Creativity, innovation and smartness in destination branding
International Journal of Tourism Cities
ISSN: 2056-5607
Article publication date: 22 October 2019
Issue publication date: 3 December 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of creativity and innovation as important attributes of smartness in cities/destination branding.
Design/methodology/approach
A conceptual support to the notion of smart destination branding is provided by discussing the relationship between creativity, innovation and technology as determinants for the smartness concept applied to destination branding and marketing. This paper adopts a qualitative and logical-deductive approach. The cases of Milan (Italy) and Tomsk (Russia) are presented and compared as smart cities approach to branding within and outside Europe. The authors emphasise the importance of smart destination branding strategies based on people participation, creativity and innovation as drivers of smart urban development.
Findings
The endogenous ability of cities/destinations to embrace creativity across stakeholders is essential to smart branding strategies relying on advanced information and communication technologies. The entwined connection between smart cities/destinations creative initiatives and innovation underpins innovative branding strategies.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is conceptual and the findings cannot be generalised to other destinations, even if a couple of examples are briefly discussed. The authors intend to provide a basis for future research concerning smart destination branding.
Originality/value
The technological, human and institutional dimensions of smart cities and smart tourism destinations have been increasingly addressed by scholars and practitioners. Despite the reference and attention to human factors is not new, there is still a lack of extensive focus on creativity as crucial driver of innovation in smart destination branding. This paper aims to fill such gap by focussing on the implications of urban smartness driven by creativity and innovation in destination branding and marketing.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The research for this paper was carried out with the support in part from the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union in the framework of Jean Monnet project “Co-creation of EU Human Smart Cities” (project number 600426-EPP-1-2018-1-RU-EPPJMO-PROJECT), and in part from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in the framework of Competitiveness Enhancement Programme of Tomsk Polytechnic University. The paper reflects only the views of the authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use, which may be made of the information contained therein.
Citation
Trinchini, L., Kolodii, N.A., Goncharova, N.A. and Baggio, R. (2019), "Creativity, innovation and smartness in destination branding", International Journal of Tourism Cities, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 529-543. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-08-2019-0116
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, International Tourism Studies Association