Communication strategies for building a strong destination brand

A successful branding of tourism destinations requires creation of a strong destination brand equity. Brand equity is considered as an “added value” in consumers’ minds, which is why destination brand equity has been mostly approached from the consumer point of view. To assure a strong destination brand, consumers and prospects need to have the right knowledge structures and respond positively to marketing activities of tourism service providers. Communication strategies play a critical role in shaping that knowledge. More specifically, the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) approach has emerged as the most elaborated communication discipline that is strongly oriented on consumers and seeks to encourage the development of brand equity. This paper discusses how IMC can build a strong brand equity in the context of tourism destinations.