Place Promotion: The Use of Publicity and Public Relations to Sell Places Book

"Geographical marketing" - the advertising and promotion of cities, districts, regions and even entire countries for tourism, investment, industrial relocation, development or migration - is now big business. Yet surprisingly little is known about how the potent images of place created by these campaigns work, or how effective they are in achieving their specific purpose. This book addresses this important topic by examining how place images are created, articulated, developed and asssessed at a variety of scales and contexts. The work begins with three chapters presenting a theoretical examination of how images are created, and using insights from communication theory, describes a "vocabulary" and "grammar" of effective place promotion. The history of selling places is also briefly reviewed. The remainder of the book examines, with many examples, specific types of place promotion in a series of thematic chapters covering cities, suburbs, industrial towns, fairs and festivals, the countryside, the American West, China and Eastern Europe.Read More