The development of a destination brand identity: a story of stakeholder collaboration

Abstract

Literature has demonstrated the central role of stakeholders and collaboration in destination branding. However, empirical studies on stakeholder interactions and their dynamics in destination and place branding are still rare. The objective of this study is to examine how different kinds of factors and internal stakeholders’ actions contribute to destination brand identity development. Drawing from social identity and place branding theories, and empirical research from a ski destination, we identify five factors and four actions contributing to the destination brand identity development process. Our findings indicate that a strong informal stakeholder group can take the leadership in brand development and that the role of the destination marketing organisation might be overemphasised in the literature on destination marketing and management.

Keywords:

• destination branding
• destination identity
• brand identity
• stakeholders
• DMO

Acknowledgements

Research assistant M.Sc. Miikka Pohjola is gratefully acknowledged for his help in data collection and the initial phase of the data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2017.1369496