Marketing economics
Mahdi Bashirpour
Abstract
Destination brand image is crucial for attracting and retaining tourists, particularly in religious destinations. This study explores pilgrims’ mental associations with Mashhad, a key pilgrimage city in Iran and the Islamic world, using a qualitative free-association approach. Findings reveal a ...
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Destination brand image is crucial for attracting and retaining tourists, particularly in religious destinations. This study explores pilgrims’ mental associations with Mashhad, a key pilgrimage city in Iran and the Islamic world, using a qualitative free-association approach. Findings reveal a multi-layered brand image comprising two main dimensions: first one is spiritual-emotional—tranquility, spirituality, religious identity, pilgrimage experience; and second one is service-cognitive—infrastructure, transportation, accommodation, urban services, and crowd management. Spiritual associations enhance emotional bonds and loyalty, while service deficiencies negatively affect overall experience and brand perception. The study underscores the need for integrated brand management addressing both dimensions and offers a framework for branding religious destinations, providing practical guidance for policymakers and tourism managers to improve pilgrim experiences and strengthen Mashhad’s international positioning.
Marketing economics
Mojtaba Ershadian; karim zohrevandian; Zeinab Mondalizadeh
Abstract
This research aims to develop a qualitative model for branding Maranjab Desert as a supplementary tourism destination, emphasizing sports and recreational tourism. Given the emergent nature of combining concepts like destination branding, supplementary destination, and sports tourism, a qualitative research ...
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This research aims to develop a qualitative model for branding Maranjab Desert as a supplementary tourism destination, emphasizing sports and recreational tourism. Given the emergent nature of combining concepts like destination branding, supplementary destination, and sports tourism, a qualitative research methodology based on Grounded Theory, following the Strauss and Corbin approach, was employed. Data were collected and analyzed through in-depth interviews with 16 academic and executive experts to derive a novel theoretical framework from empirical data. The findings resulted in a comprehensive paradigmatic model comprising five clusters of factors: Causal Conditions (e.g., unique potential), Contextual Conditions (e.g., supportive regulations), Intervening Conditions (e.g., governmental policies), Strategies (e.g., establishing a unique identity), and Consequences (e.g., economic benefits and increased tourist flow). This developed model adds significant theoretical added value to the destination branding literature and provides an operational framework for managers seeking to enhance Maranjab Desert’s position within the national tourism ecosystem.
tourism management
Mehdi Karoubi; Fatemeh Yavari Gohar; seyed mojtaba mahmoudzadeh; Nasim Mohammadian Mahmoudjigh
Abstract
In recent years, some countries and destinations have used brands to describe themselves, in a way that "tourism nation branding" has become one of the main focuses of tourism marketing studies. On the other hand, tourism development depends more on tourism policy-making than the known underlying factors, ...
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In recent years, some countries and destinations have used brands to describe themselves, in a way that "tourism nation branding" has become one of the main focuses of tourism marketing studies. On the other hand, tourism development depends more on tourism policy-making than the known underlying factors, which imply the determination of governments to develop this industry, and it reflects in high-scale documents and laws as well as in monitoring their proper implementation. This study analyzes the branding approach in macro policies of tourism in Iran. The research is descriptive-analytical and qualitative. After reviewing the research background, tourism nation branding policies were extracted from the content of the selected documents by thematic analysis. Then 243 primary codes were categorized into 62 basic themes, 21 organizing themes, and four global themes entitled (1)Nation tourism branding, (2)Components, (3)Effects, and (4)Factors affecting it. Finally, the thematic network was drawn, and the results were interpreted. According to the findings, not only the specialized indicators of tourism nation branding but also the primary indicators of policy-making have been ignored. At the top of them are a lack of systematization, a lack of stability and integrity, and a lack of guidance on implementing decisions.IntroductionIt seems that an essential part of the challenge of not paying attention to tourism branding can be found in macro tourism policies and policy-makers' lack of attention to integrating tourism development and marketing measures through branding. Therefore, the present study is designed in response to this question of whether the branding approach can be discovered in macro tourism policies? So we can explain the situation of tourism branding in the macro perspectives of the country to identify gaps and fundamental shortcomings of the Iranian policy system in this field.In addition, a comparison of credible reports related to the national brand with tourism reports (before the Covid-19 epidemic) shows that 7 out of the top 10 countries in the NBI index presented in 2019 were among the top tourist destinations in the world (in terms of tourist attraction and income) in the same year, which was published in the report of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) entitled Tourism Highlights 2020.Materials and MethodsThe present study aimed to analyze the policies of different parts of the tourism nation branding in basic and large-scale documents, using thematic analysis. Then, the themes related to tourism branding were extracted. For this purpose, the basic (specific to tourism) and large-scale (macro) laws, documents, programs, and regulations of the Islamic Republic of Iran related to the field of tourism were identified (21 documents). Considering that the Iranian tourism industry has been influenced by the political institution more than anything else, the documents after the Islamic Revolution of Iran have been introduced and examined in this study. Then, based on the Attride-Stirling method, the coding was performed to identify basic themes (codes and points of the text), organizing themes (combining and summarizing basic themes), and global themes (governing the whole text) to form a thematic network. This research is descriptive-analytical and qualitative (in terms of the nature of the data).Discussion and ResultsThe first step- parsing the text: first, the content of the documents was studied independently by the researchers, and the irrelevant or unuseful information was removed. Then, by separating the useful and related points, for example, the related content to tourism, branding, and its dimensions (explicitly or implicitly), the coding process began, and the basic themes were identified based on the initial codes.The second step- interpreting the text and drawing the thematic network: In the next step, 243 initial codes were identified after reviewing the basic themes and ensuring the method of classification, naming, and adapting them to the original codes. Then, the primary codes were categorized into 62 basic themes, 21 organizing themes, and four global themes entitled (1) Nation tourism branding, (2) Components, (3) Effects, and (4) Factors affecting it. Finally, the thematic network was drawn, and the results were interpreted.ConclusionsAs confirmed in the present study, despite the importance of the tourism industry as an economic sector in the world, tourism nation branding has received little attention from policy-makers and the planning system in Iran. So that, only designing a random logo and slogan has been considered. Even designing and implementing a promotional program (albeit short-term) did not matter much for the same logo. In this regard, contrary to the consensus of researchers on the process of place branding and destinations branding, such an approach can not be traced in the selected documents, which shows the lack of importance of tourism branding in the field of public policy and tourism policy. The findings of this study are in line with the research literature. However, there are many obstacles along the way. According to the findings, it seems that given the current situation and the incomprehensible position of tourism nation branding in public policy, Iran is not currently ready to develop a purposeful and coherent tourism nation brand in the long run.
Sayyed Mohammad Tabatabaei Nasab; Fahime mahavarpoor; Faezeh Asadian Ardakani
Abstract
Reputation is a key issue in business. Like organizations, cities also compete at regional, national, and even international level. In such a competitive environment, reputation can be a valuable resource for a city. This study tried to present a model to explain the impact of branding on city reputation ...
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Reputation is a key issue in business. Like organizations, cities also compete at regional, national, and even international level. In such a competitive environment, reputation can be a valuable resource for a city. This study tried to present a model to explain the impact of branding on city reputation and its role in city performance. In terms of the purposes, this is applied research that had been done using the survey method. The required information was collected through a questionnaire from a sample of 277 Isfahan travelers using the available sampling method. Structural equation modeling with Smart PLS2 software was used for data analysis. The results revealed that city reputation has a positive and significant relationship on city performance and brand image impacts the city’s reputation through brand equity. Also, brand identity has a significant positive relationship on brand image.
