Purpose Building on Kavaratzis and Hatch’s (2013) identity-based place branding model, this paper aims to explore the spatial and social dimensions of the place brand identity formation process and how residents used social media to participate in the process of shaping a city brand during a...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce a critical framework to analyse how “smart” plays out in tourism places. Moving from a recognition of the strategies, expected impacts and imageries of Smart City, the authors engage with the mobilities literature to identify pitfalls in the...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how five different multi-level governance (MLG) models affect place branding (PB) performance in Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach In hierarchical administrative systems, central governments exert control on PB, influencing its...

Purpose This study aims to analyze and assess 21 years of media coverage (2000–2020) of Flix, a small industrial village located in an rural area on north-eastern Spain, which has endured in these years a severe environmental and industrial crisis, with a strong potential for stigmatization...

Purpose The authors report a study of heritage conservation linked to rural small-town regeneration in Aotearoa New Zealand. The purpose of this study is to answer the question: how, with limited local resources, do the residents and administrators of small settlements conserve historic heritage...

Purpose Although the place stakeholders play a key role in participatory place branding, surprisingly little interest has been shown in the people involved in participatory place branding initiatives. The purpose of this study is to explore place stakeholders’ perceptions of the meaning and...

Purpose The aim of this study is to outline a practice approach towards safety in public places whereby safety and place is understood as simultaneously produced in everyday work practice. Hence, the focus is shifted from place safety as a manageable asset to safe places as ongoing...

Purpose This study aims to explore whether adopting a sustainability narrative in city branding and urban development strategies results in more inclusive governance arrangements (process) and a more pluralistic approach to generating sustainability value (outcome), in line with the triple...

Purpose This paper aims to exploit existing tourism knowledge to frame the unprecedented pandemic tourism crisis, its key aspects and impacts on the tourism industry. It builds a conceptual bridge and discusses the opportunity to capitalise on the missing link between the pre-COVID overtourism...

Purpose Ideas related to “the Nordic” are important in the reconstruction of national identities in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and these countries’ modern national narratives are structurally highly similar. At the same time, there are clear differences between the...