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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 42302

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Dr. Theodore Metaxas

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Guest Editor

Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, 38221 Volos, Greece
Interests: local economic development; urban strategic planning; urban competitiveness; city/ place marketing and branding; tourism and cultural development; sustainable development; corporate social responsibility
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The relation between city/urban planning and ‘winning strategies’ such as place marketing and branding, or new forms of strategic planning, in the context of the competition oriented spatial economy, has been a popular research area the last two decades (Davoudi, 2003; Metaxas, 2009; Oliveira, 2016; Richardson and Jensen, 2010; Warnaby and Medway, 2013). For many scholars, since 2000, urban planning has been expanded to incorporate place marketing, with city/urban planning no longer limited to spatial and infrastructure dimensions, with socioeconomic factors becoming vital in urban programs (Gleeson& Low, 2000; McGuirk, 2005; Van Assche et al., 2016; Lucarelli, 2018). In earlier works, scholars such as Bailey (1989, p. 3) and Fretter (1993, p. 165) supported that place/city marketing is a main planning tool that contributes to urban development, but that it also constitutes a basic principle that supports urban development, especially in the 1980s and 1990s.

In recent years, various studies (Boisen, 2007; Boisen, Terlouw, Groote, and Couwnberg, 2018) have supported place marketing as one of the most important instruments in the shift from a supply-side to a demand-side approach to urban development that requires a wider collaboration of even more public and private stakeholders, each with their own set of incentives and priorities; eﬀectivity therefore also depends on the capacity of governing bodies that plan and implement these strategies.

More recently, many scholars seem to agree that an effective planning of strategic place marketing requires an interdisciplinary approach. According to Lucarelli and Broström (2013), in most works, place branding is strongly connected to urban studies in general, but also to planning and geography. The complexity of cities and the diﬃculties that policymakers are confronted with, as part of a process that includes input from a geographical, economic, social and environmental perspective, creates a need to invent new tools (Boisen et al., 2018; Kavaratzis and Hatch, 2013). All the aforementioned approaches acknowledge the strong relationship between city marketing/branding and urban planning in the context of urban development.

On the other hand, the connection between city marketing as a planning process and urban sustainable development is quite widelly established following the recently globan scene. Campbell (1996) considers“ sustainable development” to be an elusive element located at the centre of a triangle that has its three axes representing the development, property, and resource conﬂicts of a conventional planning strategy, around which are the key planning goals, such as economic growth, social harmony, employment and ﬁnancial relief, and environmental protection. Following international practice, we can find several cities that have been successful in designing and implementing sustainable strategies, predominantly focusing on “a wide array of technical solutions, including green infrastructure, transit-orienteddevelopment, brownﬁeld redevelopment, and carbon reduction plans” (Pearsall et al. 2012, p. 935; Carvalho et al. 2012; Rosol 2013). This has led to increasing competition and cooperation between eco-cities, resulting in sustainable policies at national and international scales. A small number of cities managed to promote themselves as forerunners in sustainable urban development arguing to be successful not only in ecological and social terms, but also generating economic growth.

The connection between place/city marketing and urban sustainable development passes through different research fields or areas of interest. Urban regeneration strategies, environmental issues, sustainable tourism development, culture and heritage, quality of life, and event and mega-event management are some of the areas focused on the relation between city marketing strategies and urban sustainable development.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to connect city marketing as a strategic planning process with sustainable development achievement. In other words, it aims to examine in what ways and via what methods city marketing as planning process could be used in order to achieve sustainable development. This Special Issue focuses on the presentation of both theoretical and practical articles. Some main topics of research interest are as follows:

City marketing and urban sustainable development: a conceptual framework;
City marketing and tourism sustainable development;
City marketing and green cities/ ecological cities;
City marketing and sustainable regenaration strategies;
City marketing and sustainable industrial heritage/cultural heritage;
City marketing and waste management;
City marketing and sustainable economic development;
City marketing and environmental protection.

Of course, the topics above are just some examples. Any proposal that focuses on the awareness of the relationship between city marketing and sustainable development can be submitted.

Prof. Dr. Theodore Metaxas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

City/urban marketing
Sustainable development
Strategic planning
Sustainable development practices
City marketing practice

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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18 pages, 576 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

The Role of Sustainable Restaurant Practices in City Branding: The Case of Athens

by Dimitris Karagiannis and Meletios Andrinos

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2271; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042271 - 19 Feb 2021

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 10961

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the role that restaurant practices play on tourists’ choices and specifically on city branding. It examines whether sustainability practices are considered by customers to be part of what they perceive as overall quality, leading to customer satisfaction, loyalty, and repeat business. It examines whether sustainability practices become part of the customer experience and perceived quality, and if they could work as another key predictor of customer dining satisfaction effecting their decisions to revisit a destination. Several studies focused on sustainability practices from the restaurant owner’s perspective, but there is no study investigating the viewpoint of international tourists and consumers of common restaurants, and the influence of green practices on visiting a major European capital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research was conducted using a sample of 204 international consumers after completing meals at local restaurants in Athens. This study offers insights on the role that sustainable and green practices of restaurants play in customer satisfaction as it relates to a potential re-visit of a destination; however, it still shows a path worth investigating. Restaurateurs, tourism experts (DMO), and local government should monitor what influences the satisfaction of potential global tourists while taking their sensitivity on sustainability issues into account when shaping their branding strategy during the COVID-19 era. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue City Marketing and Planning for Sustainable Development)

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22 pages, 1228 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Planning and Marketing the City for Sustainability: The Madrid Nuevo Norte Project

by Theodore Metaxas, Laura Juarez and Gaby Gavriilidis

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 2094; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042094 - 16 Feb 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4471

Abstract

Madrid Nuevo Norte (Madrid New North) is an urban redevelopment program applied in the city of Madrid in Spain. Regarding this, the aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, the project examines if the Nuevo Norte project is aligned with the principles of sustainability. Secondly, the paper investigates the impact of Nuevo Norte on the application of city marketing strategies in Madrid. For those purposes, questionnaires were distributed through the Internet to 122 urban developers and planners located in the Spanish capital. The results indicated that overall, Nuevo Norte contributes to the sustainable development of Madrid; however, concerns were identified regarding the budget and the timeline of the project. In addition, Madrid Nuevo Norte provides significant opportunities to local authorities to implement sustainable city marketing strategies, aiming to improve the competitiveness and the quality of life in the city of Madrid. To this end, it seems that city marketing, through the construction of mega projects, should contribute to sustainability, ensuring a better life for local residents and communities in general. The research is expected to assist local authorities in Spain to harness the potential of mega projects such as Nuevo Norte in designing city marketing strategies and to promote Madrid in an international context as a city that gives emphasis in urban sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue City Marketing and Planning for Sustainable Development)

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18 pages, 4225 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Silk Road Heritage Branding and Polycentric Tourism Development

by Stella Kostopoulou, Paraskevi-Kali Sofianou and Konstantinos Tsiokanos

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1893; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041893 - 9 Feb 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 6014

Abstract

Cultural heritage, considered as a tool for sustainable tourism development and place branding, makes a destination appealing to visitors; hence, cultural heritage tourism can be a driving force for economic growth in cities and regions. Polycentricity is a useful multi-scalar concept in spatial theory that describes how adjacent urban centers can interact with each other, creating synergies and generating broader spatial networks. Cultural heritage and tourism, perceived as important factors of integration in a polycentric spatial structure, can further promote regional branding strategies. In this paper, a polycentricity index is introduced as a methodological tool for networking cultural heritage destinations, with an application to the Silk Road heritage. Silk Road cultural assets traced on the historical Silk Road routes linking East and West, can serve as tourist attraction poles and as an essential component for branding destinations through networking at various spatial scales. The Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece, endowed with a plethora of Silk Road cultural assets, most of which are still untapped, is used to highlight the proposed methodology. The ultimate objective is the designation of polycentric destination networks based on Silk Road assets, in order to build regional branding opportunities over the Region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue City Marketing and Planning for Sustainable Development)

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14 pages, 1763 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainability in Overtouristified Cities? A Social Media Insight into Italian Branding Responses to Covid-19 Crisis

by Cecilia Pasquinelli, Mariapina Trunfio, Nicola Bellini and Simona Rossi

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1848; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041848 - 8 Feb 2021

Cited by 34 | Viewed by 6137

Abstract

The paper aims to reach insights into city branding in the Covid-19 context to discuss the projected brand propositions and their reliance oan sustainable brand attributes and values. This study explores the immediate response of overtouristified cities to the post-pandemic crisis by focusing on four iconic cultural cities in Italy, which are Florence, Milan, Rome, and Venice, and the related Facebook communication in summer 2020, right after the end of the lockdown following the first wave of contagion in the country. A content analysis of the official Facebook accounts of these cities provided an explorative insight into different destination brand approaches to dealing with the pandemic threat, revealed fading urban characters of the tourism experience and an expansion of the destinations from a spatial perspective, towards city-region destinations. The findings suggest potential configurations of the sustainable destination brand whose formation, in the case of the overtouristified cities, deserves further attention throughout the evolution of the Covid-19 crisis. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue City Marketing and Planning for Sustainable Development)

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13 pages, 2235 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Temporary Use as a Participatory Placemaking Tool to Support Cultural Initiatives and Its Connection to City Marketing Strategies—The Case of Athens

by Nicholas Karachalis

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1652; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041652 - 4 Feb 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4160

Abstract

For many cities, abandoned or underused spaces pose a major challenge, but temporary use is being manifested as a tool that can offer solutions. So-called “meanwhile spaces” provide opportunities for city officials to create the conditions for the cultural economy to be supported while simultaneously meeting urban regeneration goals and supporting city marketing purposes. In European cities, such as Berlin, Ghent, Nantes, and Bremen, there are examples where “temporary urbanism” is being incorporated into mainstream policy and is forming part of the city’s identity and tourism promotion. Temporary use is discussed in the context of current challenges facing European cities (austerity crisis, unemployment, refugee crisis, lack of affordable housing or office space). In this paper, the focus is on the creative sector. More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked discussion on how temporary use can cover a community’s needs. In this contextual framework, the scope was to explore the conditions under which temporary use becomes an effective policy tool and discuss management issues and difficulties that may arise. A description and analysis of the particularities of initiatives that were implemented in Athens compared to the ones in other European cities are presented. This paper is partly based on the works of the Athens URBACT Refill project, which included an extended consultation process with local stakeholders. Further field research was conducted regarding how temporary use initiatives with a cultural focus have been managed and the way the relations between owners, managers, and users were formed. Feedback from users and stakeholders’ representatives is presented. The key findings refer to the evaluation of the approaches used in temporary use initiatives with a cultural focus, the future perspectives, and the difficulty with drawing early conclusions on the effectiveness of these initiatives and the impact on the reputation of the city. Finally, the discussion is linked with promoting Athens as a city that allows experimentation by citizens’ groups and cultural initiatives in the context of temporary interventions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue City Marketing and Planning for Sustainable Development)

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14 pages, 266 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Traditional Food Products—Between Place Marketing, Economic Importance and Sustainable Development

by Magdalena Florek and Jakub Gazda

Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1277; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031277 - 26 Jan 2021

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 4505

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to link the economic and marketing perspectives by means of the quantitative method to answer the question of whether traditional food products may play an important role in sustainable region development ensuring economic viability, and how (if at all) marketing should support this process. Due to the lack of unambiguous theoretical findings—the theory has not established a model of the impact of regional products on the food sector in the region and, further on, the economy—an atheoretical approach should be applied, which without priori findings (without favouring individual variable) will lead to an assessment of the above-described impact. Using the Bayesian approach, the authors have measured the above relations with respect to the case of Poland. The basis of the study is provided by a database developed by the authors for 16 Polish NUTS2 regions where lists of official traditional food products were compiled. Using the chosen method, a group of explanatory variables has been proposed (among them, a number of regional products) as factors potentially responsible for the dependent variable (value of agriculture production in the NUTS2 regions). The results indicate that the number of traditional food products does not determine the value of agricultural production on the level of the NUTS2 regions in Poland. This value is determined by commodity production rather than the factors of the so-called sustainable agriculture. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue City Marketing and Planning for Sustainable Development)

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13 pages, 270 KiB

Open AccessOpinion

The Ambiguities of “Sustainable” Berlin

by Ares Kalandides and Boris Grésillon

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1666; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041666 - 4 Feb 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3722

Abstract

City marketing has a strong tradition in Berlin, with two organizations, Berlin Partner and Visit Berlin, responsible for designing and implementing relevant strategies. Sustainability has been on and off the city marketing agenda, almost exclusively in its environmental dimension. In this article, we examine the current representations of Berlin as a “sustainable city” in the official city marketing strategies. We look at how sustainability is used and instrumentalized to create a specific city profile and also to attract particular target groups in tourism. We propose an analysis of sustainable planning in Berlin since reunification to show how it has moved into different directions over time and how this has (or has not) been followed by city marketing. In this endeavor, we move between the existing, and as we argue deeper and more sophisticated, environmental planning of the city on one hand, and the reductions and simplifications of city marketing representations on the other. Finally, we argue that there are inherent contradictions in marketing a sustainable city, where both in terms of tourism and economic development, the concept of growth seems to be reaching environmental limits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue City Marketing and Planning for Sustainable Development)

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