The process of branding and positioning in Central and Eastern Europe: literature evaluation and analysis

Abstract

[eng] This paper analyzes the process that former socialist countries from Central and Eastern Europe followed to position themselves as attractive tourist destinations on the international map, through a library-based research. After the collapse of the communist regimes, these countries adopted different strategies towards their political past and started promoting themselves in order to comply with the European standards needed to attract foreign investment and international visitors to the region. The objective is to analyze this process from the fundamentals of the place marketing theory and destination branding techniques, understanding the different positioning of the countries to achieve tourism openness, and evaluating how their European adhesion and heritage from the past has been managed in the new national identities resulting from the branding strategies.