? For some commentators, anundercurrent of subtle manipulation runsbeneath the pleasure that tourists derive fromconsumption (Ritzer and Liska, 1997).

It is commonplace for marketers and ad-vertisers to espouse the virtues of choice (Kirkpatrick, 1994). There would be some sub-stance to the claim that product placementincreases the amount of choice consumers have.It is entirely possible that consumers would notbe aware that certain products existed if theydid not physically encounter them. However,product placement can circumscribe choice asit simultaneously makes consumers aware ofalternatives and options. Acompany that wantsto place its products within a tourism-orientedenvironment typically secures a monopoly overthis environment. The company, in otherwords, will typically ensure that products man-ufactured by its competitors are not placedwithin the same environments as its own prod-ucts. Furthermore, product placement restrictschoice in that exposure to placed products is notvoluntary; tourists have virtually no choice inthe matter. They interact with placed productswhether they wish to do so or not. Tourists arenot necessarily forewarned about the presenceof placed products within tourism-orientedenvironments. Placed products may not alwaysbe ‘announced’ in the same way that con-ventional advertisements often make theirpresence obvious.

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Product placement is used to create encoun-ters between tourists and products. The notionthat tourism involves human-to-human inter-action — and human interactions with spaceand place — has been studied (Crouch, 1999;Crouch, 2000; Crouch et al., 2001; Crouch andDesforges, 2003). Researchers have alsoexplored relationships between tourists andcertain types of products — namely, souvenirs(Kim and Littrell, 2001; Swanson, 2004;Swanson and Horridge, 2004). To date,however, encounters between tourists andproducts placed within non-store environ-ments have not been examined.

PRODUCT PLACEMENT IN PRACTICE

With product placement, consumers can havecontact with products in a manner that conventional promotions and advertisementscannot necessarily match. Product placementenables consumers to touch, try and appraiseitems before purchase (Underhill, 1999).Tourism-oriented environments may evenoffer consumers the opportunity to haveextended interactions with products. The aim,then, is to have tourists become involved withthe products within a ‘natural use’ context.Tourists are able to use the products as theywould be used within their home or workenvironment.

Many tourists visit unfamiliar places withinbubbles of familiarity (Judd, 1999; Jacobsen,2003; Jaakson, 2004). Tourist bubbles typicallycontain the conveniences of home. Placedproducts may even contribute to the pleasureand comfort experienced by travellers withinthese bubbles. Indeed, these products mayenhance the ‘home-away-from-home’ qualitiesof bubble environments. Tourist bubbles cantherefore be an exemplary place within whichto showcase items that tourists could takehome or use at home. These items, once pur-chased, are transported from the bubble at thedestination back to the home environment.

There are several tourism-oriented environ-ments within which companies choose to placetheir products. One such environment is thehotel room. The US-based W Hotel chain sellsa variety of merchandise, which can be foundwithin its rooms: beds, duvets, pillows, vanitymirrors and towels (Trucco, 2000; Strauss,

2004). A French-owned hotel chain, Sofitel,operates an Internet boutique (www.soboutique.com), which sells a number ofplaced products: whisky tumblers, carafes,vases and chairs. The Ritz-Carlton hotel chainuses its Internet site (www.ritzcarlton.com) tosell placed products such as mattresses manu-factured by Sealy, a popular mattress brand.Visitors to Holiday Inn Express properties canpurchase the Stay Smart shower head made byKohler (Clark, 2005). The showers in the hotelroom are outfitted with these showerheads.For the most part, items that are available forpurchase can be used by hotel customers overthe course of their stay.

The providers of several television channelsview hotel customers as potential subscribers(Kokish, 2003). In the USA, Showtime andHome Box Office (HBO) view televisionswithin hotel rooms as a means by which theycan reach viewers who do not subscribe totheir channels at home. These channelproviders see the hotel stay as an opportunityfor travellers to sample television channels.Travellers who have a positive impression ofthe channels they watch may then become subscribers once they return home.

In 2000, Crayola, a manufacturer of crayonsand coloured markers, established a partner-ship with accommodation provider HowardJohnson (Beirne, 2000; Stewart, 2004). Anumber of hotels within the Howard Johnsonchain contain themed rooms that are orientedaround the Crayola brand. These Crayola-branded rooms feature very colourful curtains,carpets and bedspreads. They also contain a number of Crayola products — crayons,markers, easels, alarm clocks and playroomfurniture (Beirne, 2000). Occupants of therooms can take the crayons and markers homewith them after their stay; there is no fee forthese items. Although Crayola does not earnrevenue from the hotel rooms directly, theplacement of branded products in these roomsdoes promote the Crayola brand.

On board commercial aircraft, travellers aretypically offered complimentary snack foods.These food items may be placed products. Forexample, Southwest Airlines serves Nabiscoproducts to customers (Steinberg andTrottman, 2005). One benefit to the air carrieris that the snack food manufacturer often

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provides cookies or crackers at cost or for free.The Nabisco snack foods that are distributed toSouthwest’s customers are placed within card-board boxes. These boxes bear the corporateemblems of different snack food brands suchRitz crackers and Oreo cookies. In Decemberof 2002, travellers who flew with SouthwestAirlines could sample Nabisco’s recently intro-duced Mint Oreo cookies (Thompson, 2002).The provision of these free cookies was meantto prompt purchases by travellers after theyreturned home.

Product placement offers a means by whichcompanies can reach particular market niches.Many tourism-oriented environments are subdivided environments; tourists whooccupy particular compartments or spaceswithin these environments may possesscertain attributes. The marketers of some prod-ucts seek access to air travellers who occupybusiness-class and first-class seats. Travellerswho fly first class with Continental Airlineshave received complimentary products fromBantam Books and Prada (Beirne, 2004). Thetravellers who occupy the first-class seats onboard United Airlines aircraft have sometimesreceived a collection of placed products valuedat between US$500 and $1000 (Adler, 2004). Acompany that wants a product placed withinbusiness or first-class compartments may evenhire a product-placement company, such asMadison & Mulholland, so that the productsreach an air carrier’s more affluent customers(Adler, 2004). Placed products may be handedto these up-market travellers while they are onboard the aircraft or placed in their seats beforethey board.

Since 1995, Celebrity Cruises and Sony Corporation have collaborated in an effort topromote Sony products (Finney, 1995). Thiscollaboration is part of an effort ‘to maximizeexposure for Sony hardware and software’(Gelsi, 1997, p. 20). The ships have, in essence,become showrooms for Sony products. Eachship within Celebrity’s fleet has a children’scentre on board. These centres are equippedwith Sony PlayStations. The in-cabin televi-sions on board the ships, which are manu-factured by Sony, feature a Sony channel thatbroadcasts films produced by Sony Pictures, a Sony-owned motion picture productioncompany. This relationship between Celebrity

Cruises and Sony Corporation continues to thepresent day (Saltzman, 2005).

The Walt Disney Company combinesproduct placement with cross promotion.When visitors stay at Disney-owned resorts,the in-room televisions show advertisementsfor Disney-made films and television shows(Bart, 2002). Resorts are therefore used topromote Disney’s media products. Thesemedia products, in turn, are used to promoteDisney-owned vacation environments. In2002, the ABC Television Network, which isowned by Disney, named the 8–9 p.m. time slotwithin its prime time schedule the ABC HappyHour. This hour of television was also pro-moted on board Disney’s cruise ships. The barson board these ships offered a ‘happy hour’ ofdrinks in order to increase awareness about thetelevision network’s Happy Hour (Bart, 2002).On occasion, episodes of situation comediesbroadcast by the ABC Television Networkhave been filmed on board Disney’s cruiseships (Orwall and Nelson, 2004). The televi-sion shows, then, are used to promote vaca-tions on board the ships.

Rental cars could be seen as tourism-orientedenvironments that are also placed products.Vehicles, such as automobiles, are tourism-oriented environments in the sense that they arespaces within which individuals can havetourism-related experiences. As Oakes (2003)has noted, vehicles, such as automobiles, arenot simply utilitarian modes of transport thatmove individuals between places; tourists canexperience vacation destinations — and inter-act with their travel companions — within anautomobile. One type of automobile commonlyused by tourists is the rental car. In the past,automobile manufacturers sold the unwantedcars they produced to rental car companies(Freeman, 2004; Simon, 2005). These cars weretypically stripped-down models. As a result,individuals who rented automobiles did notnecessarily have a positive view of the vehiclesthey rented. The relationship between the auto-mobile industry and rental car industry hasevolved in recent years. In 2004, Chrysler soldseveral of its newest models — Chrysler 300sedans and PT Cruiser convertibles — to rentalcar companies (Freeman, 2004). Rental car com-panies offer recently introduced vehicles valu-able exposure. A rented car provides customers



with an opportunity to test-drive an auto-mobile. The expectation is that the rental carwill ‘steer’ customers into an automobile showroom.

Product placement seems to serve a numberof purposes. It is one way to increase productawareness. Product placement ensures thatrecently introduced products and brandsreceive exposure. This exposure can occurwhen consumers come into contact with pro-ducts. Placement creates opportunities forproduct exposure and for consumers to useproducts in ways that can promote purchases.Indeed, it may prompt ‘spur-of-the-moment’purchases.

The sense of escape and pleasure thattourists derive from travel may make themmore inclined to purchase placed products.Research that has examined the behaviour ofshoppers within airports has indicated that theanticipation and excitement that often ac-companies pleasure travel can intensify con-sumption within airport environments. Thistravel-related anticipation and excitement hasbeen referred to as the ‘happy hour’ (Omarand Kent, 2001, p. 226). Tourism has beendescribed as peak consumption, a type of consumption that is particularly intense andoccurs within certain spaces (or ‘zones’) at par-ticular times (Wang, 2002). It is possible thatunplanned or impulse-driven purchases may‘peak’ over the course of the holiday also.

Product placement also provides a means bywhich marketers can make contact with par-ticular types of consumers. A product manu-facturer can use placements in order toestablish contact with the customer base of atourism provider. This customer base mayconsist of tourists who possess qualities thatare similar to those of a placed product’sintended market. The physical environmentwithin which products are placed can speakvolumes about the market that the productmanufacturer seeks to attract. Many users of aparticular tourism-oriented environment mayshare certain tastes and preferences. They mayalso share the same income bracket.

At times, product placement may involvebrand extension. Brand extension enables abrand to be ‘broadcast’ more widely. Placedproducts within a hotel room, for example,may bear the corporate emblem of the hotel.

The Waldorf-Astoria, a renowned hotel in NewYork City, sells several placed products —bathrobes, scented soaps and even coffee-tablebooks written about the hotel — emblazonedwith the hotel’s name or crest (De Lollis, 2004).Products that carry corporate emblems mayalso be purchased for friends and relatives aspresents. A hotel’s brand can therefore betransported into other environments and, as aresult, be seen by a broader ‘audience’. Placedproducts that carry a hotel’s name or corporateemblem may even be a valuable source ofrevenue for the hotel’s owner.

Product placement within tourism-orientedenvironments can also be used to promotenon-tourism brands. ‘Branded’ environments— perhaps brand-name accommodationproviders — are spaces that can showcase non-tourism products and brands with which con-sumers are unfamiliar. Products and brandscan be introduced to consumers via productplacement. In other instances, popular‘branded’ environments and widely pur-chased brand-name products may be matchedand then promoted in tandem. Product place-ment can therefore be used to achieve mutualbrand enhancement.

TOURISM AS AN ‘ENCOUNTER’ ANDPRODUCT PLACEMENT

From a theoretical perspective, product place-ment could be viewed as an encounter betweenproducts and tourists. A number of scholarsconceptualise tourism as an encounter betweenindividuals, and as an encounter between indi-viduals and space (Crouch, 1999; Crouch, 2000;Crouch et al., 2001; Crouch and Desforges, 2003).These encounters are said to involve expecta-tions, desires and experiences. The notion thattourism involves encounters could also beapplied to the study of placed products.Tourism researchers have examined inter-actions between tourists and certain types ofproducts — in particular, souvenirs (Kim andLittrell, 2001; Swanson, 2004; Swanson and Horridge, 2004). These mementos may be aphysical manifestation of treasured memoriesfor tourists; souvenirs are also purchased as pre-sents for friends and family members at home.However, the ‘physical’ placement of productswithin tourism-oriented environments — and

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the way in which tourists interact with theseproducts — has not been explored.

Encounters between tourists and placedproducts involve different human senses. Therelationship between tourism and the senseshas been explored by Urry (1999). In Urry’sview, researchers need to understand the waysin which the experiences of tourists are shapedby their senses. Product placement may enticethe senses in different ways. Tourists taste thecomplimentary snack foods that are offered tothem. They visually appraise the picturequality of televisions placed within their hotelroom or cruise-ship cabin. Tourists may bemotivated to purchase towels and bed sheetsonce these products make contact with theirskin. Bath products placed within hotel roomsmay be purchased by hotel customers becauseof their pleasant scent.

The way in which tourists use tourism-oriented environments is an important dimen-sion to the study of product placement. A hotelroom becomes a product showroom withinwhich one takes up temporary residence.Tourists ‘inhabit’ a hotel room; they use thisspace differently than, say, a department storeor duty-free shop. The occupants of a hotelroom can sample and use placed products inways that visitors to a conventional storesimply cannot. A hotel room that is furnishedwith products that are for sale offers an expe-rience that is very different from a furnitureshop or a store that sells household items.

In a similar sense, tourists who visit themeparks or who are on board cruise ships may beimmersed within environments that containplaced products. Theme parks and cruise shipsencapsulate tourists (Judd, 1999; Jacobsen,2003; Jaakson, 2004); tourists may thereforehave repeated interactions with particularplaced products over the course of their stay orvisit. On board commercial aircraft, travellersare confined to a circumscribed cabin spaceover the course of the trip. These travellers,then, are a ‘captive audience’ (Steinberg andTrottman, 2005, p. B1). Many tourism-orientedenvironments, as a result of their distance anddetachment from other places, enable con-sumers to have extended interactions withplaced products.

Product placement permits tourists to havean increased sensory involvement with the

products they encounter. Tourists may developan attachment to placed products. Whentourists interact with these products, they mayactually start the process whereby they possessthem. Many tourists, then, may purchaseplaced products in order to acquire items withwhich they have already, in a sense, estab-lished a relationship.

CONCLUSION

This paper has explored ‘physical’ productplacement within a variety of tourism-orientedenvironments. This type of placement isintended to create situations where touristsinteract with products. As a result of theseinteractions, tourists may develop an attach-ment to placed merchandise. There are certainqualities possessed by tourism-oriented envi-ronments that enable these types of attachmentto develop.

Propinquity is very important to the way inwhich product placement operates. Touristsare surrounded with products they can useand then purchase. This practice could bedescribed as ‘promotion by immersion’. It isthe contact that occurs between consumers andproducts that contributes to the success ofproduct placement. Tourism-oriented environ-ments are sites within which consumers canhave extended and repeated contact withplaced products.

There are many aspects of ‘physical’ place-ment that deserve closer examination.Researchers could study the use of differenttourism-oriented environments as productshowrooms. Do certain types of environmentsseem to complement particular product types?How do different tourism-oriented environ-ments shape the way in which consumers viewplaced products or brands? What methods docompanies use to match products with theenvironments within which they could beplaced? These questions could certainly beaddressed by tourism researchers who seek tounderstand the placement process more comprehensively.

Product placement can certainly benefitprivate enterprise. It can increase brand aware-ness and may serve as an important distribu-tion channel. Placed products can also servethe interests of consumers. Indeed, these



products can provide increased access to mer-chandise and make consumption more conve-nient. However, placement-related practicesalso testify to the power that can be exercisedover consumers. Products that are positionedso that consumers have contact with them canpromote impulse-driven purchases (Underhill,1999). The ability that marketers have to influence human behaviour — even subtly —should be scrutinised. At the same time, it isimportant not to dismiss the autonomy thattourists can exercise over their own actions.They may use placed products in ways that arenot anticipated by marketers and, in addition,derive considerable satisfaction from their use.The perspectives and practices of tourists needto be examined.

It would be worthwhile for tourism scholars,social commentators and tourists to debate themerits of ‘physical’ product placement morebroadly. In countries such as the USA, wherecredit-card debt continues to increase, is more impulse-driven consumption necessarilydesirable? What efforts could be made topromote responsible consumption rather thansimply more consumption? Could productplacement possibly be used to promote con-sumption that is influenced by conscience andnot purely by impulse?

That tourism often involves some contactand interaction with other cultures has im-plications for the way in which product placement is undertaken. Tourism-orientedenvironments are often used by consumerswho come from different countries. These consumers may have different consumption-related habits. Product placement may beadapted by practitioners so that it conforms tothe cultural values and norms of tourists fromdifferent international markets. Many coun-tries have key national sports; sports-orientedplacements may have to be adapted across different countries so that they correspondwith different national cultures.

Research has demonstrated that productplacement within media vehicles tends to bebetter received by American viewers thanChinese viewers (McKechnie and Zhou, 2003).It is possible that tourists from some countriesmay respond more favourably to ‘physical’placement than tourists from other countries.Will tourists from more collectivist cultures

(Litvin and Goh, 2003) perhaps be moreinclined to use or purchase placed productswith others — for example, their travel com-panions? How do placed products contributeto, or perhaps even detract from, the satisfac-tion that tourists from different countriesderive from a tourism-oriented environment?There is clearly room for more research thatexplores placement-related practices and themanner in which tourists — many of whomare from different countries — view and interact with placed products.

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