2020 has clearly been the year in which most people on this planet, most organisations, most economic sectors, most government agencies, had to reassess their priorities. Who and what contributes most to life; the economy; society? This opinion piece ponders the question of how place branding will be judged and where it might go in the coming years.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose an initial, exploratory and tentative theoretical construct related to the current consumption of landscape as a key symbolic and physical element in territorial representation and evocation, and for the deployment of place branding strategy. It constructs a line of argument to support what shall be referred to as “landscape branding”, that is, the paradigmatic role of landscape in place branding. It is, therefore, of interest to define the value of landscape as a social and cultural construction, which is why the paper awards importance to the specific analysis of their capacity for visual and/or aesthetic evocation within the context of a general branding strategy for geographical spaces. Design/methodology/approach To develop a sufficient proposal for sustaining “a theory of landscape branding”, the paper deploys a meta-analysis, that is, an extensive review and interpretation of the literature related to visual landscape and place branding, to propose a tentative initial approach to landscape-infused place branding theory. Findings The relationship existing between landscape images and texts and their possible situating and subsequent interpreting within the context of the political, cultural and economic logics of contemporary society give rise to a renewed analytical framework for cultural geographies (Wylie, 2007). At this point, place branding becomes a recurring argument for the consumption of carefully staged places, representing, to use Scott’s terms (2014), the arrival of a cognitive-cultural capitalism characteristic of post-Fordism. Practical implications From a practical perspective, the landscape branding approach provides several benefits. First of all, regardless of the fact that many commentators have argued that logos, slogans and advertising campaigns are relatively ineffective in place branding, practitioners still seem to be focussed on these visual design and advertising tools. The landscape branding approach facilitates an identity-focussed perspective that reconfirms the importance of linking reality with perception and hence reinforces the need to link place branding to policy-making, infrastructure and events. Social implications Landscapes’ imageability facilitates visual storytelling and the creation of attractive symbolic actions (e.g. outdoor events/arts in attractive landscape and augmented reality or landscaping itself). This is the type of imaginative content that people easily share in social media. And, of course, landscape branding reiterated the importance of experience. If policymakers and publics alike understand this considerable symbolic value of landscape, it might convince them to preserve it and, hence, contribute to sustainability and quality of life. Originality/value The novelty lies not in the familiar use of visual landscape resources to promote places, but in the carefully orchestrated construction of gazes, angles, representations, narratives and interpretations characteristic of geographic space, which somehow hijack the spontaneous gaze to take it to a certain place. Everything is perfectly premeditated. According to this, the visual landscape represents a critical point as a way of seeing the essence of places through a place branding strategy. In this sense, that place branding which finds in visual landscape a definitive argument for the projection of aspirational places imposes a new “way of seeing” places and landscape based on a highly visual story with which to make a particular place desirable, not only for tourism promotion purposes but also with the intention of capturing talent, infrastructures and investment, among other objectives.

为进一步提高本刊的学术水平和国际影响力,本栏目2013年起进行了全新改版,特邀请相关领域的专家学者担任本栏目的特邀责任编辑,由这些特邀责任编辑约请各自领域国内外有一定影响力的专家学者参与讨论。

Many authors in this journal and commentators elsewhere have repeatedly claimed the relative insignificance of logos and slogans in place branding.Yet, many practitioners and policymakers continue to spend time, money and effort on them.Maybe there are good reasons why logos and slogans are popular and some of these arguments will be addressed in this editorial.However, for those of us that look beneath the surface, it seems rather obvious that the contribution that logos and slogans can make to the management of places as brands is rather limited.Even though this relative irrelevance of logos and slogans in place branding is asserted often in the literature, the arguments for that claim are generally omitted or 'lost in translation'.Maybe that is why the practice of place branding continues the logo fetish and hence it might be useful to bring the arguments against the importance of logos and slogans together again, here.The reason why this is important is not just because of the potential misuse of taxpayers money, but also because logos and slogans seem to be ascribed with powers that they do not possess, diverting focus, resources and effort from what actually is important in place branding.Branding is about reputation management, or, more specifically, about managing brand equity.Even in this journal, it is very popular to use the definition of brand as supplied by the American Marketing Association (1995): 'A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers'.

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to create an understanding of how social media affect customer loyalty to tour operators by applying a relational benefits approach, hence contributing to the disintermediation versus re-intermediation debate. The study asked customers that have liked or placed comments on tour operators' Facebook pages what they are hoping to get out of their engagement. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the online survey data. Findings indicate that customers enjoy building online relationships with tour operators and that online special deals and discounts might be counterproductive in building loyalty through social media.

Even though destination branding has received increasing attention, both in practice and in academia, during the first decade of the twenty-first century, there is still a lot of confusion about what it is and what it attempts to do. This paper argues that destination branding is actually a misnomer and that the only right thing to do is to look at places as brands in their entirety, not just as investment, tourism or export brands. Several arguments to support this claim are presented; i.e. the nature of image; the need for cooperation and the non-demand-driven nature of place branding.

Dubai is probably one of the best known examples of a city brand that has established itself in a very short period of time while riding the waves of globalization. This has resulted in a schizophrenic image among the global audience combining Middle-Eastern stereotypes with images of a modern, rich, glamorous metropolis. However, while the image of modern Dubai has been challenged by the global financial crisis, it seems that competition in the region has stepped in. This article therefore studies the competitive brand position of Dubai, compared to Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Bahrain, through content analysis of global social media using Radian6. It shows that Dubai has attracted and still attracts most attention in mainstream as well as social media. This buzz is generally positive with the exception of the enormous amount of noise around the Dubai debt crisis announcement end of 2009. Nevertheless, the competition has been able to attract lots of positive attention for short periods of time occasionally overshadowing Dubai in recent years with the Abu Dhabi and Bahrain Grand Prix and the selection of Qatar as host for the 2022 FIFA world cup soccer. Lastly, a dramatic change that has occurred in the second quarter of 2011 is the fact that social media buzz (more so than mainstream media attention) for Bahrain has drowned out the competition in the region. However, this consists of generally very negative buzz around the opposition protests and government reactions. Therefore, all in all, it seems that Dubai still has a lot going for itself. At the same time, the results of this study offer several routes for new future research.

Preface Introduction Notes on Contributors From Competitive Identity to Governmental Social Responsibility:Place 'Brand' in an Interconnected World S.Anholt Imagined Identities of Really Existing Cities (The Reputation Game) S.Magala Why Brand the Future with the Past? The Roles of Heritage in the Construction and Promotion of Place Brand Reputations G.J.Ashworth & M.Kavaratzis History Matters: The Path Dependency of Place Brands E.Braun Beyond the Fringe: Creativity and the City N.Ind & L.Todd The Anholt-Gfk Roper Nation Brands Index: Navigating the Changing World B.M.Feinberg & X.Zhao Country Reptrak(TM): A Standardized Measure of Country Reputation G.Berens, C.J.Fombrun, L.N.Ponzi, N.Georges Trad & K.Nielsen The Futurebrand Country Brand Index T.Adams The East West Nation Brand Perception Indexes and Reports: Perception Measurement and Nation Branding T.Cromwell The Global Peace Index C.Schippa Blessing or Burden: Do Major Sport Events Hosted by Developing Countries Impact on Reputation?: The 2010 FIFA World Cup(TM): A South African Case Study W.Schreiner & F.M.Go Using University Ranking Systems to Build Nation Brand Reputation N.S.Pak & F.M.Go Putting Greece on the Map: The Use of Cognitive Causal Mapping for Destination Management J.Van Rekom & P.Verlegh Place Marketing and Experience of Place in a Virtual Environment: An Empirical Analysis of the Importance of Hedonic Meaning I.Tjostheim & F.M.Go Strengthening Brand America's Reputation Through Cooperation E.Burghard & R.Govers

Tourism represents a promising service sector that could significantly support the development of African economies. African governments targeting foreign tourists are firmly supported by international organizations. The United Nations, for example, has identified the tourist sector as a means in the “war on poverty” and will contribute towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 (UNWTO 2005). A major barrier, however, is Africa’s troublesome image. Africa has in fact two dominant images in the outside world. In the western mass media, the continent is overwhelmingly associated with corruption, violent conflicts, hunger and disease. These media glimpses led The Economist (13–19 May 2000) to conclude that Africa is a “hopeless continent”.