Title: Branding for heritages, the ancient tourism leads to improvement of the local economy (evidence from a study in Iran)

Authors: Eqbal Yavari; Reza Shafei; Adel Fatemi

Addresses: Department of Management, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj Branch, Sanandaj, Iran ' Department of Business Management, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran ' Department of Statistics, Islamic Azad University, Sanandaj Branch, Sanandaj, Iran

Abstract: The dimensions of this phenomenon discussed by in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18-member samples composed of experts in different fields: marketing, economic, tourism and cultural heritage. Six main categories, 61 sub-categories and 171 concepts categorised by applying grounded theory method were used in the study. The findings showed that the historical place-branding model is composed of the causal, core, contextual, interfering factors, strategies and consequence. In addition, the results of the experts' opinion survey revealed that having a brand specific to historical places could lead to increased income, job creation, produce of local tourism production, economic dynamics, and eco-tourism development in historic areas.

Keywords: place branding; heritage; historic place branding; ancient tourism; local economic.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMP.2023.129205

International Journal of Management Practice, 2023 Vol.16 No.2, pp.162 - 185

Received: 01 Feb 2021
Accepted: 08 Jul 2021
Published online: 01 Mar 2023 *

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