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This paper aims to assess the extent to which the perceived images and personalities of places mirror their prevalent production orientations, or “vocations”. It also investigates the factors that shape the expectations and desires of residents, tourists, local firms and export markets, as well as these users’ overall place experience.

In all, 600 questionnaires containing both closed-ended and open-ended questions were administered in four local territorial systems (LTSs) of a Southern Italian province. Data were analyzed by using both quantitative and qualitative techniques.

Results showed that place image mirrors the respective productive orientation for only one of the examined LTSs. Meanwhile, for all four LTSs, place image was congruent with place personality.

The generalizability of the results is limited, as the research focused on LTSs located in a specific geographical area.

The paper provides suggestions regarding the formulation of marketing policies aimed at improving the willingness of residents, tourists, local firms and export markets to use the products/services/resources of the studied LTSs. Communication and branding strategies that leverage the personality traits of the examined LTSs are also illustrated in the paper.

By examining the coherence among place image, personality, and prevalent vocation, this research addresses a neglected area of investigation. This study is one of the few that provides empirical evidence of misperceptions of the actual production orientation of places.

This paper explores an important yet overlooked concept in place branding literature, unplanned messages. Focusing on unplanned messages, this study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the concept of spontaneous order in place branding and how to manage the unplanned communication process so as to ensure a high reputational status for a place.

This paper builds on past research on place brand communication and proposes a conceptual framework for unplanned messages.

Classification schemes for places and place brands are proposed, contributing to place brand management in three aspects: reviewing of decisions and strategies undertaken, assessing current situation and planning way forward when it comes to priorities for place management and development.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that introduces the emergent image and presents a classification scheme for places that contributes to a strategic management program of unplanned messages in place branding.

This study aims to investigate how residents’ perceptions of the image of their place of living influence their level of commitment toward it. The mediating role of human place bonds (place attachment and place identity) and the moderating effect of the socio-demographic characteristics of the host community in this relationship is specifically examined.

The theoretical direct–indirect–moderation relationships are examined using structural equation modeling and moderated-mediation or condition process analysis (Hayes and Preacher, 2013). Data were collected from 472 residents living in Belgrade (Serbia).

The findings support the contention that place attachment and place identity mediate the relationship between place image and commitment. The study further shows that the conditional indirect relationship of place image with commitment through place attachment and place identity is significant for age. Age and place of birth are found to moderate the relationship between place image and place attachment.

A stimulating avenue for future research is to explore the effect of culture (individualist, short-term oriented and low on power distance vs collectivist, long-term oriented and high on power distance cultures) on model’s relationships as well as on commitment specifically.

To enhance their residents’ commitment, place marketers should focus on two levels of action. The first lever is to assess how residents perceive the image of the place where they live as it can serve as a strategic outline to explore their level of support and address the possible negative feelings they may have toward any development project. The second level of action is developing bottom up strategies that are likely to enhance residents’ commitment which aims at transforming residents into active place ambassadors and actors of the public life of the city.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first in the place branding research domain to examine the role of human place bonds in the relationship between place image and commitment using mediation, moderation, and moderated-mediation analyses. Moreover, place branding literature is underdeveloped regarding the current issues most post-communist countries face.

This paper aims to explore how place identity can be expressed in residents’ place image descriptions, addressing differences and similarities in place identity expressions between residents’ descriptions of the image of their place and the image of the place as described to others.

In-depth interviews were conducted with residents of a Swedish city. Place image descriptions were analyzed through thematic analysis.

Different types of identity perspectives manifest in the place image descriptions of residents. Respondents’ associations reflect place, person and social group identity perspectives, including their own perspective as residents, but also as visitors, or a combination of both. Priming is needed when gathering place image perceptions, to establish which underlying identity perspective is expressed.

This study offers a Nordic perspective on the organic communication of place image. The scope and qualitative nature of this study is a limitation to its generalizability but also suggests a rich ground for future cross-cultural studies on the topic.

Results point to the importance of accurately formulating questions to catch stakeholders’ place image. Insights are offered into how stakeholders communicate Nordic place image perceptions when engaging in communication about a place and into the effects of identity on organic place brand communication.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to explore how key stakeholders’ lenses to interpret a place brand are activated in the communication of place image, and how this influences their descriptions of the place.

This chapter explores the concept of branding in a contemporary competitive arena of places. The multi-dimensional interpretations of places offer a variety of possibilities to better understand the true essence of destination branding. One of the common interpretations of places is through the study of their images, as destination branding requires a thorough understanding of destination image. The important foundation and relation of destination image are specified and explained. The notion of destination branding has evolved from the fields of marketing and urban studies and has become a cross-disciplinary research area. Thus, the researchers explain that destination branding as well as ‘place branding’ are dynamic concepts that are being continuously being explored in academia for the benefit of practitioners in travel and tourism. This chapter suggests that the use of brand equity is also one of the frontier areas of study in ‘place branding’ as it emphasises the need to thematise destinations (e.g. for their historical heritage, cultural value, natural attractions, etc.) and places for residence (e.g. as green cities, creative cities, smart cities, etc.).

The purpose of this paper is to use user-generated content (UGC) on social media platforms to infer the possible place brand identities of two famous metropolitan areas in Bangkok, Thailand, namely, Khaosan Road and Yaowarat (Bangkok’s Chinatown), both of which are famous for their street vendors and nightlife. These two places are interesting study sites because of recent identity conflicts among their stakeholders. The method developed in this research can help other places to better understand place brand identities and, as such, effectively plan for and manage those places.

The author used content analysis to study 782 user-generated images on Flickr and 9,633 user-generated textual reviews of Khaosan Road and Yaowarat from TripAdvisor and Google Maps’ Local Guide. MAXQDA was used to code all the images. User-generated textual reviews were studied using Leximancer. The author also introduced a positivity of concept analysis to identify positive and negative components of place brand identity.

The author developed a place brand identity framework that includes three pillars, namely, place physics, place practices and place personality. Content analysis of the images generated 105 codes and a count of the frequency of the codes that represent place brand identity. Content analysis of textual reviews created the concepts in the three pillars and identified the positive and negative concepts for both places. The results of both image and text analyses showed that street food vending is one of the most salient components of place brand identity for both Khaosan Road and Yaowarat.

The author suggested several place branding strategies for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration such as turning Khaosan Road into a music scene for both visitors and locals, controlling excessive and aggressive commercialism, sponsoring the production of creative and authentic content, initiating a compelling online campaign that focusses on the items sold in Yaowarat, hosting a spotlight event such as a seafood festival and improving hygiene and walkability.

Both the advancement of digital technologies and the complexity of stakeholders create a need for empirical studies on place branding involving the participation of the widest possible range of stakeholders and studies on the influence of social media. This research is the first to use both image and text analyses to study place brand identity from UGC. The use of both analyses allows the two methods to complement one another while mitigating the weaknesses of each.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent that marketers are using place-based images to promote their brands within the host city of the Olympic Games. It is thought that non-sponsors may use place imagery as an alternate way to affiliate with the event or sponsors may use place to enrich their sponsorship activity.

The study uses an observation-based approach to collect a sample of place-based promotional activity that is accessible to pedestrians during the 2012 Olympic Games.

Results reveal that official sponsors and non-official sponsors are both using place-based imagery in their promotions within the host city of the Olympic Games. However, non-sponsors use place images more frequently than sponsors of the event. Place images were invoked by promoters using country flags most frequently followed by icons and explicit mention of place. The leading dimensions of place images employed by marketers include country character, the built environment and people competence. Place-based promotional activity was frequently observed in shopping areas, transportation, sports venues and in free media.

Results provide justification for future research in the area. Specifically, the need for empirical work based on surveys of consumers and interviews with practitioners are noted.

In an era of highly protected event marketing rights, the existence of promotions based on place images can be a useful application for official sponsors to leverage their investments and protect their exclusivity. Similarly, results are beneficial to non-official sponsors who may seek to market in the vicinity of these events without infringing on the rights of official sponsors.

While previous research on place, mega-events, the Olympic Games and sponsors has found the images of the three to be related, it is not known to what extent sponsors and non-sponsors utilize place images in their promotional activities throughout the Olympic host city.

Danang – a heritage gateway, a socioeconomic urban of Central Vietnam – has been known as a livable city, a fantastic destination and a leading position in the Provincial Competitive Index. Since branding Danang appears to be unfocused, it is suggested that the city follow a strategy to meet the shared expectations of stakeholders instead of trying to create separate images toward different audiences. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Therefore, this study selects the bottom-up approach from the viewpoint of Danang students whose requirement is consistent with those of investors, citizens and tourists.

The finding represents the initial associations of students about Danang as a livable, friendly, dynamic, modern coastal city of tourism and development with many opportunities, potential, attraction, integration and hometown feel. These salient images are exceeded from city characteristics, such as natural endowment, leisure places, beautiful scenes, diverse cuisine, peaceful, suitable living environment, orderly traffic, infrastructure and local people. Besides, crowded caused by development and population growth leads to an unpleasant feeling about narrow spaces but can be overwhelmed by the bustle. Although the result shows the success of Danang in communication, it also figures out the loss of the livable image in local students’ minds.

Hence, Danang must boost the positive effects of tourism development and limit its negative side. University–city cooperation through co-branding strategies can be considered a solution.

The study contributes not only to branding Danang but also to the literature because this is the first complete application of the Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique in city branding.

All touristic cities have their unique attributes to showcase and differentiate themselves from others. This distinctive attribute is the unique selling product or tourism product of a particular city. It could be an art form, culture, regional climate, food and festival. Literature indicates that the identity of the entire city would be affected by such tourism products. The purpose of this study is to analyse the influence of the ‘image’ of an Art-event to city branding. The study also examines the mediating role of ‘city attachment’ in the relationship between event image and city brand equity.

In all, 432 samples have been collected from visitors to one of the biggest contemporary art events in India – the “Kochi-Muziris Biennale – 2018,” conducted in the city of Cochin, situated in Kerala, the southernmost state of India.

Results show that the direct relationship between event image and city brand equity is stronger than the hypothesised path through the mediating role of city attachment.

This study provides a better understanding of the event image and its importance in creating the host city’s brand equity. It contributes to both the practitioners and tourism researchers.

This study looks at the event image through functional and affective aspects and its influence on city attachment and city brand equity.

This study aims to validate a conceptual definition of airportscape and develop a multidimensional scale that integrates servicescape and service quality dimensions to comprehensively investigate airport service management. In addition, this study examines the structural relationships amongst airportscape, sense of place, airport image and destination image.

Covariance-based structural equation modelling has been used. This study has collected the responses from 1,189 Thai respondents who had their experience in an international airport in the past 12 months.

Key findings reveal the set of three airportscape attributes which positively influenced the air traveller’s perceived sense of place. Four other dimensions were found to positively influence the airport image. The results also suggested the positive relationships amongst sense of place, airport image and destination image. Sense of place strongly predicted the destination image and airport image and was found to be an important mediator of the relationship between airportscape dimension and perceived image variables.

This study validates the airportscape scale and introduces “sense of place”, a concept that has not been objectively investigated in the airport context, and in relation to tourism. The findings provide insights to airport managers and tourism authorities by examining areas that highlight an airport’s sense of place and representation of the destination. The study also strengthens the theoretical link between airport and tourism knowledge, by showing that the airport’s sense of place can strongly influence airport image and destination image. The result ascertains that the airport can be a representative of a destination through the creation of a sense of place.

本研究旨在確定機å ´景觀的概念性定義, 並開發一個將服åå ´景和服å品質維度整合在一起的多維尺度, 為機å ´的服å管理調查帶來全面性。此外, 研究還調查了機å ´景觀、地方感、機å ´形象和目的地形象之間的結構關係。

æ 用基於協方差的結構方程建模。本研究收集了曾在過去12個月中體驗過國際機å ´的1189名泰國受訪者的回答。

關é?µ結果揭示了三個機å ´景觀屬性的集合, 這些屬性對航空旅行者的感知地方感產生了ç©?極影響。 其他四個維度被發現對機å ´形象產生ç©?極影響。結果還表明, 地方感、機å ´形象和目的地形象之間存在正相關關係。地方感å¼·烈地預測了目的地形象和機å ´形象, 並被發現是機å ´景觀維度與感知形象變量之間關係的重要中介。

研究確定了機å ´景觀尺度, 並引入了“地方感”, 這是一個尚未在機å ´背景內和旅遊相關領域客觀研究的概念。研究結果é¡釋了突出機å ´地方感並代表目的地的項目和區域, 為機å ´管理者和旅遊當局提供洞察。研究還表明, 機å ´的地方感可以極大地影響機å ´形象和目的地形象, 從而加å¼·機å ´與旅遊認知之間的理論聯繫。研究結果發現, 通過構建地方感, 機å ´可以成為目的地的一個代表。

Este estudio tiene como objetivo validar una definición conceptual del paisaje aeroportuario y desarrollar una escala multidimensional que integre el paisaje de servicios y las dimensiones de la calidad del servicio con el fin de aportar exhaustividad a la investigación de gestión de servicios del aeropuerto. Además, el estudio examina las relaciones estructurales entre el paisaje aeroportuario, la percepción del lugar, la imagen del aeropuerto y la imagen del destino.

Se ha empleado el modelado de ecuaciones estructurales basado en covarianza. Este estudio ha recopilado las respuestas de 1.189 encuestados tailandeses que tuvieron su experiencia en un aeropuerto internacional en los últimos 12 meses.

Los hallazgos clave revelan el conjunto de tres atributos del paisaje del aeropuerto que influyeron positivamente en la percepción del sentido de lugar del viajero aéreo. Se encontró que otras cuatro dimensiones influyen positivamente en la imagen del aeropuerto. Los resultados también sugirieron las relaciones positivas entre el sentido de lugar, la imagen del aeropuerto y la imagen del destino. El sentido del lugar predijo fuertemente la imagen del destino y la imagen del aeropuerto, y se encontró que era un mediador importante de la relación entre la dimensión del paisaje del aeropuerto y las variables de la imagen percibida.

El estudio valida la escala del paisaje del aeropuerto e introduce la “percepción del lugar”, concepto que no ha sido investigado objetivamente en el contexto aeroportuario y en relación con el turismo. Los resultados proporcionan información a los gestores de los aeropuertos y a las autoridades turísticas al elaborar elementos y áreas que destacan el sentido del lugar del aeropuerto y representan el destino. El estudio también refuerza el vínculo teórico entre el conocimiento del aeropuerto y el turismo, al mostrar que el sentido del lugar del aeropuerto puede influir fuertemente en la imagen de este y en la imagen del destino. El resultado demuestra que el aeropuerto puede ser representativo de un destino a través de la creación de un paisaje.