Fraidaki Maria[1]

ABSTRACT:

The contribution of tourism in a country’s GDP is an important factor of its financial wellbeing and growth. As a result, the attempt to attract tourists must be of high importance for everyone working in the relative area. Lately, a strong Brand is considered to be the most significant factor when a country is trying to attract tourists. Especially in European Union, the first continent as far as tourists arrivals are concerned, there seems to be a coordinated effort. In this paper, all Tourism Brands (slogan and logos) used by EU members are listed as well as the conclusions that are derived, while a special report of the situation and the actions that are taken in Greece, is included.

Key Words: tourism destinations, brand name, marketing, EU countries, logos.

TOURISM CHARACTERISTICS

According to World Tourism Organization’s (2008:10) long-term forecast and assessment of the development of tourism “international arrivals are expected to reach nearly 1.6 billion by the year 2020. Of these worldwide arrivals, 1.2 billion will be intraregional and 378 million will be long-haul travellers”. By this year, “the top three receiving regions will be Europe (717 million tourists), East Asia and the Pacific (397 million) and the Americas (282 million), followed by Africa, the Middle East and South Asia” (UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, 2006), generating nearly US$2 trillion in economic activity (Vietnam Human Resources Development in Tourism Project, 2008:3) by creating new jobs in hotels and restaurant, in transportation, etc.

These facts describe in numbers why tourism is so important to national economies and why especially in times of economical depression, governments are trying hard to find ways to increase tourist’s arrivals and therefore income. It is estimated that 70% of international travellers visit only 10 countries, which means that over 90 National Tourism Organizations have to compete for 30% of total international arrivals (Morgan et. al, 2002:72). As a result, to achieve revenues in the tourism field, organizations (national, non profitable, etc) have turned to the implementation of marketing strategies that will raise tourist’s interest in visiting their travel destinations.

Tourism marketing is different than marketing a product as a result of services intangibility. Consequently a different approach is necessary. The main four characteristics of tourism which affect the implementation of marketing are (sharpley, 2006:85):

Perishability: because a service cannot be stored for future purchase.

Heterogeneity/variability: each service product, is unique as it is produced by individuals and it’s characteristics vary from time to time.

Inseparability: services are produced and consumed at the same time.

Intangibility: services cannot be touched like tangible products or tested before purchase, so it’s difficult to convince a tourist to trust you in advance.

Tourism in European Union

The same intense in competition, exists and between the members of European Union, in a continent accounting for over 53% of all international tourist arrivals with the “world’s largest and most mature destination region” (World Tourism Organization, 2008:5).

The reasons for Europe’s dominance in the world’s tourism system are (Boniface, Cooper, 2005:54):

- The maturity of the region’s economies.

- The rich mosaic of languages, cultural resources and tourist attractions of world calibre.

- The adoption of euro (in most European countries in 2002 which gave tourism a push).

- The proximity between European small countries encourages short international trips.

- Climatic differences that lead tourists from Northern Europe to the southern especially since the 1950s.

- The maturity and high standards of tourism infrastructure combined with the satisfying level of services in tourism sector.

- Funding provided by European governments to tourist authorities gave them an advantage in marketing and development matters.

As a result of the reasons mentioned above, five out of ten european union members are included in the ranking of the “world’s top tourism destinations” (world tourism organization, 2008:5) and six of them in the top ten ranking of the world’s major tourism earners.

The factors that define the positioning in those lists are not always easy to be controlled from governments and it takes a long lasting effort on their part, to understand what tourists expect from countries and therefore try to offer them.

According to the “survey on the attitudes of europeans towards tourism” (2009), by european commissions barometer, the majority of european union citizens answered that they spent their main vacation in 2008 in their own country (43%). From those who travelled abroad, 31% stayed in europe, preferring [spain (7%), italy (5%), france (4%) and greece (3%)] and 25% travelled outside eu [with most popular destinations turkey (3%), the united states and croatia (both 2%)].

Source: European Commissions Eurobarometer, (2009:19)

About 54% of europeans stated that

They prefer to spend their holidays in conventional or “well-known” tourist destinations, while 28% would rather explore non-traditional, emerging or “less known” destinations. Only 15% of the participants to the survey answered that they had no preference about the type of destination.

Their choice for visiting a destination was affected by different factors. First of all was the location’s environment (31%), second the cultural heritage (24%) and third the options for entertainment (15%). Other elements that determined their choice were gastronomy (7%), arts (5%), festivals and events (5%).

Source: European commissions eurobarometer, (2009:47)

The results signify what is important for the european citizen in order to visit a destination and should be immediately considered by relative tourism authorities trying to define their brand identity in order to attract tourists.

Destination marketing

As mentioned above, the choice to travel is directly linked with a specific destination, which means a place “with some form of actual or perceived boundary of an island, political boundaries, or even market-created boundaries…” (kotler, bowen, makens, 2006:726). As suvanatola notes (2002:81), our need for travelling encompasses several reasons, dealing with our daily life. People want to travel so that they can see the attractions, meet new civilizations, entertain themselves and do things different from their daily routine. To choose where they can find those things, is difficult, because of high competition in the tourism field and the dependency in many criteria such as, their income, age, educational level, family condition etc.

To find those people in their countries, to understand what they want and how they will be convinced to decide where to go and get the pleasure they search for, is a job for the marketers of national tourism organizations, destination marketing organizations and other public or private authorities which need to cooperate to achieve their goal. It won’t be easy to persuade potential travellers if you have not tried before to create a safe destination in the inner of the country, to maintain stability and build modern infrastructure and safe transportation means.

When a country comprises all those characteristics and natural beauties, culture monuments, hospitality etc., the best thing to do is to summarize those elements and advertise them to the future visitors. To achieve that, the relative tourism organizations usually deal with marketing tactics known as destination marketing.

That means that an internal and external analysis of the environment must be included, so that useful information about the situation of the destination can be extracted. A SWOT analysis is also necessary to determine destinations strengths and weaknesses that can be corrected by the participants in the procedure (public authorities, residents, etc) and also opportunities to be turned to advantages and threats to be avoided.

The marketing procedure also consists of segmentation and targeting of the potential tourists, in order to apply strategies to specific groups. As Kotler, Haider and Rein note (1993:199), places are responsible not only for the number of tourists they want but also what kind of tourist they want, taking into account their private characteristics as climate, topography, history culture etc. After recording the real condition of a destination (SWOT, environment analysis), a marketer has to particularize the target group. If a country (destination) has cultural monuments which can attract interest, it would be better to focus on this kind of tourists (cultural tourists). But a research is necessary to find out what tourists expect from a specific country, the income they spend, the time spent there, and how all these can be approached (by which means, advertisement, internet, promotion, public relations, etc.).

The next step has to do with positioning. “The common concept used to describe place positioning is the unique selling proposition (USP) and this is employed to create a distinct and positive image of the place in the mind of the target audience” (Avraham, Ketter, 2008:15). To succeed that, a more specific procedure must be followed which has to do with destination branding.

Branding nation’s

Before indicating how european union members deal with their brand names we should explain what that means and how important is nation branding. “a brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol, (such as a logo, trademark, or package design) intended to identify the goods or services of either one seller or a group of sellers, and to differentiate those goods from those of competitors” (aaker, 1991:7). Usually the term brand includes words and a symbol, while the term “brand name” refers only to the words and the term “brand mark” to the symbol or logo (kolb, 2006:219)

For doyle (1998:172) “a brand image refers to how the target market perceives the brand. A brand identity is the message sent out by the brand through its product form, name, visual signs, advertising etc". According to him the difference between them is that people might have a different image about the brand than that the company is trying to communicate. Usually management in charge for planning the brand’s identity should be very careful with elements and meanings.

In the case of nations, it is important to have a powerful and positive brand because that provides a competitive advantage compared to “rivals”. “the anholt brands index is the first analytical ranking of the world’s nation brands” (anholt, global market insite, 2006:2). It measures how strong a nation’s brand image is, and the way consumers respond to the appeal of the brand. To achieve that, it considers six areas of “national assets”, such as tourism, exports, governance, investment and immigration, culture and heritage, people.

To build a strong brand name as a nation means to have a positive image in all those sectors. Of course when the target is to improve a specific sector (as tourism in our case), it is important to see it as part of a bigger plan. That will help a destination have better and long lasting results. Imagine a country not having social stability, with strikes, demonstrations, unemployment. It will be difficult to gain strong brand name, because the first thing that needs to be improved is the inner environment and then an attempt to approach trust of the traveller, must follow.

The principles of place branding

Placebrands[2] have developed a set of Place Branding Principles believed to help places create a useful guide on their branding programme.

However as Szondi (2007:9) notes there are differences between “destination branding” and “country branding”, explaining that in the first case the aim “is to attract visitors and boost tourism (inwards direction) while in the second case there is an attempt that “promotes economic, commercial and political interests at home and abroad”.

In the study of caldwell and freire (2004:59), where they tried to spot the differences between branding a country, a region and a city, the conclusion showed that the functional diversity of countries make them be perceived by their brand identity, while cities and regions are perceived “more from a functional point of view”. Another point of the above mentioned study suggests that when trying to brand a european country throughout the european market the message sent must be characterised by more “representational attributes than functional ones”.

Organizations in charge of branding a country such as national tourism organizations or destination marketing organizations, use marketing tools such as public relations, advertisements etc. Internet is supposed to be a key element in the whole procedure, which can offer opportunities of building a strong brand name for a country and a “place” to demonstrate that, addressing to millions of people at the same time.

Table 1

1.1
1.2 1	1.3 Purpose and potential	Place branding creates value for a city, region or country by aligning the messages that the place already sends out, in accordance with a powerful and distinctive strategic vision; by unlocking the talent of the people who live there and stimulating investment to reinforce and fulfil this vision; and by creating new, powerful and cost-effective ways to give the place a more effective and memorable voice and enhance its international reputation.
2	1.4 Truth	Places often suffer from an image which is out of date, unfair, unbalanced, or cliché-ridden. It is one of the tasks of place branding to ensure that the true, full, contemporary picture is communicated in a focused and effective way; never to compromise the truth or glamorise it irresponsibly.
3	1.5 Aspirations & betterment	The place brand needs to present a credible, compelling and sustainable vision for its future, firmly in the context of our shared future. This will support the overall aim of a real increase in the economic, political, cultural, and social well being of the people who live in the place, whilst contributing in a more than token way to the well being of other people in other places.
4	Inclusiveness & common good	Place branding can and should be used for achieving societal, political and economic objectives. Inevitably, a workable strategy will favour certain groups or individuals over others, and this creates an inalienable responsibility to ensure that they are supported in other ways.
5	1.6 Creativity & innovation	Place branding should find, release, and help direct the talents and skills of the population, and promote the creative use of these in order to achieve innovation in education, business, government, environment and the arts. Furthermore, only creativity of the highest order can ‘square the circle’ of translating the complexity of a place into purposeful, distinctive and effective brand strategy.
6	1.7 Complexity & simplicity	The reality of places is intricate and often contradictory, yet the essence of effective branding is simplicity and directness. It is one of the harder tasks of place branding to do justice to the richness and diversity of places and their peoples, yet to communicate this to the world in ways which are simple, truthful, motivating, appealing and memorable.
7	1.8 Connectivity	Place branding connects people and institutions at home and abroad. The clear and shared sense of purpose which good brand strategy engenders can help unite government, the private sector and non-governmental organisations; it stimulates involvement and participation among the population; externally, it helps build strong and positive links to other places and other people.
8	Things take time	Place branding is a long-term endeavour. It need not and should not cost more than any place can comfortably afford, but is neither a quick fix nor a short-term campaign. Devising an appropriate place brand strategy and implementing it thoroughly takes time and effort, wisdom and patience; if properly done, the long-term advantages, both tangible and intangible, will outweigh the costs by far.

Source: Placebrands Ltd, 2009

Visualisation and symbolism (szondi, 2007:11), is a common way of branding a destination while tourist logos, slogans and other elements of designs are developed. “logos bear either the english name of the country (hungary, serbia, estonia, slovakia, latvia) or the name of the country in its own language (lietuva), as well as national or tourist symbols (sun, sky, sea, flowers, heart, mountains). As far as their colours are concerned the logos usually use the colours of the national flags”.

For dalrymple and parson (2000:133) repeated exposure, advertising and promotion are activities which can help to build brand recognition. Marketers in order to achieve that, can develop slogans or jingles that match the product, logos, symbols, characters and generally do “anything that causes the consumer to experience the brand”. But as kotler and gertner (2002:256) explain “tourism requires image making and branding grounded in the place’s reality”. That means that if you lie about your tourism product, travellers will never come back and they will inform others about their disillusionment.

Implementing in most cases the principles mentioned above, slogans and logos (brands) used by all european union members are:

Table 2: european union countries brands

N.	Country	Slogan	Logo	Site
1	Austria	It’s got to be Austria		http://www.austria.info/uk/
2	Belgium	Fabulous Flanders		http://www.visitflanders.com/
3	Bulgaria	Magic Lives Here[3]		http://www.bulgariatravel.org
4	Cyprus	Love Cyprus		http://www.visitcyprus.com/
5	Czech Republic	Symphony for the Senses		http://www.czechtourism.com
6	Denmark	Denmark.Enjoy!		http://www.visitdenmark.com
7	Estonia	Estonia. Positively Transforming		http://www.visitestonia.com/
8	Finland[4]	-		http://www.visitfinland.com
9	France	Rendez-vous en France[5]		http://www.franceguide.com
10	Germany	Simply Inspiring		http://www.germany-tourism.de/
11	Greece	a) Greece the true experience b) A Masterpiece you can afford[6]		http://www.visitgreece.gr/
12	Hungary	A Love for Life		http://www.hungary.com/
13	Ireland	Go where Ireland takes you		http://www.discoverireland.com/gb/
14	Italy	Italia much more		http://www.enit.it/ http://www.italiamuchmore.com
15	Latvia	The Land that sings		http://latviatourism.lv
16	Lithuania[7]	-		http://www.travel.lt/
17	Luxembourg	-		http://www.visitluxembourg.lu
18	Malta	The Mediterranean's Best Kept Secret		http://www.visitmalta.com/
19	Netherlands[8]	-		http://www.holland.com
20	Poland	Poland, the natural choice		http://www.poland.travel
21	Portugal	Europe’s West Coast		http://www.visitportugal.com
22	Romania	The Land of Choice		http://www.romaniatourism.com/
23	Slovakia	Little Big Country		http://www.slovakia.travel/
24	Slovenia	I feel Slovenia		http://www.slovenia.info/
25	Spain	Smile you are in Spain[9]		http://www.spain.info/
26	Sweden	-		http://www.visitsweden.com
27	United Kingdom	a) Britain be a part of it[10] b) See more Britain for less!		http://www.visitbritain.com http://www.uk.britainforless.com/

The results of the above list demonstrate that 22 out of 27 countries have slogans and all of them a logo, proving that branding in tourism is important. Only 5 of them don’t use all or some of the colors of their national flag in their logo (Belgium, Finland, Latvia, Netherlands, Slovenia) while 3 of them (Denmark, Sweden and UK) use the flag as part of their logo. There is a direct appeal to emotion in 3 of them by the use of a heart (Cyprus, Denmark, Hungary), and 7 of them also use characteristics of their tourism product such as sun, sea, mountains etc (Cyprus, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Espana).

From the total 27 EU members, 13 use in their slogan the name of the country, emphasizing in that, while their logos also appeal to emotion, promising the visitors to go there and find out.

As we notice, there are countries such as Greece and United Kingdom that have adapted in their brand the economical difficulties of our times. Especially UK and the official tourism organization VisitBritain, launched the largest campaign in Europe for the past few years, “Britain for Less” in 18 countries with total budget of £1.8 million, in an effort to attract visitors with less income to spend. At the same time, enterprises dealing with tourism such as easyJet, made an agreement with VisitBritain, to offer low-cost flights in 14 countries[11].

France also launched a new brand in an attempt to rebrand its tourism product, trying to remain in the first place of tourist arrivals ranking. “The logo features a young woman symbolizing Marianne, an allegorical figure and national symbol since the French Revolution, as she looks toward the future. The dreamy tag-line, “Rendez-vous en France,” is designed to seduce visitors to the land of fashion, food and fine wine”[12]. The phrase rendez-vous, is known worldwide and in our minds is connected with romance, creating “a feeling of immediacy to go to France”[13].

One of the biggest competitors of France, Spain, continues to use the same logo since 1982 when Joan Miro designed the sun to symbolize the modernization of Spain on the occasion of the World Soccer Cup (De Vicente, 2004:22) while the slogan “Smile you are in Spain”, is used for the last few years and is supposed to be one of the most successful ones. Through the word smile a more personalized message is transmitted witch implies that the destination is in position of understanding the needs of the travellers and by offering the right product and service, can make them smile (Pot, 2005:41).

Finland realizing the abilities given by a strong brand name has started a campaign since September 2008 which will end on December 2010, expecting from people around the world to express their opinion about the country and Finnish citizens (via a delegation project which is organized by an appointed committee from the Finnish government). Another special case is Sweden with no specific slogan but with a logo showing the flag of the nation. Sweden is supported in maintaining a strong brand by companies as the worldwide known IKEA. The brand IKEA is a powerful league for Sweden as it’s “285 stores in 37 countries feature the blue-and-yellow national colours, serve Swedish meatballs and sell blond-wood Swedish designs and books about Sweden. To visit IKEA is to visit Sweden” (Wastberg, 2009).

Destination Branding in Greece

Greece has to compete with all European Members in tourism but also countries like Turkey and Egypt, with similarities in their tourism product (sun, sea, culture, etc.). As Chatzidakis points (2008:14) Greek tourism industry faces many challenges due to the world competition and its structural characteristics, so it is necessary to renew and differentiate the Greek tourism product by segmenting markets and specifying promotion activities.

Before the establishment of the Tourism Ministry in 2004 (Law 3270/04, Government Gazette 187/Α/11.10.2004), tourism campaigns were not a part of a specific strategic marketing plan. Things changed with the 2004 Olympic Games and the fact that Greece had the opportunity to promote its tourism product and attract visitors who would attend the games and also stay to enjoy country’s beauties.

According to Law 3270/2004, article 4, Greek National Tourism Organization has the responsibility to accomplish programs of tourism promotion in Greece and abroad and in order to manage that, can participate in conferences, exhibitions etc. As a result, since 2004, Greek tourism started being more organized in tourism promotion.

Source: Drakopoulos (2008:34)

In 2005 the tourism campaign using the logo “Wonderful Greece” and the slogan “Live your Myth in Greece Starring You” (GNTO, 2005), “sought to cash in on the 'added value' arising from Greece's successful organization of the Athens Olympics, highlighting the quality of services on offer in an environment of absolute safety”[14]. The budget for that campaign was 31.9 million euros for the central advertising campaign and an additional 28 billion euros for subsidiary actions and was launched in 27 countries.

In 2006 tourism campaign “Explore your senses”, the Greek Ministry of Tourism and Greek National Tourism Organization (2007), spent 40 million euro[15] to promote Greek tourism in 43 countries in 33 languages (Ministry of Tourism Development, Greek National Tourism Organization, 2007). This year for the first time the Greek Ministry of Tourism signed a contract with strategic consultant for the development (among others) of tourism marketing strategic plan, branding system and crisis management (Stathopoulos, 2006).

In 2007, Greek tourism campaign slogan “Greece the True Experience”, aimed to strengthen the country’s image as one of world's top tourism destinations by achieving a greater share of the market in the so-called 'creative class', which represented “10 percent of travellers that seek new and true experiences” (Halkiadakis, 2007). For the year 2008 Greece used the same slogan but changed the logo with the name in the middle and 9 circles around it representing, seaside vacations, nautical sports, countryside, culture, health and wellness, luxury, business meetings, touring and city breaks.

The latest tourism campaign launched in 29^th of April 2009 by the Tourism Development Minister Costas Markopoulos, maintains the catchphrase “Greece, the True Experience” and given the global economic crisis, is enriched with a new logo “Greece 5000 years old” and a slogan “A Masterpiece you can afford”. The new campaign developed by Greek agencies Ashley & Holmes with Karamella, “includes a main (50 sec) movie and 5 theme (20 sec) films promoting sea, religious tourism, gastronomy and city tourism”[16] and will be promoted in 42 countries.

As it is obvious, since 1991, Greece has been changing brand (logos and slogans), almost every year. That means that visitors were confused about the experience the country was offering. As Andreas Markezinis points (2007), “Changing the slogan every year is promising different things trying to sell the same thing. Thus it can gain little credibility. Slogans are the epitome of advertising, and slogans must be maintained over time with consistency and persistency. They embody the brand’s promise and as such, Greece’s officials should stick to it, since Greece promises the same. Greece should discover its positionment and let the slogan circuncidate around it. If the positionment does not change, the slogan should not change either. Doing otherwise is overwriting past efforts”.

After four years in a row, Greece is absent from the 2008 Country Brand Index of FutureBrand, which “ranks countries as brands and assesses opportunities, insights and findings related to nation branding” (FutureBrand, 2008). In 2005 when the survey was first released, Greece was in the 6^th place of stronger brands. In 2007 took the 7^th place and one of the reasons for that loss was the fact that the country couldn’t exploit its communicational advantages (Press Attachés Association, Forum on International Communications Policy, 2009). The campaign of 2006 felt “very advertising oriented” (FutureBrand, 2007) and the slogan seemed to be superficial. Once more the fact that every year different campaigns are launched is considered a false tactic.

The fact that there are often changes in Governmental Officers and General Secretaries of the Ministry and National Tourism Organization is also a disadvantage Greece has to overcome in order to build a strong brand and stay competitive in tourism field not only in Europe but worldwide.

In the “Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report” (World Economic Forum, 2009:xvi) for 2009, Greece is ranked 18th in Europe and 24th overall (133 countries), with a stable performance compared with 2008. According to the survey, the country benefits from rich cultural resources (ranked 23rd), excellent health and hygiene (ranked 19th overall) and top-notch tourism infrastructure (5th). The best ranking of Greece is “a very high 3rd in terms of the country’s overall prioritization of Travel & Tourism”.

Honours like the European Commission-sponsored program "European Destinations of Excellence" (EDEN) to Lesvos for the top sustainable tourism destination in Greece for 2009 (Koumelis, 2009), Ionian Eco Villagers in Zakynthos, being finalist for the Conservation Award category of “Tourism of Tomorrow Awards 2009” by World Travel and Tourism Council (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2009:10), can help Greece in an effort of building a more environmental image, as European travellers seem to be fond of, according to relative surveys.

Greece has to plan and implement a long lasting strategy in tourism, branding the tourist product that has proved to be strong enough to stand all those years despite the numerous changes in logos, slogans, ministers and higher executives. Efforts must immediately begin as global competition is getting more intense and the new members of European Union with similarities in destinations are gaining ground. What must not be forgotten is what Livadas pointed in “Brand Greece” guide (2007:13), of Secretariat General of Communication and Secretariat General of Information. That “Gifted by Nature with a remarkable landscape and by Man with an outstanding Ancient civilization that is as relevant in modern times, Greece has always been loved and admired. In addition, Greece is identified with some of the most powerful brand names in history, such as Democracy, Philosophy or the Olympics”.

CONCLUSIONS

Today’s competition in tourism sector, has led to the emergence of a new concept, branding, which is widely used by countries in an effort to attract more visitors. Especially within Europe, the continent with most tourism arrivals, where similarities of the tourism product are often and the need for differentiation obvious, all of European Union members are trying to build strong brands.

Brand can be a name, symbol, design or a combination that gives to potential travellers a specific image about a destination and differentiates it from others. Referring to brand name means the use of key words while the term “brand mark” is usually a symbol or a logo.

Branding a country is different than branding a city or a region, so different approaches must be followed. In the first case the approach must deal with the representational attributes of the country, while in the second case (city or a region) the approach must focus mainly in their functionality. Especially when trying to brand a european country throughout the european market the message sent must be followed by this principle, because each nationality perceives another by their brand identity.

Marketing tools are required for that, such as public relations, advertisements etc, which will be used by organizations related to the procedure. Of course internet is the new powerful tool to be used in tourism branding of countries. For better understanding of brand content in tourism, logos present the name of country in english language and sometimes main characteristics that will provoke tourist’s interest like sun, sea, mountains, etc, or the flag of the nation. Slogans are also in english so that they can be understood by the majority of potential travellers in the country and appeal to their emotion, by promising a different and of course better experience than any other.

It’s not easy to reach a level of a successful branding of a destination, a country or a place. It requires solving serious problems within the country and then turning outside. When attempting to build a brand, it is necessary to know that it takes time and demands real co-ordination between the participants. Tactics of marketing must be followed such as, SWOT analysis, segmentation, targeting, positioning etc, so that it can be decided what a country has to offer and what kind of tourists the country wants to have.

When branding a destination, there must be truth in what you promise, creativity and innovation, purpose and potential, simplicity, aspiration and of course patience, because it takes time. It is very important to remember that branding a country in the tourism sector, means inviting people to join you and share specific things which deal with the destination. When changing the elements mentioned in a brand, tourists are confused and lose their trust in long term.

A typical example of changing brands is Greece. While spending a great amount of money, since 1991 there have been many changes in the branding procedure. The positive side is that since 2004 it has become clear that branding Greece is important for the competition and tourist income. In 2006 a strategic consultant was hired for the development of tourism marketing strategic plan, branding system and crisis management in that direction. Still, frequent changes in Ministers and officials accompanied by different approaches in that topic, make it difficult to create a strong brand for tourists. Greece has to exploit the unique tourism product in order to continue to be competitive.

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