Unwto handbook on tourism destination branding

As in any busy marketplace, brand image becomes critical: almost nobody has the time, the patience or the expertise to understand the real differences between the offerings of one country and another, and so people fall back on their fundamental beliefs and prejudices about those countries to help them make their decisions.

Countries with a reputation for being poor, uncultured, backward, dangerous or corrupt will find that everything they or their citizens try to achieve outside their own neighbourhood is harder, while countries that are lucky or virtuous enough to have acquired a positive reputation find everything easier. Their brand goes before them like a calling card that opens doors, creates trust and respect, and raises the expectation of quality, competence and integrity.

In this way, the reputation of a country has a direct and measurable impact on just about every aspect of its engagement with other countries, and plays a critical role in its economic, social, political and cultural progress. For the travel and tourism industry, national image is fundamentally important.

This is the reason why the concept of destination branding has become so important. Put simply, a destination with a powerful and positive image needs to do less work and spend less money on promoting itself to the marketplace, because the marketplace already believes what it is telling them. It merely has to help buyers find and purchase the product.

But destinations with powerful brands have a different task, one that destinations with weak brands do not have. Just like any respected corporation, a highly regarded place has a big responsibility to ensure that the reality always lives up to its reputation.

Indeed, in order to protect itself against competitors, such a place must exceed expectations through constant innovation. This task can of course be just as costly and just as challenging as building a reputation in the first place, but having a good reputation ETC Member For extranet use, only. The idea of destination branding is important because it takes into account these important questions relating to the deliberate capture and accumulation of reputational value.

Ordinary tourism promotion, when it is carried out with no particular long-term national strategy in mind apart from growth, is an endless cycle which may or may not lead to real progress in the longer term. Unlike brand management, it is mainly about selling. It can certainly be effective at doing this, but unless the selling is directed and driven by an underlying brand strategy, there is little chance that the country as a whole will acquire any substantial brand equity, and so the promotional task never gets any easier or cheaper, and there is little chance that a price premium will ever be justified in the eyes of the consumer.

But the all-important question of what — if anything — can actually be done to enhance or maintain a positive reputation, is barely understood at all. The problem, however, is that national reputation exerts enormous inertia, and generations can pass before improvements in the reality of the country eventually result in an improved image.

I would argue that branding — the act of reducing something chaotic, complex and contradictory to something simple, memorable and potent — is exactly the wrong thing for most countries to attempt.

Branding is more like a problem than a solution, and it is in fact exactly what public opinion does to countries. What countries and their governments need to do is fight against this tendency of public opinion to brand the nation, not to assist in the process.

Furthermore, there is no correlation between these changes in image and the efforts made by any country to affect its image: indeed, some of the countries that have spent most money on improving their images have experienced the steepest declines in their brand equity, whilst others have spent virtually nothing and seen their stock rise steadily throughout the last four years of the study.

To imagine that such fundamental beliefs can be affected by so weak an instrument as marketing communications is an extravagant delusion. The role of communications Marketing communications can be an excellent tool for selling vacations and other products and services, but not for manipulating fundamental cultural precepts like national image.

The quality of the marketing done by all of these stakeholders, and the consistency between the different messages they send out about the place, are important factors in the way the place builds up its reputation — and of course good advertising often plays a major part in creating the positive tourism brands that many countries enjoy today.

The fact of the matter is that no single national stakeholder — the tourist board, the investment promotion agency, the corporate sector, civil society, exporters, central government and so forth — is in control of all the factors that affect its business, so it is essential that they work together. This is especially true of smaller countries, which, thanks to the rapid advance of globalisation, find themselves competing every day against countries with far greater resources.

For a small country to stand any chance of making its voice heard in this huge global marketplace, it is absolutely essential that it fires on all cylinders, and that everything the country does, says and makes, somehow reinforces the same basic story, the same values, the same personality, the same tone of voice. It is only once a country really learns how to be itself that it can start to exert some influence over its international reputation, and to start to benefit properly from that asset.

About Competitive Identity Once it is accepted that communication alone cannot alter a negative or outdated national image, the critical question becomes whether it is indeed possible to close up that gap by other means assuming, of course, that the country in question does actually deserve a better reputation than it has.

The theory of Competitive Identity takes its cue from the way in which country images are naturally formed. By accident more often than by design, most countries engage with the outside world, and so create their images, through six basic areas of activity: 1. Their exported products and services, which act as powerful ambassadors for each country and region when their place of origin is explicit.

To business audiences, the way the country solicits inward investment, and recruitment of foreign entrepreneurs, workers, researchers and students. Through cultural exchange, cultural exports and sport. The people of the country themselves: politicians, media and sports stars as well as the population in general; how they behave when abroad and how they treat visitors to their country.

The basic theory of Competitive Identity states that improved coordination between the points of the hexagon, the joint development of a national strategy, more sharing of resources and expertise, the encouragement of innovation and the establishment of common standards and quality measures can achieve a great deal. Why tourism matters The main business of a tourist board is selling vacations, however, and vacations are products.

Compared to the mysteries of national image, destination marketing is a relatively straightforward business: as long as the tourist board has enough marketing expertise, resources and patience, it can be fairly sure of increasing tourism arrivals. People often abandon their preconceptions about countries once they visit them: for those individuals at least, the country stops being a brand and becomes a real country.

Indeed there is some evidence from the Nation Brand Index to show that preference for a country and its people, politics, culture and products tends to increase as a result of any personal experience of that country, even when the holiday experience is not positive.

This factor is significant, because people talk to other people about their holidays. And of course it is a virtuous circle: the better the image, the more people will want to visit the country. It is worth remembering when one is creating marketing messages that one is not simply engaging in a temporary monologue with a primary audience: one is also building a story which, if it is good enough, can take on a life of its own and circulate around the marketplace for a long time, building the brand and making further sales.

The challenges of destination branding For this and for many other reasons, the integration of tourism and tourism promotion into the overall nation brand strategy is to be encouraged: but this integration brings real challenges. The main challenge is about balanced representation of the country.

Empty landscapes, in any case, tend to be less effective images for tourism promotion since the cultural aspects of tourism are so important to travellers; and stereotyped representations of smiling natives in national dress are seldom very convincing. The second challenge is objectivity. After all, Marketing Directors who are responsible for marketing a product are generally salaried employees, are seldom the inventor or manufacturer of the product, and so do not find it too difficult to take a cool, objective view of the brand they are building: indeed, good ones are valued precisely because of their ability to see the brand in the same way as the consumer.

A lack of objectivity can be fatal to the image strategy of a country, no matter how good the intentions at the start. From the point of view of a busy consumer halfway across the world, of course, the historical achievements and natural advantages of most countries are of little interest, and seldom add up to anything that could be described as a coherent or powerful brand.

Indeed, since Competitive Identity is most urgently needed by the smaller, poorer and newer countries, it is all the more likely that such facts will seem pretty unimpressive to the detached observer.

But the fact is that the potential tour operator or tourist is already comparing them with countries that are in a completely different league, and their expensive marketing will simply serve to emphasize the differences, to their own disadvantage. Rather than attempt to measure themselves up against much bigger, richer or more successful countries, it is far better for countries to identify where their real genius lies, their unique abilities or potential that really do put them in a class of their own.

This potential may well be the result of their small size, small population or small economy, not something that they manage to achieve despite it. All countries, if they look hard enough, will find something that is uniquely theirs, and inherently competitive. Dealing with negative reputation A problem often faced by countries in our security-obsessed age is knowing how to deal with a negative national reputation.

If we want people to change from the story they currently believe about a country, we have to give credit to their attachment to that story. As I have often said, they are very warmly attached to it: it is simple, credible, and functional, and it has helped them reduce the complexity of a global world, possibly for decades. They believe it because it works, and because it is interesting. Unfortunately, negative or shocking stories are very often more interesting than good or positive or pleasant stories.

The significant factor to bear in mind when attempting to correct a negative reputation, therefore, is not whether the story we are telling suits our purposes better, or even whether it is more true than what people already believe: all that matters is whether it is more interesting and more relevant than what they already believe.

Unless it is, they simply will not transfer their interest, and will continue to believe what they have always believed. Tourist boards can not and should not ignore negative national reputation. This is only proper, given that it is usually taxpayer or donor funds that are spent on such initiatives.

Obviously, marketing communications is not the right medium for addressing issues such as security, foreign policy or human rights, and neither is the tourist board the right body to comment on such things. This is simply another example of how important it is for all sectors to work together when ETC Member For extranet use, only.

Business travel The question of non-leisure visits, or what is sometimes called the meetings industry, is worth singling out for particular emphasis in this context. As leisure and even cultural tourism tend to be seasonal in nature, and as the natural or climatic attractions of many countries do not enable them to compete at a truly global level, it is essential that the business side of tourism is developed to the highest possible standard.

However, the meetings industry is quite different in nature to leisure tourism, and one should not make the mistake of conflating the two: apart from anything else, the fact that one involves consumer marketing while the other is strictly B2B means that they should be handled in quite different ways, by different people, and with separate budgets.

The environment A final, crucial point concerns the environment, a subject which increasingly dominates the agenda of the tourism industry.

An interesting finding which has come out of the Nation Brands Index is how consumer tastes and values appear to change somewhat faster than national image and reputation. As I have often said, country images really do not change very much; people need these comforting stereotypes that enable them to put countries in convenient pigeon-holes, and only abandon them if they really have no other choice.

National images move slowly because most people spend so little time thinking about other countries: if a person in Canada or South Africa or India spends a few moments each year thinking about Italy or Chile or Japan, it is not surprising if their perception of those countries remains largely unchanged for years on end.

But on the other hand, people in Canada and South Africa and India may spend several minutes every day thinking about big issues like climate change, poverty, war and diseases, religion, the cost of living, oil prices and whatever else is in the media, so public opinion on these topics changes relatively fast and relatively frequently.

Judging by the profiles of the countries that most people now admire, three areas of reputation have become critical in recent years: 1. It is clear that the first of these areas is of particular concern to the tourist industry.

As time passes, it becomes increasingly necessary for countries to show real innovation, real action, real leadership and above all demonstrable results in this area. In fact, if destination marketers only remember one piece of advice, it had better be this.

Do not think about what to say next; think about what to do. It is what makes a destination distinctive and memorable. It differentiates the destination from all others. A destination brand represents the core essence and enduring characteristics of a destination. A destination can change its moods and the way in which it presents itself to different market segments.

A destination brand is the DNA that defines the destination. It really only exists in the eyes of others. It is the sum of their perceptions, feelings and attitudes towards the destination, based on the way in which they have experienced the destination or on how it has presented itself to them.

A destination brand generally cannot be manufactured like a consumer product brand. It inherits its core assets: its landscape, people, culture and history.

It exists in the way in which these assets are perceived by potential visitors and the emotional value they attach to experiencing them. Branding is for everyone. It is not the preserve of high-spending destinations. All destinations can, and should, develop a brand, regardless of the size of their marketing budgets. Destination brand values should run through all marketing communications, whether simple website pages, public relations messages or expensive TV advertising. A destination should focus on its core market segments when developing a brand.

It is therefore essential to understand how they perceive the destination through targeted consumer research. Qualitative research is the most effective way to identify consumer perceptions of the destination. Stakeholders e. This is the best way to obtain their buy-in to the concept, as well as secure their active participation as advocates of the brand in how they talk about the destination and how they behave towards visitors. A fine balance is required to enable the creative flexibility necessary to appeal to different market segments while still maintaining a coherent destination brand that is universally recognisable.

Attempting to build supra-national and pan-regional brands generally does not work very well. They tend to lack cohesiveness, involve too many stories and too many stakeholders. Nevertheless, pan-regional marketing cooperation can achieve economies of scale for destinations that are targeting the same markets.

Nevertheless, flexibility is required to enable sub-national destinations to develop and promote their own brand identities in competition with each other where appropriate, rather than forcing them to become a pale imitation of the national brand. The best opportunity for sub-national brands often lies within national brand marketing materials e. Sub-national brands can take advantage of the market penetration and distribution achieved by the national brand to present their own subnational brand messages at the point at which the consumer or trade customer is most likely to be receptive to these messages.

The national brand creates an opportunity for the sub-national brand to reach markets it could not otherwise afford to reach; and the sub-national brand adds value to the national brand by providing more texture on the national destination that adds to its appeal. A destination brand usually comprises several different and complementary values that define its personality.

These do not all always need to be used in every marketing communication in equal measure. Destinations tend to refresh their brands, more often than radically re-brand, because they are mostly unable to alter their basic product, which is inherited e. It is time to consider refreshing a destination brand when it becomes comfortably familiar.

This usually presages its likely decline from being familiar to becoming fatigued and losing impact amongst potential visitors. It is therefore a matter of personal choice as to which one to use.

Building a destination brand requires answers to the following questions on behalf of potential visitors: —— What are the main things I like about the destination?

Specialist branding and research agencies can help destinations develop their brand by providing independent, experienced analysis, which is essential to underpin a sustainable destination brand.

This means reflecting the brand essence, through the projection of appropriate brand values, in every single marketing communication, no matter how small.

A high level steering group is valuable for developing the brand and monitoring its progress. This sends signals that the brand is considered important by senior people. This can make it easier to obtain buy-in from important stakeholders and opinion-formers within the destination. A modest number of high profile brand champions should be appointed to espouse and promote the brand amongst stakeholder groups in different economic, political and community sectors. These should be people who are leaders in their field and are able to command respect across a wide range of sectors.

Brand advocates should be recruited throughout as many stakeholder organizations as possible. They are generally people who hold positions of influence in relevant organizations, who can therefore ensure that the brand is adopted within their own organizations. Brand champions and brand advocates need to be well-informed about the brand and wellequipped to champion it.

This usually involves training them in the principles and application of the brand. They need to be provided with key facts and information about the brand, so that they can promote it knowledgeably and convincingly.

An internal marketing programme should be developed for NTO staff and key stakeholders. This should explain what the brand is, why it is important, and how to implement it. They must also be kept up to date with any feedback on, and changes to, the brand. A brand toolkit should be produced for NTO staff and stakeholders.

It should also contain technical guidelines on using any brand logo or brand identity. This should be available in electronic format, ideally via the NTO website. Residents need to be brought on board too. They should be informed about the nature, value and purpose of the brand, which is in effect representing them both nationally and internationally. This can be done through presentations, discussion groups, and media communications.

The brand manager needs to be alert for sign that the brand might be getting tired and in need of refreshment. Leadership and support for the brand from the very top e. NTO CEO and ideally from government as well — tourism minister, prime minister or president , that is both enthusiastic and highly visible.

An internal brand communications programme that inspires commitment to the brand amongst NTO staff. An understanding throughout the NTO that everyone is responsible for applying the brand in marketing communications and behaviour, not just the brand manager.

Long-term commitment to enable sufficient brand equity to be built up for the brand to gain traction in the marketplace. Living the brand: A brand is not just about marketing communications; behaviour is critical — by the NTO and its staff, by stakeholders, and by residents i.

Behaviour — as in the way that visitors experience a destination through the people they encounter — has always been the most important element of a destination brand. In the Web 2. Destinations around the world will increasingly recognise the importance of their brand as the source of their international competitiveness.

Those that do not clearly understand, articulate and apply their brand essence and values in marketing communications and behaviour will fall behind their competitors. Place branding will become increasingly important, and valuable. Destinations will have to develop partnerships with other sectors to project an overall, holistic place brand, as part of an overall national, regional or city effort to project it as somewhere attractive to live, work, study, invest, visit and do business.

But they will still need to apply their own distinctive destination brand when talking directly to potential visitors. NTOs need to find ways of remaining relevant and useful to potential visitors in the digital era. The Web 2. It is, if anything more important, amongst the welter of ungraded information available on-line from limitless sources. Purpose of this handbook This Handbook aims to provide useful and practical reference material for destination managers that will equip and inspire them in branding their destinations.

In doing so, it also aims to demystify the concept of destination branding and to explain the value of branding a destination. It uses case studies and examples in an attempt to bring the principles of destination branding to life. It recognises the need to be relevant both to marketing novices and to experienced destination managers. As well as helping those who are new to destination branding to understand the basic principles, it aims to provide fresh insights for experienced brand managers.

It should be stressed that this Handbook is not an academic textbook. It is a practical guide for destination branding practitioners. It does not aim to be either comprehensive or prescriptive.

Examples are necessarily highly selective and have been chosen for their ability to illustrate a particular point and provide useful insights for destination managers.

It therefore seeks to combine intellectual rigour and good practice insights in a document that is of practical value, easily digestible, and of an acceptable length. It is also designed to be accessible for those who wish to use it selectively as a reference document, dipping in and out to check various bits of information at different stages of brand development.

For this 1. Olins, W. September , interview in Monocle Magazine, pp. A list of further reading on destination branding both academic and business publications is appended in the Bibliography at the end of the Handbook. If it can inspire those who are new to the concept of destination branding to embark with confidence on developing a destination branding strategy, as well as provide fresh insights to destination branding experts that they find helpful in their work, then it will have achieved what it set out to do.

It pulls no punches about the misconceptions and erroneous assumptions that are often held about country branding. Anholt helpfully identifies the mindset that can result in nation-branding failure.

These are entirely consistent with the advice that follows in this Handbook. There are many other factors — other sectors, sources of information and people — that contribute to the way in which a nation is perceived.

Partnership between stakeholders in all sectors is therefore essential — in business, civil society, exports, cultural organizations, central and local government. They all need to convey a similarly positive image of the nation and to do so consistently.

A country inherits most of its strongest assets e. It needs to build on these, refine them where appropriate and practicable, add to them if credibility and authenticity can be retained, and project them positively and consistently in a way that appeals to those who would appreciate them.

People will only begin to change their perceptions if they see credible and consistent evidence of physical, cultural and attitudinal change. These are all instructive caveats that set the backdrop against which a destination brand can be developed. Clearly an overall national image that is positive can make the job of marketing the destination easier, and more difficult if it is negative.

In the more specific arena of tourism, as opposed to the overall economic arena, the image of a destination has more chance to alter the image of the country than in most other sectors. This is because the destination talks to a much smaller and more precisely defined target group than the country as a whole does: people with a potential interest in visiting, whose focus is primarily on the holiday experience the destination offers them. If a destination can identify its main appeals that make it stand out in the eyes of its target markets and project the essence of these appeals consistently to them, it has the basis for an effective competitive identity, or destination brand.

And, this gives it a powerful weapon for attracting visitors in competition with other destinations. But it does imply that a clear-sighted understanding of its competitive identity from a visitor perspective, and a persistent focus on its core target markets, will enable a destination to establish a reputation amongst those who will find it most appealing to visit.

And at this level a destination brand, projected through clever, creative marketing, most certainly can make a difference. The dramatic transformation that has taken place within the last five to twenty years in the images of Spain, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Colombia and Glasgow is clear testament to the power of branding backed by substantive change.

A concerted branding approach can make a difference over time. The image of these places as destinations played a significant, but not exclusive, part in their transformation. Otherwise it is likely to fail. Destination branding does work; but it is not a quick fix.

Best results will be achieved if tourism authorities and businesses work in partnership with other sectors to promote a consistent image of the country. This must be based on real substance. The first step for destination brand managers is to focus on getting the destination brand right. And it takes time. Competition for visitors has become ever more intense. More countries are emerging as tourism destinations each year. New destinations have emerged from previously closed or repressive regimes; developing countries are increasingly investing in tourism.

And these new competitors are obliging traditional tourism destinations to continually refresh their appeal. And in a busy world, with more destinations to choose from, people have less time to absorb complicated messages about a destination, particularly if the destination is unknown to them. It has therefore never been more important for a destination to establish and nurture its competitive identity, or brand. This is what makes a destination distinctive and memorable. This Handbook begins by defining what is meant by a destination brand and assessing its role and value as a competitive identity.

It looks at the shift taking place from pure destination branding, which has been restricted to the tourism sector, to place or nation branding, which encompasses a much broader sweep of economic development.

It compares different types of brand and identifies what destinations can learn from commercial brand marketing techniques. Its main content is a step-by-step guide to the branding process, which explains how to develop a destination brand and bring it to life through effective marketing, appropriate behaviour and good management. The Handbook concludes with a list of critical success factors and a set of recommendations for NTO brand managers.

It also identifies which destinations are most respected by NTOs for their branding practice. Annex 2: A glossary of terms, which clarifies branding terminology and seeks to further remove the mystique of what is a relatively simple concept. A bibliography, which points anyone who is interested to useful further reading on the subject of destination branding, is found at the end of the Handbook. What is it all about? Relying on product or price alone to sell a holiday is a recipe for short-term gain and long-term decline.

Destinations need to build awareness, understanding and loyalty to compete and survive. Only when it has made it on to that shortlist will it have any chance of competing for business. Making it on to that shortlist and finding a way to stand out from competitors is the goal of all tourism destinations. People choose destinations for a variety of very different reasons.

As well as providing the physical product people are seeking e. People are looking to establish an emotional connection with a destination.

Whether that is obtained through familiarity, adventure, learning new skills or achieving new insights, they are looking for experiences that lead to a sense of personal fulfilment. The image of a destination — whether it is perceived as an attractive or unappealing place — can contribute towards it making the shortlist or not.

People then start to make decisions according to how they feel about the place. It is its personality. This is where its competitive edge lies. This is where a strong destination brand, or competitive identity, can make the difference. Establishing what makes a destination different and thereby endows it with a competitive advantage — its competitive identity or brand identity — in the eyes of its main markets is the foundation stone of all destination branding.

All destinations have a brand image, whether they like it or not: in terms of the way that the world sees them, regardless of any activity by the NTO. Sometimes this can be out of date, as perceptions often lag behind reality when a place changes. This should then be conveyed consistently in marketing communications by all who talk about the destination e.

NTO and all other stakeholders , so that its strengths are consistently and credibly projected to overcome any misperceptions about the destination based on historic memory rather than contemporary reality. It defines the destination and should run through everything the destination does. Identifying what makes a destination different and distinctive is the first step in putting it on the map. The destination brand sums up what makes the destination different — and appealing — from everywhere else.

It is far more than just a logo; it is the very essence or spirit of the place, which exists nowhere else. In short, when destinations get it right, it is the way in which people describe the destination to those who have never been there — a clear, succinct summary of its personality, which makes it stand out as somewhere worth visiting.

It does this by enticing people with a marketing promise about what they will experience in the destination; and it guides the way in which the destination is presented to visitors when they get there — from immigration officials to hoteliers and guides. A well-planned and executed branding strategy should move visitors along the brand continuum from being unaware to becoming aware of the destination, to expressing a preference for it, to buying a holiday, to becoming an advocate of the destination on their return home.

How the brand should affect visitor perceptions and behaviour in relation to a destination: Figure 2 The brand continuum. Terminology Annex 2 features a Glossary of Terms. However, a few of the more frequently used, and potentially confusing terms are explained here to establish clarity from the outset.

Country refers to the geographical entity. It is not used with any specific brand-related connotation. This includes a tourism dimension.

This also includes a tourism dimension. Where it is used in this way place is usually associated with the terms place-branding or place-marketing. Otherwise, place is used with its regular, lay meaning to describe somewhere e. Destination refers to a country, region or city specifically as a tourism destination — somewhere that wishes to attract visitors. It is quite specific and is not used in any other context. This gives it a competitive edge, which makes it stand out from its competitors.

They refer to the elements that differentiate one destination from another and help it stand out positively above its competitors in the eyes of its main target markets.

Branding refers to the process of building a competitive identity, or brand, for a destination or a place. Marketing covers the entire process of developing a product and promoting it to refining and redeveloping it — from initial consumer research through promotional campaigns to monitoring customer attitudes and sales.

It is often misused in the tourism world to mean just promotion, which is merely one element of the marketing process. Promotion is just one element of marketing. Market and segment refer to a group of potential customers who have been identified as potentially interested in a particular product or destination. Of the additional 52 million worldwide arrivals, Europe received some 19 million and Asia and the Pacific, 17 million.

The Americas were up by around six million, Africa by three million and the Middle East by five million. However the rapid percentage growth of the large developing economies of the BRIC countries Brazil, Russia, India and China is predicted to change the traditional patterns of global tourism and increase the total volume of travellers.

Tourism is experiential: The total experience of the holiday has become larger than the sum of its individual parts and travellers are looking for new sensations and unique experiences, even at established traditional destinations. Tourism is existential: Travellers are striving for purpose and self-realisation, whether indulging in sporting challenges, learning a new skill, participating in an exciting new activity, or just searching for personal space in natural surroundings and an emotional reconnection with their own soul or with their partner.

People are increasingly focusing on the personally regenerating fulfilling power of a holiday, and on the opportunity to reconnect with a partner and sometimes with the family. Generic filters. Summary Tourism has become one of the worlds fastest growing economic sectors in recent years. We use cookies and Inspectlet to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.

If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. The Handbook concludes with a section on evaluating brand impact and a set of practical recommendations. It was created in to promote Europe as a tourism destination to the long-haul markets outside Europe and currently has 39 member NTOs, including 12 from outside the European Union.

ETC is an independent body which is financed entirely by annual membership contributions and partnership funding. Your email address will not be published. Branding Explained 1.