Branding in Urban Discourse Space: Region’s Identity as Attraction Factor

Abstract

The research is focused on branding as a communicative process and aimed at defining the region’s identity role in provision of its tourist attraction. Linguistic analysis of the branding process is concentrated on optimization of language means and urban semiosis quality. City’s identity is viewed as a complex of exterior and other markers, building its complex image and playing an initial role in city’s branding. The aim of territory’ branding is to present the uniqueness of a certain region and its competitiveness. A city is a complicated multilayer communicative formation that creates a special type of discourse around itself – urban discourse. The space of this discourse is determined by such textual phenomena as a text-city, an urban text and a text about a city. The authors outline the role of naming in city branding and consider a great importance of a city’s identity in creating a text content aimed at increasing attraction of a city as a tourist object. City’s identity allows one to understand its uniqueness and mental representation by a representative of its “own” and “foreign” cultures and optimize branding strategies with the aim to fix positive images of a city and attractive image of a global-centred and locally original territory.