Brand development, tourism and national identity: The re-imaging of former Yugoslavia

Abstract

This paper examines the development of national brands for former Yugoslav states as expressed through the relationship between national identity and tourism promotion. Pre-1989 Yugoslavia appeared to have developed a successful tourism industry which projected a particularly welcoming and positive image of the country to the West (or at least Western mass tourist markets). The subsequent political fragmentation of Yugoslavia and the conflict between some of its former component parts both destroyed a positive unitary image and reversed the important development of tourism. The emergent newly independent states had to put their Yugoslav and communist pasts behind them, establish a new national identity (albeit based on historical elements) and inspire confidence for investment in economic reconstruction. This paper examines the branding of those former Yugoslav states which are looking to tourism to assist both the projection of national identity and the process of economic revitalisation.