The role of brand image in the marketing of tourism product and creation of destination brand image

Destination Branding in tourism is a new concept which is recently gaining popularity among researchers and destination marketers. With the contributions of Destination Tourism Organizations and Destination Marketing Managers, tourism destinations are trying to establish a strong brand name and image in order to have competitive advantage in tourism markets. Branding tourism destinations is somewhat different process from branding traditional products and services due to their distinctive nature and its several components. First and foremost, Destination Branding not only means the branding of geographical places, but it also means marketing of a composition of tourism products which consists of many different public/private goods, services and attractions that offer benefits to actual and prospective visitors under a powerful brand umbrella. The main purpose of this study is to identify the basic demand side factors affecting brand creation process of Çeşme as a tourism destination as well. This study mainly consists of three chapters. The first chapter examines the general theoretical approach to destination marketing and highlights the importance of destination marketing in tourism. Second chapter aims to explain the basic concepts of traditional product branding in marketing, branding the tourism products, destination branding and branding process in tourism. The third and final chapter is the research and application part of the study and this chapter also includes the basic research findings based on the data collected from the destination visitors. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis. Basic findings point out that tourist motivations, pull and push factors and perception of destination personality are the main factors affecting branding process that leads to create long term brand loyalty. Keywords: Destination, Marketing, Branding, Customer Loyalty, Brand Personality.