Branding Serbia as a tourist destination on the global market

Abstract

Destination branding has become one of the most popular contemporary topics, both among tourism practitioners and politicians, because there is strong evidence that strong national destination brand supports commercial brands in industries related to tourism. Therefore, factors that influence destination brand loyalty are of crucial importance for understanding and promoting the brand. Building brand loyalty is not just about repeat buying, but also about building customers emotional attachment to the brand. Global growth and diversification of tourist markets has transformed destinations from 'vacation industry' concept, to 'industry of experience' concept. The study performed statistical tests with a goal to analyze the factors influencing brand loyalty in Serbia: age, length of stay and daily spending. Additionally, sub-brand loyalty levels are presented (by major destinations inside Serbia, markets of origin and by major themes for travel) in order to identify groups of tourists that are more loyal, and the ones that are less loyal to the destination brand of Serbia. The study results and recommendations should be used as a contribution towards designing national and regional destination marketing strategies.