The Branding Power of Szeklerland. Online Place Branding Tendencies and Identity-Forming Efforts in Szeklerland

Abstract

Abstract Destination branding has always been a complex question. This is especially true if we are talking about Szeklerland as a historical, cultural, and ethnic region, which can be defined in the easiest way through Covasna, Harghita, and Mureş counties of Romania. A well-structured brand in a region can help with its economic development and search for identity, so it is worth looking into branding activities in the region. Despite Szeklerland’s strong identity and reputation, the discourse is extremely divided between Romanian and Hungarian people. There are plenty of brand owners in the region without central management and coherence. There are plenty of amateur and corporate initiatives that are generally poorly organized and serve individual economic purposes. In addition, politicians also play an active role in forming these processes. Although the regional and tourism development strategies of the counties of Szeklerland are similar, and it can be said that the stakeholders are open to the cooperation between the three counties, there were only partial results of regional-level collaboration. The paper follows the activities of online promotional initiatives about Szeklerland and the larger territorial units influencing the region, such as Romania and Transylvania, and the branding narratives created during them.