Economic Themes (2012) 50 (4) 13, 651-668

DESTINATION BRANDING: COMPETITIVE POTENTIALS OF OHRID AS A TOURIST BRAND


Aleksandar Trajkov, Jovanka Biljan, Spasko Kostoski

Abstract: Destination branding enrolls a spectrum of activities towards creating an image on a certain place. The process of globalization has increased the competitive potential of small cities, as the global competition is no longer limited to the capital or big cities. Visitors’ opinion for a certain place is very important and must be always considered when creating strategy for tourist promotion. Very often foreign tourists create an image before they visit the tourist destination and have expectations based on that image. After they visit the destination, they meet their expectations with reality, and based on those experiences they create a complete image for the place. Positive experiences can be a useful tool to local governments and all stakeholders for destination branding. This research paper aims to identify eventual disproportions between expectations of foreign tourist before they visit Ohrid and their experiences after their visit in order to offer solutions for better destination branding.

Keywords:  destination branding; Ohrid; foreign tourist; motivation; promotion

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