Place Branding and Place-Shaping: A Rural Tourism Programme and Beyond in Southwest China

Tian Tian () and Stijn Speelman ()
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Tian Tian: College of Public Administration, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Stijn Speelman: Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium

Tourism and Hospitality, 2025, vol. 6, issue 5, 1-21

Abstract: While place branding strategies are increasingly implemented in rural tourism, they are criticised for issues of exclusion and homogenisation. In response, attempts have been made to rejuvenate place branding by integrating the ideology of place-shaping. To explore the conceptual distinctions between place branding and place-shaping, and the potential for integrating these two approaches, this paper examines the process of tourism programme and beyond in a peripheral rural community in Southwest China. This case study collected qualitative data from 2016 to 2023 to describe how the village was transformed by a top-down tourism initiative and how local stakeholders subsequently shaped these changes. Our empirical investigation reveals that sustainable rural tourism development requires integrating place branding strategies with the place-shaping process. While the administrative and financial support was required to promote the place branding, the exogenous approach led to a brand alien to the place. In contrast, residents and other stakeholders have shaped a living place beyond the programme. It entails an integration where elements from the place branding and place-shaping are recruited, reinterpreted, and reconfigured to support sustainable, place-based development.

Keywords: rural tourism programme; place branding; place-shaping; rural China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z3 Z30 Z31 Z32 Z33 Z38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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