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Place Branding for Smart Cities and Smart Tourism Destinations: Do They Communicate Their Smartness?

Author

Listed:
  • Assumpció Huertas

    (Communication Research Group (ASTERISC), Department of Communication, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43002 Tarragona, Spain)

  • Antonio Moreno

    (Department of Computer Engineering and Mathematics, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43005 Tarragona, Spain)

  • Jordi Pascual

    (Intelligent Technologies for Advanced Knowledge Acquisition (ITAKA) Research Group, Computer Engineering and Mathematics Department, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43005 Tarragona, Spain)

Abstract

Smart cities and smart tourism destinations integrate technological infrastructures and end-user devices with the aim of providing more satisfying experiences. They generate expectations of superior innovation, greater interactivity, participation and a better image. Therefore, they need to communicate their smartness and include it in their branding. The study analyses the smart content present in the tourist and non-tourist official Twitter accounts of a selection of smart cities and smart destinations, through semantic analysis, in order to find out which smart concepts are strategically branded to create a smart tourism destination image. The results show that the best cities in the ranking for each smart topic are not the ones with highest percentages of tweets on that topic. The study also shows that the number and percentage of tweets that communicate smart aspects on the platforms analyzed are low, showing the smartness is not included in their branding. It has also been observed that, almost all cities communicate or do not communicate the same concepts, evincing an undifferentiated branding strategy. The results of this study are interesting for urban policy-makers and tourism destination marketers to improve their branding.

Suggested Citation

  • Assumpció Huertas & Antonio Moreno & Jordi Pascual, 2021. "Place Branding for Smart Cities and Smart Tourism Destinations: Do They Communicate Their Smartness?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:19:p:10953-:d:648553
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Chung-Shing Chan, 2023. "From the perspective of local brand equity, how do citizens perceive green, creative and smart brand potential of future Hong Kong?," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(4), pages 500-513, December.
    2. Erik Karger & Marvin Jagals & Frederik Ahlemann, 2021. "Blockchain for Smart Mobility—Literature Review and Future Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-32, November.
    3. Ioannis Vardopoulos & Maria Papoui-Evangelou & Bogdana Nosova & Luca Salvati, 2023. "Smart ‘Tourist Cities’ Revisited: Culture-Led Urban Sustainability and the Global Real Estate Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-26, February.

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