Breaking Brands: New Boundaries in Rural Destinations

Isabel Paulino, Lluís Prats and Antoni Domènech
Additional contact information
Isabel Paulino: Department of Business Organisation and Management and Product Development, Universitat de Girona, Plaça Ferrater, Mora, 1, 17004 Girona, Spain
Lluís Prats: Department of Business Organisation and Management and Product Development, Universitat de Girona, Plaça Ferrater, Mora, 1, 17004 Girona, Spain
Antoni Domènech: Biosphere Reserve, Consortium of Environmental Policies of Terres de l’Ebre, Plaça de Lluís Companys s/n, 43870 Amposta, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-19

Abstract: Tourism destinations are generally delimited and branded based on administrative boundaries, which act as artificial barriers that may reduce the competitiveness of the tourism sector. Increasingly, literature is taking a demand perspective (i.e., tourist spatial behaviour) when identifying and promoting destinations. This perspective can help to promote destinations more efficiently, particularly in rural areas, where most tourism flows depend on private vehicle and which do not take into account administrative boundaries. These flows are therefore highly conditioned by the geography of the area, hosting capacity and the cumulative effect of attractions. This research centres on brand creation from a tourist perspective, particularly how tourists consume a destination. Els Ports (Spain), a rural mountain area divided into multiple administrative divisions, each marketing its own brand, is taken as a case study. Recently, destination managers have seen the opportunity for regional cooperation and taken steps to cross traditional boundaries to market the area better. This study uses GIS techniques to compare tourist travel patterns with brand boundaries and new cooperative initiatives. The findings provide material for discussion on the branding strategy of Els Ports and the need to rebrand rural tourism destinations into functional tourism areas.

Keywords: tourism branding; rural tourism; rural destinations; rural tourism marketing; administrative boundaries; travel patterns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/17/9921/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/17/9921/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:17:p:9921-:d:628529

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().