Tungurahua and the Tourist Brand Within the Perceptive Tourist Development

Abstract

This research analyzes the tourism brand within the province of Tungurahua, and it is considered as a fundamental tool within the provincial strategic lines, namely marketing and tourism promotion. The principal objective of this article is determinate the attributes for a successful province brand and the strategic branding. The touristic province brand is integral to the development and implementation of branding strategies; marketers, however, have the opportunity to rename locations and thereby build brands from scratch. The research is unique since it investigates the evaluation of different province brands and different groups of foreign visitors. Specifically, it examines similarities and differences in tourists’ images of a destination branded in Baños de Agua Santa city. This study confirms the need to highlight different attributes to appeal to different target markets and also demonstrates that city brands are evaluated differently of the attributes investigated. The article analyzes the impact that it has generated and whether it has been positive or negative as well as its structure, promotion, and dissemination. The city with the most tourist receptive flow of the province is “Baños de Agua Santa” which was selected for the study. The methodology used in this study is an exploratory mixed approach based on a survey, the perceptions, or stimuli are measured in a list of attributes to the tourists.