Umbrella branding in tourism – model regions of Istria and Dalmatia

The purpose – The purpose of this paper is to support the thesis that a region represents a key functional and geographical entity which requires branding and development of marketing activities. Its geographical components are tourism clusters that should develop their own identity in cooperation with other clusters, within the region as their umbrella brand. Design – The special focus is given to reviewing the issue of defining boundaries of regions as tourism brands, i.e. discussing what exactly makes the essence, or the essential framework, of a region as a market brand in tourism. The paper also presents the model of geographical and marketing clusterisation of Istria and Dalmatia – the Croatia's regions that are essential for the development of tourism in this country. Methodology – The methodology of the research includes the examples of good practice, analysis of the existing strategic documents of the region Istria and Dalmatia, workshop – creating an original model of region clusterisation in the case of Dalmatia by graduate students of management in the Department of Economics at the University of Zadar and author’s management experience in public management in tourism. Approach – There are particular interests within fragmented basic units of local government – towns and municipalities – aiming to "preserve" the identity of each separate geographical unit, even the smallest one, whereas the marketing trends in the dynamic international tourism market require exactly the opposite. Regions must be the unique spatial and socio-cultural entities featuring an adequate tourism identity which is built as an independent and inherent market brand. That fact is perceived in the light of the forthcoming accession of Croatia into the European Union (1st July 2013) and the exceptionally important process of redefining Croatia's regional administrative-political boundaries, where an appropriate regionalisation is considered as one of the prerequisites for the "correct" and optimal social and economic development in the future. Findings – The problem of defining regional boundaries must be seen as one of the essential issues in defining the region's geographical area as the basis for the development of economy. An appropriate definition of the tourism region as an umbrella brand and its sub-brands – tourism "products", i.e. clusters – presents the starting point for further definition of all management and marketing activities, both at the level of clusters, through individual activities, and at the level of the umbrella brand, through joint, i.e. networked management activities. The originality of this research – The originality of the model consists on the fact that it refers to a relatively wide region (within European context) featuring a rich of natural attractiveness and cultural-historical heritage, whose borders were often altered in the past, and which was, and still is, intersected with a number of administrative-political boundaries. Classification-JEL: L83