From an Integrated Tourism Model to a Place Branding Strategy. Perspectives of Mediterranean Tourism Experts

The development of new and/or alternative tourism models has been an important practice towards effective and sustainable tourism management. Their aim is to ensure that tourism development is achieved through the lens of integration, responsibility and sustainability. The production of such models usually lacks the incorporation of place branding perspectives. Place branding strategies can act as important promotion actions of a tourism product, which is designed as a place-based strategy. In this context, this paper seeks to identify the parameters through which an integrated model could be transformed into a place branding strategy or incorporate place branding perspectives in order to promote the model itself as well as the destination as a whole. In order to do so, this paper builds upon the experience on tourism models developed under the Sustainable Tourism Community (STC) of projects of Interreg MED Programme. The method to serve the aim of the paper is dedicated interviews addressed to representatives of the STC, who have a good knowledge of their project activities and are experts in the field of tourism. The findings reveal that building a place branding strategy connected to the tourism models could be a valuable asset towards the sustainable development of tourist destinations. Although the development of tourism models share similar principles with place branding strategies, the key challenge is to align their focus since branding strategies are more place-based approaches with emphasis on the destination, while tourism models have a wider context with emphasis on the tourism type.