PLACE BRANDING PROCESS: ANALYSIS OF POPULATION AS CONSUMERS OF DESTINATION IMAGE

Abstract

In tourist marketing and branding strategies considering residents’ perceptionsis essential as promotional actions must convey an image that adequately represents the place and its inhabitants. This research considers that a destination brand cannot be successful if the residents’ perspective is not taken into account. Thanks to a quantitative study of the case of Zaragoza (Spain), a model of research is presented to analyse the residents’ brand attitude, perception of usefulness, and perceived image. The results confirm that the inhabitants’ attitude is the main variable to get a good destination image through a place branding strategy, which will depend on the brand’sperceived usefulness. Thus, the present paper verifies the importance of considering residents’ perspective in destination image managementdue to they are both the first producers and consumers of their own place image.