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China is primarily a nonreligious country with less than 10% of people following Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, or other religions. Two major communication paths, the land and sea Silk Roads, directly affected the distribution and development of Muslim tourism and attractions. The combination of Islam with local custom and culture is a unique feature in China, and contributes to its development as a form of ethnic rather than religious tourism. As a result, research in China focuses on ethnic product development, minority sports and anthropological tourism, themed events, and intangible cultural heritage.

The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for nation branding based on the concepts of co‐branding and perceived fit, and to apply these concepts to discuss the type of nation brand that China may develop and how this brand relates to individual destinations through brand architecture.

Branding is a deliberate process applied to the shaping of a nation's image and reputation on the global stage, in the heightened global competition for ascendancy. The paper reviews selected literature of national identity and nation branding to identify models, techniques and prior research that informs nation branding. This paper examines national branding and nation building from the perspective of international tourism promotion and development.

The formation of the Chinese national identity is the result of a complicated historical progression, as well as current national aspirations, and the process of globalization and the introduction of the market system. Branding the nation in the globalised world is a strategy or tool in the competition for attention and wealth, as well as a tool of self‐affirmation. Nation brands are more complex to develop and less tangible than corporate brands.

The paper identifies that value of examining nation branding as a form of co‐branding, with the related concepts of perceived fit, brand architecture as well as existing techniques.

Samirah Al-Saleh <sameeraalsaleh@hotmail.com> is a lecturer in geography and tourism at King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She is also a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Sunderland, United Kingdom. She has participated in numerous tourism conferences in Saudi Arabia and abroad. She has contributed to the journal, Al Aqiq, in a recent special edition on the topic of domestic tourism in Saudi Arabia.

This introduction seeks to provide a broad review of scholarly developments in the nascent field of destination branding spanning almost 12 years in order to locate the relevance and import of the following nine papers compiled for this special issue on destination branding and marketing.

A general review of literature is undertaken guided by an epistemological approach to knowledge thus far generated by the destination branding field, consistent with the recommendation of Tribe, and in lieu of the common reductionist approach to identifying themes. The background generated by the review is then used to introduce and assess the significance of the articles contained in this special issue.

Three undercurrents of critical issues implicated with the massive body of knowledge generated by the first decade of destination branding research are described and posited relations between them are tentatively advanced. The undercurrents pertain primarily to matters of identity affirmation, inter‐organizational assimilation and an unfolding anarchic environment for destination branding research and practice. The papers in this special issue exhibit profound connections with the different undercurrents.

Rather than summarize and classify achievements in destination branding research over the last decade or so, this editorial argues that current and future research contends with larger issues surrounding the field's core concern of destination branding and marketing.

This study aims to examine the current state of the research activities of scholars in the hospitality and tourism field by analyzing the first 20 years of the new millennium.

Longitudinal analyses using 14,229 journal articles as data source were realized by adopting BibExcel, Gephi and VOSviewer network analysis software packages.

This study provides a comprehensive overview of the hospitality and tourism research based on authorship and social network analysis, with patterns of prolific authors compared over four distinct periods.

The hospitality and tourism academic society is clearly illustrated by tracing academic publication activities across 20 years in the new millennium. In addition, this study provides a guide for scholars to search for multidisciplinary collaboration opportunities. Government agencies and non-governmental organisations can also benefit from this study by identifying appropriate review panel members when making decisions about hospitality- and tourism-related proposals.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to use bibliometric analysis in assessing research published in leading hospitality and tourism journals across the four breakout periods in the new millennium.