The ‘CreXperience City’: Setting up a Branding Strategy for Small Cities: The Case of Famagusta

City branding is a world wide increasing phenomenon. Cities are working hard to keep up with this trend and try setting themselves into the right scene with attractive and appealing images. Competition today is far more than competing for tourists, but also for new residents and investors. However, examination of the existing branding strategies shows, that they are mainly developed for larger cities, whereas small cities often cannot adapt them to their own case. As a result small cities are often focused on their locational attractiveness, such as climate, natural beauty and heritage for promoting themselves. However, such an approach would not always be successful since firstly, only values and opportunities of small cities would only be partially covered. Secondly, small cities are fragile against external influences such as natural catastrophes, global financial crisis or a simple change in the taste of tourists. The aim of this study is to identify solutions for smaller cities while considering a wider range of values and opportunities beyond locational qualities. Accordingly, this study intends to suggest the basic ideas and structure for an alternative branding strategy for small cities through evaluating their given assets and considering all other potentials. This thesis first sets out to present an overview of city branding, its evolution and applications, while focusing on image determination and branding process. The thesis then overviews and compares current branding strategies, while focusing on two most recent branding strategies: the creative city and the experience city. It becomes clear that most branding strategies are developed for larger or mega cities, while smaller cities are often neglected. Based on this, this thesis aims to identify an approach for small cities that fits best to their needs and consider all potentials. This study argues that the most appropriate approach for small cities is a strategy that combines dimensions of the creative city and experience city. Based on this, a hybrid model for small city branding is developed: the creXperience city strategy. Lastly, the proposed model has been applied to the city of Famagusta in order to, firstly, check the validity of the proposed hybrid strategy; secondly, evaluate the potential of the city of Famagusta as a creXperience city. Keywords: City branding, small cities, creative city, experience city, Famagusta