RANKING OF BRAND IDENTITY CRITERIA IN BRANDING OF TOURISTIC DESTINATIONS: A CASE STUDY IN GİRESUN

Abstract

Touristic destinations need to have an effective and efficient brand identity for the development and sustainability of the tourism sector. In this context, Giresun which is one of the important tourism destinations of the Eastern Black Sea Region, was evaluated in terms of brand identity. The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the factors that are effective in the identity of the destination and to rank them according to the degree of importance, and thus to reveal which criteria local tourism managers should attach importance to. Considering that the basic criteria affecting the brand identity of destinations may vary according to countries and/or regions, it is among the objectives of this paper to evaluate this rating for Giresun in terms of other destinations in the Eastern Black Sea Region. With the results obtained from this study, it is thought that the destination will gain brand identity, costs can be reduced and which factors should be given more importance. Survey technique was used as a data collection tool in the study, and data were obtained face to face from a total of 12 general managers from three-star and four-star hotels operating in Giresun. The analysis of the collected data was carried out using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is one of the multi-criteria decision-making methods. As a result of the analysis, the “touristic attractiveness” criterion was determined as the most important brand identity criterion. On the other hand, other brand identity criteria were obtained as “tourism policies”, “attitudes of the local people”, “marketing strategies”, “transportation”, “logos and slogans”, “service quality”, “tourists’ old experiences” and “city image”, respectively. Keywords: Touristic Destination, Branding, Brand Identity, Giresun, AHP.