Affective roadscapes and beyond

Aim/Purpose: This research aims to identify the key components of Suzhou’s city brand, evaluate the effectiveness of its integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies, and propose actionable initiatives to enhance the city's global brand identity. By addressing these objectives, the study seeks to strengthen Suzhou’s position as a cultural and economic hub, providing practical recommendations for policymakers and marketers to improve its global recognition and appeal. Introduction/Background: City branding has emerged as a critical strategy for fostering economic growth, cultural prominence, and tourism development. Suzhou, known for its rich history, cultural heritage, and robust economic profile, faces the challenge of effectively positioning itself as a global city in a competitive international landscape. This study focuses on leveraging Suzhou’s unique assets to strengthen its city brand through strategic IMC initiatives. The research highlights the need to balance tradition with innovation to attract international audiences and investment by aligning the city's historical and cultural identity with contemporary marketing practices. Methodology: This qualitative case study explored Suzhou’s city brand and integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies through primary and secondary data collection. Primary data consisted of in-depth interviews with 15 tourism brand managers from Suzhou’s cultural tourism industry, selected for their expertise in IMC and branding initiatives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face with audio recordings (with consent) and supplemented by notes. Secondary data included reports, academic studies, and official documents, providing historical and contextual insights. Thematic analysis identified patterns within the qualitative data, supported by triangulation to ensure reliability and validity. Member checking allowed participants to review and verify interpretations, further enhancing credibility. This approach revealed both strengths and areas for improvement in Suzhou’s branding strategies. Findings: The study revealed that Suzhou’s city brand is anchored in four primary pillars. First, its rich historical and cultural heritage, characterized by well-preserved ancient architecture, classical gardens, and vibrant traditions, forms the cornerstone of its identity. Second, the city’s economic strength and market potential, driven by thriving industries and an innovation-focused economy, establish it as a regional economic powerhouse. Third, Suzhou’s high quality of life, combining urban conveniences with natural beauty, significantly enhances its appeal as a livable destination. Lastly, its diverse tourism resources, including UNESCO World Heritage sites and picturesque waterways, position Suzhou as a premier destination for both domestic and international tourists. To strengthen its brand, Suzhou has implemented effective IMC strategies. Social media campaigns promote cultural events, festivals, and tourism packages on platforms like WeChat, Weibo, and Instagram. Online advertising leverages targeted ads to reach global audiences, while promotional events such as trade shows, cultural festivals, and business forums showcase the city’s strengths. These initiatives have significantly bolstered Suzhou’s brand recognition, increased tourism, and enhanced its global reputation. Despite these successes, challenges persist. Inconsistent branding messages across platforms dilute the city’s core identity, while limited use of certain digital platforms and insufficient engagement with international audiences restrict Suzhou’s outreach. Addressing these challenges is crucial to solidifying its global brand presence. Contribution/Impact on Society: This research contributes to the field of city branding and marketing communication by providing actionable insights into how cities can leverage their unique assets to enhance global recognition. The study highlights how cities like Suzhou can integrate their cultural heritage, economic strengths, and tourism resources to create a compelling city brand. It also addresses challenges such as inconsistent messaging and underutilization of digital platforms, offering recommendations for improvement. For policymakers and marketers, the research underscores the importance of coordinated strategies for sustainable urban development, attracting investment, tourism, and talent, and ensuring long-term economic and cultural growth. Recommendations: To further enhance Suzhou’s city brand, it is recommended that a stronger synergy between online and offline marketing efforts be developed, a cohesive and unified visual identity be established, and marketing activities across various communication platforms be integrated. Additionally, existing challenges in marketing implementation should be addressed by focusing more on Suzhou’s cultural heritage, drawing inspiration from global best practices, and targeting specific audience segments, all of which would significantly strengthen Suzhou’s brand identity and appeal. Research Limitation: The study is limited by its qualitative approach and the relatively small sample size of 15 informants, which may not fully capture the diversity of perspectives on Suzhou’s branding efforts. Furthermore, the research focuses exclusively on Suzhou, making it less applicable to cities with differing cultural, economic, or social contexts. Future Research: Future studies should explore the long-term effects of IMC strategies on city branding through longitudinal research, offering insights into strategy evolution and sustained impact. Quantitative approaches could confirm variables in city branding and IMC, enabling a more robust analysis. Additionally, research on audience segmentation using demographic, behavioral, and psychographic data can enhance tailored marketing strategies. Comparative studies across cities could also identify best practices and innovative approaches to city branding.

This article draws on personal experience of undertaking a Master of Research Linguistic Landscape (LL) project, building on my undergraduate dissertation (O’Neill 2020) into city branding and the LL of Liverpool (UK) and Bari (Italy) by investigating the impact of Covid-19 on the city brand as inscribed in the LL of Liverpool. The research also explores Jowett’s (2020) suggestion that, while we need to acknowledge the challenges brought about by the pandemic, the restrictions could stimulate the creation of new methodological approaches by exploring the application of autoethnographic approaches and use of archival and remote sources in this project. Restrictions on movement and measures to reduce potential risk for researchers and participants imposed as a result of the pandemic made the use of physical surveys and face-to-face ethnographic approaches in LL research more challenging. The research community has stepped up to address these difficulties, collaborating to share suggestions, including the use of online resources and interviews. However, many researchers perceive these as an unsatisfactory compromise, particularly in time-constrained projects. This article argues that these innovations may democratize LL research by removing barriers created through difficulties with physical access, while the use and analysis of images in the Virtual Linguistic Landscape could create new insights into how we make meaning of place. The discussion will highlight the potential for researchers to undertake unexpectedly detailed research created by this period of significant and unforeseen disruption; for this project the pace of change allowed examination of Blommaert’s (2013) proposal that study of the LL can be used to detect early change in complex systems. The article will conclude by suggesting that addressing difficulties created by the pandemic may have allowed researchers to be actively involved in advancing methodological approaches.

In recent years, tourist destinations and strategies of place branding have been facing new challenges owing to the diffusion of Information and Communications technologies. Smart devices can give tourists/prosumers the possibility to co-create and share their travel experience to the point to influence the destination web reputation and, consequently, its digital place image and branding. Furthermore, new technologies can be also used as effective analytical tools to scrutinize the role of online co-created narratives in influencing the web reputation of a specific tourist site, natural heritage included. The study focuses on the online destination image of Mount Etna, an active volcano located in Southern Italy inserted in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2017. The web reputation of this natural heritage site has been analyzed through a twofold methodology: a manual online content analysis and a software-based Sentiment Analysis methodology. The paper highlights the crucial role of new technologies both as tools of analysis in tourism and heritage studies and as “catalysts” of e-narratives able to influence place images. In so doing, the research aims at providing other researchers and policy-makers with new theoretical and methodological insights about the challenges and potentialities of smart technologies in exploring the online place image, thus contributing to a novel conceptualization of place branding through the theoretical/operational framework of Place Branding 3.0. In particular, the mixed-method approach represents an innovative framework insofar as it provides an in-depth evaluation of users’ online perceptions both at the “micro” scale—at the level of contents, through the manual content analysis—as well as at the “macro” scale, thanks to the software-based Sentiment Analysis methodology.

The article proposes a critical and interdisciplinary approach that connects emerging technology to territorial regeneration, offering participants new perspectives on sustainable tourism, creativity, and belonging. It is especially relevant for those seeking to understand how cultural and digital practices can transform tourist destinations into spaces of innovation and resilience. The objective of this study is to examine the manner in which emerging technologies – namely, augmented reality (AR) and the metaverse are being utilized in a creative manner within the context of sustainable tourism. This analysis will elucidate the concepts of creative placemaking and place branding. The integration of these references contributes to the field of tourism by demonstrating the potential for emerging technologies to function as strategic, symbolic, and educational tools in the promotion of sustainable tourism. The method employed is a multiple case study (Yin, 2018), analysing four tourist destinations that use emerging technologies. The primary research question pertains to the application of these emerging technologies in the context of sustainable tourism, with a particular focus on the concepts of creative placemaking and place branding. The utilization of augmented reality (AR) in diverse contexts transpires within digital layers, thereby unveiling environmental and symbolic data concerning the destination. This phenomenon extends the conceptual scope of placemaking, which is traditionally understood as a tool for territorial awareness and activation. The proposal’s distinguishing characteristic is its interdisciplinary and critical approach, which has the potential to broaden the existing discourse beyond the confines of technological innovation. By repositioning tourism as a cultural practice dedicated to ensuring resilient futures and the collaborative creation of tourist destinations, the proposal offers a novel perspective on the subject. The integration of emerging technologies in sustainable tourism signifies an opportunity to redefine the tourist experience, although it concomitantly poses challenges in its implementation. However, when combined with approaches such as creative placemaking and place branding, these technologies transform tourist destinations into spaces for learning, belonging, and regeneration, thereby promoting sustainable tourism practices. The cases examined demonstrate that creativity is as critical as technological innovation. Collectively, these factors possess the capacity to transform the future of tourism.

This review examines the evolving role of place branding in rural development through a thematic analysis of 30 peer-reviewed articles drawn from place-based literature. Using the Web of Science “Geography” category as a starting point—selected for its alignment with spatial and territorial development research—the review explores how place branding is conceptualized and applied across diverse academic fields. Although grounded in geography, the selected literature also reflects contributions from planning, rural sociology, and regional development, underscoring the field’s interdisciplinary breadth. Findings reveal that place branding is increasingly understood not merely as a promotional tool but as a governance mechanism that shapes rural identity, supports economic revitalization, and advances sustainable development. The analysis identifies a strong reliance on qualitative research, limited theoretical engagement, and a geographic bias toward studies from Europe and North America, indicating the need for broader comparative and globally inclusive research. The articles cluster around four thematic categories: (1) the positioning of rural areas within global market-oriented systems; (2) branding as a tool to support development pathways—production, consumption, and sustainability; (3) stakeholder networks and collaborative dynamics in branding implementation; and (4) branding as a governance strategy for territorial development. The review concludes that place branding has matured into a multidimensional strategy within rural development. However, future research should address conceptual inconsistencies, expand the geographical scope of study, and strengthen theoretical foundations. A more integrated, context-sensitive approach will be crucial for understanding how branding can contribute to inclusive, resilient, and sustainable rural futures.

Purpose As place branding is reaching an impasse in terms of its development with numerous shortcomings being uncovered, this commentary suggests that the practice can be repositioned as part of the more comprehensive notion of place reputation. By building on the idea of corporate reputation and embryonic evidence of its application to geographical entities, this paper aims to argue for a more substantial translation of this concept to cities and regions. Design/methodology/approach This idea was investigated through empirical work in English second-tier cities, specifically concerning semi-structured interviews with local and regional stakeholders on the topic of place reputation conducted in 2014. Findings The empirical work found that place branding and place reputation can remain complimentary to one another, are entwined and are problematic to disentangle. This discovered that place branding is not as effective when used in isolation, and the concept benefits from the support of a more comprehensive reputation management strategy. In addition, this study found that the idea of reputational capital is a key theory for the development of reputation, allowing this broad notion to be tackled in terms of audiences, domains and sectors. Originality/value Moreover, this commentary constitutes a novel piece of research, and this is achieved by exploring gaps in both interdisciplinary place branding and corporate literatures of reputation being applied to place. This is addressed from a relational economic geography perspective, with the support of reputational capital which has links to Pierre Bourdieu’s (1986) Forms of Capital, this seeks to raise issues and add value to current place branding debates.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to critically explore the role of place branding, specifically at the regional scale, as an instrument for the attainment of strategic spatial planning goals. It also aims to contribute to the academic debate on place branding by discussing its relevance and effectiveness in supporting economic and social spatial realignment through civic participation and the shaping of clearly envisioned agreed futures.Design/methodology/approachExploratory in nature, this paper’s theoretical exploration is developed by detailing relevant findings from a case study on the significance of a regional branding initiative, integrated in a wider planning strategy for northern Portugal (NUTS II). In conducting this exploratory research, primary data were gathered through 16 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key regional actors and organizations with a stake (and expertise) in the region.FindingsFindings show the key strategic domains in which the region excels. These domains could fuel a potential regional branding initiative. However, the key regional actors interviewed agree that the diverse and fragmented regional assets and the socioeconomic scenario all require and yet hinder regional coordination efforts. In addition, territorial reorganization and the definition of a regional economic model, plus decentralization of decision-making and the establishment of leadership, are imperative for the effectiveness of a regional branding strategy aligned with the ongoing strategic spatial planning initiatives.Practical implicationsManagerial implications of integrating the opinions and perspectives of regional actors into a potential place-branding initiative as strategic spatial planning instrument include improving socio-spatial and spatial-economic condition of the region and envisioning shared futures.Originality/valueBy guiding the thoughts of scholars, practitioners and policymakers towards a strategic spatial planning approach to place branding, the paper contributes to the advancement and maturation of the place-branding field, by lending a more strategic approach and geographical/spatial consciousness to the process of place branding. The paper also sheds light on the challenges and complexity of branding regions, a scale of analysis seldom explored in place-branding literature.

Every year about 1.3 million of people dies in road accident, besides 20–50 million are injured or disabled. Most of them occur as a result of ignoring traffic signals and signs. The conventional system for traffic signs and signal, shown through the road sided sign post or traffic signal post, may pass unnoticed due to bad weather conditions or driver's ignorance or other distractions. This study proposes a system that combines a smart traffic signaling technique and a smart automobile to avoid the road accident. The smart automobile consists of a micro-controller, sonar sensor and a RF receiver with a display embedded in a car whereas the smart traffic signaling system consists of a microcontroller based RF signaling transmitter that placed in every traffic signal or sign post. The sonar on the smart automobile will help to avoid clash by measuring the distance of surrounding vehicles. Therefore, the proposed system ensures that no vital traffic sign will go unnoticed, whatever the condition is. It can be utilized in special areas with sudden sharp & high curve, heavy traffic zones.

Iran has many tourism assets in its cities which can be developed by place branding and destination marketing. Anousheh Street in the Lashkar Abad neighborhood of Ahwaz shows good practice in this field. It is a dynamic and active public space in a tourism context that has become well-known in spite of its inappropriate economic and social background. This article describes the process of change. For this purpose, it uses the analysis based on interviews with stakeholders. It indicates features modelled on the principles of place branding. The results show how urban development can be enhanced relying on tourism assets.

Contemporary city branding research increasingly focuses on developing and managing unique place identities, with local residents playing a crucial role not only as a target audience but also as active shapers and ambassadors of the brand. The involvement and opinions of residents are vital for the authenticity and sustainability of city brands, as they are the daily participants and builders of the city’s identity. This research examines the city brand and image of Mórahalom from the perspective of local residents and stakeholders. The primary aim of the study is to present a methodological approach that provides guidance on effectively examining the city image and branding of a small town like Mórahalom. Furthermore, it seeks to explore how the local population evaluates the city’s brand and what factors influence their perception of the city through a case study of Mórahalom. Using a mixed-method approach, we conducted an online survey among local residents and semi-structured interviews with city leadership members. The findings indicate that residents generally have a positive attitude toward Mórahalom and take pride in its development, although the city brand requires improvement in diversifying tourism offerings and engaging young people. The research highlights that involving residents in creating and developing the city brand is crucial for its success and sustainability.

Whereas previous studies on city branding have focused on evaluation rather than the planning process of city brands, the main purpose of this research was to generate a conceptual framework for the development of city as a brand and to detect whether it could be applied in the context of Taipei City branding model. The study has adapted a qualitative research approach based on the case study of Taipei City using semi-structured interviews and qualitative content analysis as data collection methods for the research. The case study has revealed that the primary conceptual framework, suggested on the basis of literature review, can only partially be applied in the context of Taipei City. Therefore, the framework was modified, concluding that the whole process is highly influenced by constant leader presence and communication with public–private stakeholders. It was also suggested for every branding stage to have its own accountable body responsible for the successful execution of the stage. The modified framework consists of the following five stages: (a) Establishment of the planning group (optional stage); (b) Research stage; (c) Building the city’s brand identity (including Identification of vision and goals and Comprehensive branding strategy formation); (d) Development and implementation of action plan; and (e) Control and evaluation. This framework is one of the few attempts to describe city brands’ development process, and thus it may be employed in planning process of city brands.

Place branding is an approach to stimulating territorial development. From the theoretical point of view, place branding in rural areas should be an inclusive and participatory process. Applications and outcomes of the process have been insufficiently investigated so far in rural areas. The oldest place brand in Slovenia, “Babica in Dedek”, is analyzed to present its socioeconomic circumstances, impacts, and challenges from the perspective of local producers. Three qualitative methods are thus applied: analysis of documents, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. This case study has revealed factors that contribute to new marketing opportunities, product packaging, holding seminars, and advertising local products in the area. On the other hand, the empirical findings are only partly aligned with the theoretical implications: the impacts of place branding are “sectorally limited” instead of being inclusive and participative.

The traditional driving system has several disadvantages such as human error, driver fatigue and the inability to handle complex situations. These limitations make traditional driving unsafe and unreliable, leading to accidents and traffic congestion. The necessity for Autonomous Driving of a Rover based on Traffic Signals & Signs is to address these issues by automating the driving process and making it safer and more efficient. A dataset with traffic signs will be used to train a deep-learning model for classifying signs. A transfer learning technique will be used to deploy the trained model on the rover, considering hardware limitations. A camera on the rover captures images and sends them to the model for classification, enabling autonomous navigation based on traffic signs. The required software for the project includes Anaconda, a popular data science platform, and MaixPy, which is a version of MicroPython specifically designed for the Kendryte K210 chipset. The hardware required for the system includes the Zumo Shield for Arduino, which serves as the interface between the rover and the computer vision software, the Maixduino board, which is used to process the image data, and batteries to power the system. The system is designed to detect traffic signs and signals in real-time and respond accordingly, enabling the rover to navigate through traffic safely and efficiently.

Demonstration of exponential random graph models in tourism studies: Is tourism a means of global peace or the bottom line?

The study was conducted in the Wa Municipality to investigate the reasons why motorcycle do not comply with traffic control signals. Though traffic control signals exist to regulate the movement of motorists in the municipality, they are violated by motorists especially by motor and tricycle riders. It is therefore a worrisome phenomenon, thus becoming an increasing concern among the law enforcement agencies. This is particularly so due to the increasing motorization in the Municipality. Therefore, in finding reasons for this incidence, the study sought to achieve the following objectives; the causes of motorists’ disobedience towards traffic control signals; the roles of road safety stakeholders in enforcing traffic control signals compliance and the challenges in enforcing traffic signal compliance. The study was informed by two theories namely; the Theory of Planned Behaviours (TPB) and Normative Social Influence Theory (NSIT). Also, the study was conducted using qualitative approaches to source, process and analyse data. As a result, the data was collected using Focus Group Discussions (FGD) approach to solicit information from both motor and tricycle riders. Interview Guides were additionally used to gather data from the heads of the stakeholder institutions and that of the various Tricycle Riders Associations concerned in this study. Subsequently, the data collected was analysed using thematic and Leximancer analysis approaches. However, the major findings from the study were that, traffic noncompliance by motorcycle riders is caused by the attitudes and behaviours of the motor riders though some of the respondents held a divergent view, with the popular saying that, “traffic do not catch natives” and that is why they violate road traffic signals, but upon further analysis, it came to light that, it is attitudinal. Also, the study reveals that, there is little or no enforcement of road traffic signs or laws. Those who commit these acts are not arrested and punished by the law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, it was interesting to find out that, most of the motorcycle riders, particularly the tricycle riders are ignorant about road traffic signs, and therefore the study recommends a proactive public education and sensitization on the awareness of traffic control signals as well as ensuring effective enforcement of the road traffic laws in the Municipality Key words: motorcycle, control signals, disobedience, controlled intersections, law enforcement DOI : 10.7176/RHSS/9-14-17 Publication date :July 31 st 2019