Place Branding – Geographical Approach. Case Study: Waterloo
Author:Marius-Cristian Neacşu, Silviu Neguţ and Gheorghe Vlăsceanu
JEL:M31, R11, O21, Z32.
DOI:
Keywords:tourism geography, cultural tourism, place branding, Waterloo
Abstract:
This study represents an exploratory analysis of the evolution of the place branding
concept, with an important focus on the geographical perspective. How has this notion, a
newcomer into the geographers' analysis, changed over time and what role does it have in
the decision making process of intervening into the way a certain place is organised or as an
instrument of economic revival and territorial development? At least from the perspective
of Romanian geographical literature, the originality and novelty of this study is obvious. An
element of the originality of this research is the attempt of redefining the concept of place
branding so that it is more meaningful from the perspective of spatial analyses. The reason
for which Waterloo was chosen as a case study is multi-dimensional: the case studies so far
have mainly focused on large cities (urban branding instead of place branding) and this site
has all the theoretical elements to create a stand-alone brand.