Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5673/sip.54.1.1
Destination Brand Management for the Support of Political Identity: The Case of Slovenia
Saša Poljanec-Borić
orcid.org/0000-0002-8076-5008
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This article examines the development of Slovenian competitive identity
over the past twenty years through marketing and political perspective. An inception
and evolution of a destination brand is considered. The coincidence between the release
of Slovenian new brand identities and decisive political steps Slovenia undertook
between 1990 and 2007 is analysed in order to show a mutual interdependence between
destination branding and political marketing. Since Slovenia started to develop
a competitive identity of the country while still in the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, it is argued that this was done in order to promote its independence from
Yugoslavia. Furthermore, changing of the brand identity occurred whenever a process
of the accession to the European Union would reach a decisive point. Therefore, the
development of the Slovenian competitive identity after independence was closely
coordinated with political aspirations of the country to integrate into the European
Union. The conclusive stage of competitive identity development coincides with inclusion
of Slovenia into the Schengen and Euro zones. Such a coincidence strongly
corroborates a hypothesis that there has been close interdependence of touristic and
political marketing during past two decades. Finally, it is suggested that the Slovenian
case of destination brand management is unique in new Europe and that it should
be evaluated with regard to other relevant destination branding practices in the new
Europe and the world.
Keywords
Tourism; Politics; Marketing; Brand; Competitive identity; Slovenia; European Union
Hrčak ID:
156641
URI
Publication date:
22.4.2016.
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