City Brand: Key Components, Integrated Marketing Communication Strategies, and Strategic Initiatives for Enhancing Suzhou's Unique City

This study examines the role of cultural tourism and place branding in fostering sustainable tourism development, focusing on community engagement, visitor satisfaction, and environmental awareness. Using Sustainable Development and Cultural Capital theories as the theoretical foundation, the research highlights the long-term benefits of tourism and the significance of local culture and heritage in achieving sustainable outcomes. A quantitative methodology was employed, utilizing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze data collected from participants at a cultural festival in Takoradi, Ghana. The findings reveal that place branding significantly impacts sustainable development, both directly and indirectly, through visitor satisfaction. Additionally, cultural tourism promotes sustainable development via community engagement, with environmental awareness moderating the relationship between community engagement and sustainable development. This study offers valuable insights for policymakers and tourism practitioners, emphasizing the integration of cultural assets and community involvement in sustainable tourism strategies. By exploring the interplay between cultural tourism, place branding, and sustainability, the research adds a unique perspective to the field of sustainable tourism development.

The Epidaurus Festival, a cornerstone of Greece's cultural heritage since 1955, serves as a pivotal case study in the intersection of performing arts and tourism development. This paper presents a theoretical exploration of the relationship between cultural tourism and the Epidaurus Festival in Greece, with a focus on its symbolic, cultural, and developmental significance. The festival, held in the iconic Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, serves as a paradigm of how performative heritage can support tourism narratives and regional identity. While the Epidaurus Festival has attracted substantial audiences-reports indicate approximately 220,000 spectators in 2008 and over 195,000 in 2006-consistent and detailed data on visitor trends remain limited and fragmented. This scarcity of systematic statistics highlights a broader gap in evaluating the long-term socio-economic and cultural impact of such festivals on local development and tourism policy. By drawing on theoretical frameworks in cultural tourism, heritage commodification, and festivalization, this paper examines the role of the Epidaurus Festival as a driver of place branding and cultural prestige, while also considering challenges related to authenticity, sustainability, and the tension between cultural integrity and tourism pressures. The study argues that even in the absence of comprehensive empirical data, cultural festivals like Epidaurus can be understood as complex cultural phenomena that reflect and shape broader narratives of national identity, heritage discourse, and touristic value creation.

Purpose – Literature on cultural districts has repeatedly pointed out the role of place branding as a tool to upgrade the image of urban environment as an indicator of meaning and significance. Throughout the case of UNESCO’s mining heritage district in Sardinia (Italy), the purpose of this paper is to investigate on the role that Place Branding Organizations (PBOs) has and/or may have in the construction of coherent images for landscape and cultural heritage in the design of “sustainable” cultural districts in connection with local authorities’ agenda. At this purpose, the authors propose an operative definition of “partnership building strategy” and a new analytic framework to evaluate PBO’s activity within place branding theory. Design/methodology/approach – Considering what recently expressed by UNESCO about the integration between spatial and cultural planning, the authors focus the research on cultural heritage districts protected by this organization. Starting from the definition of strategy proposed by Anholt (2011) and the participation-based approach outlined by Hankinson (2010), the authors propose a new analytic framework to evaluate PBO’s activity and the authors try to apply it to the experience of mining heritage in Sardinia (Italy), comparing the activity of local PBOs (the Consortium for the UNESCO’s Sardinian Geo-mining Park and the Local Tourism System) with the Development Plan of the Carbonia-Iglesias Province. In the final part of the work, the authors discuss the outcomes of the comparative analysis in terms of partnership building strategy and its influence on cultural heritage district design. Findings – The experience of the Sardinia district proves that partnership building strategy has a relevant role both in place branding and cultural heritage district design but it is not sufficient to make this letter really functioning. It confirms also that a place brand can survive to political regime changes on a periodic basis only if the PBO establishes an appropriate institutional framework for the creation of a cooperative network that can take the branding process forward. The research finding about place branding of UNESCO’s mining heritage sites, outline the demand for a new and more integrated approach in the district design, inspired to the geographic studies on “cultural basin.” Research limitations/implications – The analytical framework which the authors provide on the basis of a new operative definition of partnership strategy building, has proved to be a useful tool to assess PBO’s activity but, despite this, it represents only a partial result because the theoretical model of the relationships between PBOs, local and supra-local actors requires further developments to describe the effective type and nature of this links. Practical implications – The research finding about place branding of UNESCO’s mining heritage sites, outline the demand for a new and more integrated approach in the district design, inspired to the geographic studies on “cultural basin.” To achieve a real sustainable development and a shared enhancement of identity and landscape, the authors propose as a possible solution the abandonment of administrative boundaries in cultural planning through a correspondence between cultural district and historic region, this latter defined according to the methods and tools developed by the geographical sciences for the “cultural basin.” At this scope the authors propose a new methodological framework which takes the participation-based place branding into the “cultural heritage chain” for the district design, setting a future research agenda. Originality/value – The authors propose an operative definition of “partnership building strategy” for the participation-based approach outlined by Hankinson (2010) and, on this base, the authors test a new analytic framework to evaluate PBOs’ activity which combines the traditional activities of promotion and marketing with PBOs’ partnership strategies. Finally, the authors propose a methodological frame which brings the participation-based place branding into the “cultural heritage chain” setting a future research agenda in cultural heritage district’s design.

The cultural tourism industry combines the similarities of the cultural industry and tourism industry, which can be the most effective way to meet people's spiritual and cultural needs as well as their leisure needs simultaneously, and has a vast development potential. However, there are numerous and dispersed areas where the market value of cultural tourism resources is clustered, and frequently, each city has the clustering area with the highest market value concentration of cultural tourism resources. This feature of the spatial distribution of the market value of cultural tourism resources is significant for promoting the development of cultural tourism as a whole and constructing the industry's overall structure. It has broad application potential for extracting and differentiating cultural tourism industry characteristics. Texture feature extraction is typically performed using dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DT-CWT) and Gabor wavelet. In this paper, we propose a multiscale DT-CWT and Gabor-based method for identifying the cultural tourism industry. The method first decomposes the images of cultural tourism into multiscale space using a Gaussian pyramid, then extracts the multiscale features of the images using DT-CWT and Gabor, and lastly achieves feature fusion. Using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier to achieve classification, the effectiveness of the feature extraction method is determined. The experimental findings demonstrate that the method proposed in this paper can achieve a high rate of recognition.

This paper looks at the place of heritage in city branding in China and the different discourses and narratives found in city promotional films and independent documentary films. A city’s character is shaped by its history. All the different cultural, social and historical events that have taken place in the city inform its identity and urban form, as manifested in monuments and buildings from different time periods. The question is what aspects of its history and heritage a city chooses to preserve and celebrate, how it is imagined and narrated, and to what extent and how it then figures in city branding. City branding is often top-down and managed by municipal governments and tourism offices that privilege certain aspects of the history and heritage to project a positive picture of the city while ignoring other more problematic and negative aspects. This is very obvious in the case of China where city branding is a relatively new phenomenon, and, as I will argue, often difficult to separate from either nation branding or political propaganda. Cultural heritage policies have undergone significant ideological shifts since 1949, which can be observed in the selection of cultural heritage sites and changes in preservation policies. Since the early 1990s, city re-developments have led to much destruction of the built environment and historic neighbourhoods in Beijing and Shanghai. In the name of progress many old buildings and neighbourhoods have been demolished to give way to high rises, shopping centres and office buildings, whereas some historic neighbourhoods have become gentrified. In recent years many local governments have realised that “selective” preservation is good business and important for tourism and city branding. This understanding is reflected in projects such as Xintiandi (Shanghai) and Qianmen (Beijing), although they are also criticised for their inauthentic character and gentrified nature and for the displacement of old residents. It is interesting and ironic to note that historic sites and environments figure prominently in city promotional films, and often are depicted in a nostalgic and aesthetic light, despite the fact that many such sites have now been demolished. A sanitized, selective and aestheticized vision of the past seems to be preferred in order to brand cities for the future, at the same time that new modern architecture also serve to manifest the city’s international outlook. However, the official vision of the city and recent urban changes pictured in city promotional films haven’t gone unchallenged as independent documentary filmmakers and artists provide alternative and more critical stories in their films. The paper begins with a general discussion on city branding and heritage, and the role of visual representations in promotional films. It then provides a brief background to heritage issues and urban developments in Beijing and Shanghai. The focus is on how and to what extent cultural heritage figured in slogans, city promotional films, and projects before and during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. I also look at some more recent developments in city branding in the two cities and how it is reflected in new promotional films. The paper then addresses the challenges and alternatives visions of the city voiced by different people in independent documentary films and art. (Less)

The article presents the results of research on the prospects for developing tourist routes. In the modern world, where globalization and rapid technological advancement significantly alter our way of life, the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage gain particular importance. A crucial task today is the preservation and promotion of national cultural heritage. One of the effective ways to achieve this goal is the development of tourist routes, which not only preserve historical and cultural sites but also make them accessible to a wide audience. Cultural heritage can serve as an important factor in the development of tourism and the economy. Tourist routes not only contribute to the preservation and promotion of historical and cultural landmarks but also foster regional economic growth by attracting tourists. Research on these routes helps create conditions for the sustainable development of tourism. This is especially important in the context of globalization and the growing interest in cultural tourism, which allows countries and regions to maintain their identity and cultural uniqueness. Research on tourist routes helps identify new opportunities for infrastructure development, the creation of new jobs, and the improvement of the quality of life for local residents. Cultural tourism is a form of tourism that focuses on the cultural aspects of a destination, including its history, heritage, arts, customs, and traditions. It involves visiting places of historical or cultural significance, such as museums, galleries, historical sites, and cultural festivals, with the intent to learn about and experience the local culture and lifestyle. Tourist routes are a powerful means of promoting cultural heritage. By providing structured and engaging ways for visitors to experience cultural sites, these routes help preserve and celebrate the unique cultural identities of different regions. They offer educational benefits, support local economies, and foster a deeper appreciation for cultural diversity and heritage. The article characterizes the main forms of tourist routes, highlighting their role in the preservation of cultural heritage.

The museum incorporates historical resources, stores them in a systematic classification, and then presents them as objects for viewing and learning training. Intangible cultural heritage is the aesthetic crystallization of the wisdom and aesthetics of ancient Chinese people. Combining museums and intangible cultural heritage culture and developing the intangible cultural heritage cultural tourism industry of museums can fully utilize the advantages of museums in terms of location and dissemination, as well as achieve high-quality promotion of intangible cultural heritage culture. The digital era has brought new changes and numerous challenges to the development environment and spatial design methods of the intangible cultural heritage tourism industry in museums. This paper builds a museum intangible cultural heritage cultural tourism platform based on digital tour interaction technology. It considers the advantages of the development of the cultural tourism industry from the “museum + intangible cultural heritage” model, establishes a digital resource management system for museums, digital talent training, and management mode, and digital branding in light of the current development status and challenges of the museum intangible cultural heritage cultural tourism industry. Additionally, we will create a digital resource management system for museums, a digital talent training and management model, and a digital brand marketing system to boost the industry’s ecological development.

Promoting the deep integration of culture and tourism has become an important goal for the development of Rongchang District, Chongqing. With its rich intangible cultural heritage, Rongchang District has a great opportunity to drive the deep fusion of culture and tourism, using culture to promote tourism and vice versa, thereby vigorously developing the cultural tourism economy. From the perspective of all-for-one tourism, this paper takes the integration of “intangible cultural heritage (ICH) +” cultural tourism in Rongchang, Chongqing as an example, analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the construction of the cultural tourism industry in Rongchang District, Chongqing, and explores the integration development mechanism of rural “ICH +” cultural tourism industry. Using literature research, case analysis, and field investigations, and based on the theories of sustainable development and cultural tourism integration, this paper extracts the achievements and shortcomings of the deep integration of “ICH +” cultural tourism in Rongchang District through data collation and analysis. This provides valuable reference and lessons for realizing the inheritance of ICH and the sustainable development of tourism.

PurposeIn the past years, the importance of the cultural economy has led urbanism to a new perspective. Simultaneously, the main international institutions have pointed out the need to shift the urban economy into a sustainable one, green and energy efficient. The confluence of both flows explains why the imaginaries of the urban future are related to the concept of creative cities. Hence, the new economic engine of the cities should be founded on art, creativity and culture, all of them understood as clean energies. This study aims to show the crucial role of cultural heritage as a propeller of a new kind of urban development, more flexible and democratic, based on the construction of the city as a communicational, collective and open effort. Therefore, the city is conceived as a cultural heritage platform where tangible and intangible, social and creative interactions happen. Within this context, urban narratives appear as a dynamic material drawn on the possibilities offered by the heritage received from the past as a resource to be used for re-thinking and re-shaping the future.Design/methodology/approachThe approach of this paper is based on a profound analysis of historical cities, mainly in the European context, supported by the work carried out within the H2020 ROCK project. The cities within the project are: Athens, Bologna, Cluj-Napoca, Eindhoven, Lisbon, Liverpool, Lyon, Torino, Skopje and Vilnius. A wide variety of case studies coming mainly from these cities have been considered to understand better the theoretical point of view on the role of heritage, urban development and city branding. The information about cultural heritage projects used as case studies has been collected and selected coming from the direct work made on the field and the communication open with institutions and cultural stakeholders in every city. Even more, parallel seminars on cultural heritage and city branding organized within the project have allowed the authors to gather very valuable, updated and fresh information on these issues in every particular case.FindingsThe study proves that cultural heritage has been traditionally underrated as a mechanism for developing the future of the city and its communicative strategy. Cultural heritage appears as a practical tool for constructing more cohesive urban communities based on the use of public space and shared memories as storytelling platforms. The capacity of resiliency and sustainability revealed by cultural heritage through the time is, as well, a clear reference to construct a potential sustainable city, socially, culturally and environmentally.Social implicationsCultural heritage projects are shown as a perfect way to build stronger communities. Through the engagement and participation of citizens, urban storytelling reinforces a more open, real and sustainable city able to face the challenges of contemporary life (gentrification, pollution, mobility, etc.). Like that, heritage appears as a feasible tool for including citizens coming from all ages and backgrounds in the construction of a collective narrative of the city, based on the past and looking at the foreseen.Originality/valueThis study tries to relate fields that traditionally have remained not well connected: urban development, city branding and cultural heritage. The study demonstrates that cultural heritage is crucial as an urban narrative tool and consequently, as a planning/branding mechanism. Moreover, cultural institutions and cultural projects are very relevant platforms for social interaction, inviting citizens to have a more active role in the construction of the city as a collective communicational effort based on a network of social and cultural relations. Storytelling turns up as a new key element for communicating the city from grassroots, in a sustainable, democratic and inclusive manner, far away from the traditional top-down official perspective. Crowdsourcing methods are very powerful for establishing a shared and cohesive city brand, now rooted in its cultural and social foundations and not the marketing campaign clichés. Finally, storytelling emerges as a creative resource that enhances the social, cultural and economic layout of the city, forcing urbanists to include a greener, fairer and more democratic perspective in the future of cities.

In today's competitive global environment, cities are striving to stand out and be attractive to investors, visitors, and residents. City branding is an important tool to differentiate the city from its competitors and to be preferred by visitors. Every city has its own characteristics resulting from its historical development, the influence of its geography, and its social, cultural, and economic past. Therefore, the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of cities is vital for their promotion and branding. This study aims to show the importance of their cultural heritage, which is the most fundamental feature to differentiate themselves from their competitors in city branding. It is emphasized that the cultural events organized in cities or the assets specific to cities, most of which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List, have a significant impact on city branding. In addition, the chapter explains the impact of digitalization, which is one of the most important developments of our time, on city branding and cultural heritage.

In recent years, Europe has seen a strong increase in cross-border cooperation. Under different headings, most commonly the Euregion, cross-border partnerships are being set up in all member states of the EU and beyond. This trend is hailed as the regionalization of Europe, or the rise of the region state, and is actively supported by EU initiatives such as INTERREG. A key responsibility of these emerging cross-border regions is the attraction and retention of inhabitants, investors, and visitors, and place branding is a key tool for attaining these goals. An extensive literature has emerged, providing insights on strategies for the branding of cities and regions. At the same time, policy practitioners and branding professionals have developed a wide variety of place branding strategies in cross-border regions. However, few studies have dealt with the specific challenges faced by cross-border branding initiatives. Moreover, the cross-border cooperation literature suggests that besides the commonly assumed entrepreneurial motivations behind place branding, cross-border place branding may in fact be motivated by political reasons instead. This difference may be significant if the motivations behind a place branding initiative impact its design and implementation and hence its outcomes. This chapter explores the extent of cross-border place branding in Europe, as well as differences between cases in terms of the type of cross-border region, the scale of the region, and the scope of the branding initiative in terms of the range of target audiences addressed. Moreover, it proposes a first measure of the outcome of branding initiatives and suggests some possible relations between the characteristics of the cross-border branding initiatives and their outcomes.

The paper focuses on problems and prospects of cultural tourism development in Russia. The results of overall research at national, regional and local levels and case studies held in several regions of Russia are presented. They confirm that Russia’s huge cultural and historical heritage is still inefficiently used in tourism. In recent years the growing demand for cultural tours remains largely pending due to lack of modern tourist products and their insufficient promotion. The use of iconic and flagship attractions for increasing the destination attractiveness as well as culture-tourism interaction in regional development are being discussed. Currently, particular attention is paid to events based on cultural and historical sites. “National Calendar of Events” and national “Russian Event Award” are established to encourage event tourism growth. State policy in cultural tourism management in Russia is now changing mainly from the separate “growth points” development to the organization of interregional tourist routes based on diverse cultural heritage. Effective interaction of cultural heritage and tourism industry requires special measures and platforms based on the partnership of a vast number of stakeholders.

The purpose of the study is to identify priorities for the development of cultural tourism in Ukraine. The research methodology is based on the general scientific and structural-functional methods. This allowed the authors to identify the functions of tourism that determine its features as a socio-cultural institution, to define in the object of study an integral system of its structural elements, factors of transformation processes, and links between them. Scientific novelty. The study of the current state and prospects for the development of cultural tourism in Ukraine has provided an opportunity to supplement its classification, and to identify a type of cultural and symbolic tourism. For the first time, cultural and symbolic tourism is considered through the prism of wartime. Cultural and symbolic tourism involves the arrangement of trips and excursions to cultural and historical sites and destinations, where a person can feel that they belong to the cultural and historical code of the country, immersing themselves in the world of images, symbols, signs that have come down to us from the distant and/or recent past and are valuable for the present and future. Conclusions. Cultural tourism in Ukraine allows people to experience the cultural diversity, cultural values, and traditions of Ukraine. Through cultural tourism, it is possible to preserve cultural heritage and develop infrastructure at the regional and local levels. The new perception by Ukrainians of their own cultural and historical heritage in the conditions of the war with the Russian Federation prompted the authors to study the types of cultural tourism in more detail and to identify a new type – cultural and symbolic tourism. Cultural tourism plays an important role in satisfying human intellectual needs, physiological and psychological recovery. Based on the analysis of the current situation in the country, the article identifies priorities for the development of cultural tourism in Ukraine, which include: compliance with increased security requirements for organising cultural recreation, rethinking the significance of cultural monuments from different historical periods of Ukraine's development and their relationship with the future. Key words: cultural tourism, destination, history, cultural heritage.

Currently, there is a rapid growth of demand for cultural tourism and there is a growing trend of cultural interest as a tourism product in the world. Indonesia has a lot of cultural and historical heritage with a multicultural population and serves as an integral part of the world's cultural heritage. In order to have an impact on the economy, this cultural heritage must be managed properly. Therefore there needs to be a study on the cultural heritage tourism model by balancing the interests between the tourism industry and heritage preservation as the main agenda to get a mutually sustainable relationship in cultural heritage tourism. The objectives in research are to; 1) knowing the potential of the Maghilewa traditional village as a cultural tourism destination, 2) knowing the feasibility of the traditional village as a cultural heritage destination, 3) formulating the steps that will be taken to prepare the traditional village as a cultural heritage destination. This research is a qualitative descriptive study to get an overview of the potential and feasibility of cultural tourism villages and the steps to make traditional villages into cultural tourism destinations. The results showed that the traditional village of Maghilewa was feasible to be developed into a cultural heritage destination. In developing the traditional village of Maghilewa, it is feasible as a cultural heritage destination, it requires a lot of support from the community, local government, and academics. The steps that must be taken are to build synergy between stakeholders in order to build the capacity of the Maghilewa Traditional Village community and encourage the Regional Government to implement comprehensive policies in participatory tourism development by prioritizing the conservation of local culture.

What is the role of festivals in contemporary cities? What are the networks of meaning established between cultural festivals and the city based on the experiences of the Virada Cultural in Sao Paulo and the Mexefest in Lisbon? How can these events be linked with tourism, city branding, urban renewal projects and social control? What are the different roles played by festivals in contemporary society? This paper engages with these questions through reflections generated from fieldwork conducted at the Mexefest Festival which has been organized in Lisbon by Musica no Coracao Productions since 2011; and the Virada Cultural which has been organized in Sao Paulo by the City Hall since 2005. Using Actor Network Theory and based on direct observations, documentary analysis and literature review, it will investigate the ways in which cultural festivals can function as mediators of certain aspects of the social-urban dynamic. Thus, it will attempt to contribute to the discussion of such themes as the relation between culture and economic development, social control by urban musical festivals, city renewal processes, tourism and city branding.