Tourism Industry Working Practices and Its Impact on a Geo‐brand Image

Purpose - This article is a result of a much broader investigation that was seeking to understand which factors composed a geo‐brand. It is argued that not only should products and services develop a system of brand management focused on their identity which helps develop a coherent execution, places should also develop a similar brand management system. This paper aims to investigate perceptions of the branding of a location. Design/methodology/apporach - The methodology is based upon interviews conducted with local people and with tourists to the location. Findings - One of the most interesting findings of this on going research was the realisation that a main and significant factor on a geo‐brand is its local people. Moreover and after some considerations it was concluded that this factor was essentially composed by people who work for the tourism industry. Interestingly it was then concluded that management and entrepreneurs from the tourism industry had a major responsibility and impact on a geo‐brand. Practical implications - In order to achieve a satisfactory service performance, the local geo‐brand authorities should develop tools to scrutinize how entrepreneurs and managers train and motivate their staff. In this case the tourism boards should control directly or indirectly performance in different establishments. As revealed in Spain, a bad experience might jeopardise the overall competitive stand. No doubts that tourism boards have the obligation to, not only inform entrepreneurs and managers on how they should care for the tourists, but also granting some kind of incentives in order to achieve excellence in services since a good or bad experience will have an impact on the overall brand. If “local people” has such a relevant role on a geo‐brand, which might even affect its competitive position in the market, than extra consideration should be given to this factor. In addition, and because this factor is partly controllable, than it is reasonable to argue that there should be some kind of central managerial tools that helps to monitor employees performance. Originality/value - Aversion to the use of marketing tools and to the geo‐brand conceptual management is a mere signal of misunderstanding for what a geo‐brand is and for what it can do to society. It has been argued that geo‐brands (brand applied to places) might be a practical solution to promote local development and fight the standardisation tendency of a globalised world.