RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

This paper aims to study similarities and differences between tourists’ perceptions of brand ‘Lisbon’ and brand ‘Lisbon Coast. Lisbon, Portugal’s capital and largest city is a real place brand, while ‘Lisbon Coast’ does not characterize an existing part of the country. In addition, this article investigates whether there are differences between British tourists’ and Spanish tourists’ perceptions of brand ‘Lisbon’ and brand ‘Lisbon Coast’

BACKGROUND

Tourism is an extremely competitive industry. It is a great source of revenue for almost any country because it adds to exports, generates taxes, and is relevant in generating of new jobs. Place branding strategies have been applied to attract more visitors, to promote and to position place brand names in the minds of diverse target audiences (Papadopoulos, 2004). A positive destination image has been shown to correlate positively with the place a tourist chooses to visit (Kotler & Gertner, 2002; Gertner & Kotler, 2004; Nebenzahl & Jaffe, 1993; Lebedenko, 2004; Rainisto & Wastberg, 2006; Ham, 2002; Morgan, Pritchard, & Pride, 2002; Papadopoulos, 2004; Supphellen & Grønhaug, 2003).

Portugal had the fourth highest growth rate in Europe for foreign visitors. A place branding effort of Lisbon started in the 1990’s when it was designated as the European Capital of Culture in 1992 and was nominated to host to the World Exhibition in 1998. These events helped make Lisbon an attractive place to visit and to live (Freire, 2015). When Lisbon received the title of European Capital of Culture, government made investments to restore cultural sites as well as to promote the city cultural attributes.  Furthermore, Lisbon’s image as a major tourism destination derived from the successful organization and promotion of the World Exhibition (Metaxas, at all. 2011).