A common phenomenon is that larger cities have different place identities; therefore, this thesis is based on the case of Malmö since it is Sweden's third largest city. The purpose was to explore how Malmö’s place image coheres to its place identity, and how the duality of Malmö influences the place image.   The research was based on a qualitative case study with an abductive approach since the purpose was explorative. Furthermore, the developed conceptual framework of this thesis was based on previous research regarding place branding, more specifically, place image and place identity. The empirical material in this thesis was collected through a comprehensive user-generated content analysis of Instagram posts as well as through two semis-structured focus groups with people living outside of Malmö.   Findings revealed that the place image and place identity cohered in some aspects, while in other aspects the place image differs from the place identity. Furthermore, the findings revealed a complex duality within the city; thus, the place identity of Malmö sends out dual messages which influenced the place image that strengthened the duality of Malmö.   The findings of this thesis have contributed with insights to the field of place branding since the concept of place image has not been related to dualities within cities in previous research.The limitations of this thesis were that the participants in the focus groups were from the same university which might have influenced their perception. Another limitation was that only people aged 35 or younger participated. Due to Covid-19, it was hard to find people older than 35 to the focus groups and the result could receive a broader perspective if the participants were older. These limitations could be considered in future research to receive the place image of a broader age range. Furthermore, future research could consider complementing the method of this thesis with focus groups to expose both the positive and negative side of Malmö.

The current study analyses the media strategies used by Sierra Leone to repair their destination image during and after crisis to attract international tourism. There is an academic study written by Avraham and Ketter (2017) that appears on this topic as well, but focusing on many Sub-Saharan African countries where Sierra Leone is mentioned. Therefore, it was chosen to study this country in more depth, to confirm or disregard Avraham and Ketters (2017) conclusions about this particular country and their media-strategies. The framework used in this research is the multi-step model for altering place image. The study was based on qualitative content analysis of online posts from two sources, which are two Sierra Leonian tourism webpages. The data was located between the years 2015-2017. The study’s conclusion shows that Sierra Leone’s marketers and policy makers used source-focused strategies to handle the crisis, which are (1) disregard for/partial acknowledgement of the crisis, (2) full acknowledgement of the crisis and moderate coping measures, (3) full acknowledgement of the crisis and extreme coping measures and (4) disengagement from the place’s main characteristics.

Over the past several decades, the Washington metropolitan area (Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV) has experienced extraordinary levels of growth, facilitating the region's emergence as not only a center of national governance but increasingly a nationally and internationally significant location for population and economic development. Leesburg, Virginia, located approximately forty miles northwest of the downtown core, has historically avoided the sprawling suburbanization characteristic of more proximate locations such as Fairfax and Arlington, instead serving as a distinct economic center for Loudoun County. However, as the Town of Leesburg has grown in both population and landmass over the past approximately fifty years, it has also become increasingly incorporated into an outward-pushing Northern Virginia region, dramatically reducing the once-evident buffer physically and psychologically separating those two entities. The increasing interconnection between Leesburg and the Washington metro region raises questions about the futures of both, with impacts for ongoing conversations regarding urban and regional-scale growth dynamics, governance, and place-making, as well as their intersections with local economic development. This thesis seeks to understand the methods by which Leesburg navigates the challenge to retain a unique and distinctive character while acknowledging the new spatial reality of its connections to the larger region. To better understand this complex situation, we conducted semi-structured interviews with fourteen individuals having strong understanding and expertise regarding economic development, governance, and place making in Leesburg and the rest of the Northern Virginia region. The interviews suggest that Leesburg is becoming a destination for outside visitors and tourists, while also crafting a 'complete community' in which residents can live, work, and enjoy recreational activities; Leesburg increasingly serves a number of distinct purposes for growing and varying audiences. While interesting in itself for observers of the Washington metro region, the Leesburg case also presents relevant implications for the future of large-scale urban and regional growth and change, as well as the continued validity of heritage-based place images given contemporary economic and development imperatives. / Master of Science / The Washington, DC region (Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV) has seen both population growth and physical expansion over the past several decades, making it an increasingly important region within the United States and the world. The Town of Leesburg, Virginia is located about forty miles northwest of Washington, DC, and its distance from the downtown has historically allowed it to remain separate from the suburbanization and sprawl associated with DC's closer-in suburbs. During the past fifty years, however, Leesburg's growth and the outward push of development pressures from more eastern Northern Virginia localities have combined to limit that historical separation. Increasing interconnections between Leesburg and the rest of the DC metro region raise questions about if and how Leesburg will create, sustain, and demonstrate a unique identity moving forward, and what that identity will include. This research involved fourteen interviews with planners, policymakers, and expert observers in Leesburg and the Northern Virginia region to better understand the town's place image and economic development. The results suggest that Leesburg is increasingly becoming a destination for tourists and outside visitors, while also working to foster a community in which residents are able to live, work, and play. The Leesburg case is important because of what it says about region-wide growth, development, and governance, as well as its implications for the maintenance of historically-based place images in the modern world.

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Today more people choose to travel, both for business and leisure, which have resulted in that tourism gradually are considered to be an important industry for different places. The increased possibility to travel and globalization is the main reason why destinations more often tend to use place branding and place marketing as a strategy to differentiate themselves against their competitors. This paper aims to study the phenomenon place marketing from a producer perspective on the destination High Coast, Sweden. Interviews was conducted with both the destination-organization and various tourism company within the region. The study aims to answer following questions: In which way do the destination developers at the High Coast work with place branding and place marketing? Perceive tourism companies in the High Coast area any benefit of and do they share the image that the destination developers want to convey? This paper shows how a destination actively work with packaging and communicating the core values of the destination. The developers work includes for instance a brand analysis where the involvement of companies and local people is one of the main points. The majority of the tourism business companies within the destination High Coast also feel that they can take advantage of the destination developers branding and that they, as individual companies, can help promote the destination.

Contemporarily, the hosting of mega-events (MEs) is one of several strategies used by cities and governments to bring about improvements in a place s image and recognition. While London, host of the 2012 Olympic Games, is already considered to be a leading global city (e.g. Anholt & GfK Roper, 2011), the potential image benefits to be accrued from hosting the Games may in fact impact more upon internal, domestic perceptions rather than on external, international perceptions (Anholt, Oon, Masure et al., 2008). A key objective, therefore, for those involved in the development and delivery of the 2012 Olympic Games is to further enhance the image of the city (both domestically and internationally) and to minimise the risk of negative image formation (DCMS, 2008). However, image, in the context of MEs, is not an easy component to control, as previous Olympic Games have demonstrated (Shoval, 2002; Smith, 2005). The main purpose of this critical-realism-informed project, underpinned by theoretical-methodological social representation theory (SRT) (Moscovici, 1961, 1984), was to evaluate the domestic image impact of hosting the 2012 Olympics, pre- and post- Games, for the city of London. Based then on social representation theory, and a combination of abductive and retroductive research strategies, a survey was carried out among British citizens to identify their opinions concerning London as a city (or place brand), the Olympics as a ME, and the 2012 Games as a one-off event. Exponential non-discriminative snowball sampling was used to recruit participants (UK citizens, pre-event, n=561, post-event n=215) who completed a mixed-methods questionnaire both before and after the 2012 Olympics were held. The main part of this questionnaire was comprised of randomised free word-association tasks (qualitative) using London, the Olympics and 2012 London Olympics as inductor terms; i.e., Please give the first 10 words that come to mind when you hear the term . Data analysis involved collating the responses of the free word-association tasks into semantic word clusters, with one word (or phrase) representing each theme be that an object, emotion, an opinion, etc. Only words or phrases cited by 15% of participants were used to construct the image of each entity. The next level of analysis involved producing a similarity index and subsequent dendrogram, based on Kendal s correlation coefficient, that established the strength of the connections between the various elements of each social representation. The content and the structure of these pre- and post-event social representations were analysed and then compared to determine whether a.) hosting the 2012 Olympic Games represents an appropriate strategy to develop the city s domestic brand; b.) a co-branding process occurred, expressed by an image transfer, from the event to the place, or vice-versa; and c.) the major differences between the images generated by those living closest to London, compared to those living elsewhere in the UK. While London s overall image does not go through any significant changes pre-to-post event, the results of this study corroborate the value of sporting events in place branding strategies from a domestic perspective, but highlights some limitations, such as the exacerbation of London s pre-existing negative associations. In terms of co-branding, the results do not reveal a co-branding process to have occurred between London and the overall image of the Olympics, but there is some movement of elements from London to the 2012 event (related mainly to pre-Games anticipation) and between the 2012 event and the overall Olympics (related to the latter s unique defining associations). Finally, in terms of the differences between the images generated by those living closest to London, compared to those living elsewhere in the UK, there is a difference which appears to have been facilitated, at least in part, by a 2012-effect, with the event seemingly contributing to London being perceived as generally busier, more expensive and more congested by those living closest to the city, but more vibrant and more multicultural by those living elsewhere in the UK.

This study aims to reveal what marketing strategies Tunisia has used to alter their place image for the better after the terror attacks that occurred in the country 2015. These terror attacks had a negative effect on Tunisia’s tourism industry; the annual GDP brought by the tourist industry decreased by 19,73%. By using “the multi-step model for altering place image” developed by Eli Avraham and Eran Ketter, this study contains a thematic analysis on qualitative content such as news reports, advertising campaigns and press interviews to uncover what marketing strategies were used by Tunisian official tourism marketers and officials to restore the destinations positive place image and bring back tourist after the terror attacks. The result shows that Tunisia has used strategies from all three categories of strategies; source, audience and message. Furthermore, this study contributes to a better understanding on what marketing strategies a destination could use to alter their place image after gone through a crisis.

As the retail apocalypse is increasing, it is common to face stores without consumers in citycenters. E-commerce is one of the factors that has had a negative impact on physical stores,both in city centers and in shopping malls. It has been easier for shopping malls than forcity centers to fight the increased competition.The purpose of this thesis was to explore who the typical shopping mall consumer was andif this consumer felt excluded from city centers. Four concepts were investigated; consumerstereotype, place image, shopping experience and place attractiveness. A qualitative,method and an exploratory approach were applied, and the data was collected through anonline focus group and interviews.The findings showed that the perceived typical shopping mall consumer had seven traits;social, fun, curious, open, flexible, time thrifty, calm and patient, and four characteristics;young, families with children, females and formal styles/ fashion oriented. Furthermore,this consumer felt excluded as a shopper because of the limited supply and divided citycenter.The implication of this study was to understand who the typical shopping mall consumeris and, if and why he/she felt excluded. Hence, this can provide retailers in city centers withunderstanding of what factors affect the perceived typical shopping mall consumer’s choiceand thus will enable them to make their stores more welcoming also to the typical shoppingmall customer.The original value of this study is an understanding of the perceived typical shopping mallconsumer and if this consumer feels excluded from city centers, which has previously notbeen explored.

More than half of Sweden’s municipalities are suffering from the consequences of segregation. (Delmos, 2021). The issues of socio-economic and spatial segregation, such as stigmatization and social exclusion, are not merely a problem in larger cities in Sweden, and therefore will this master thesis explore, through a field study of segregation in Karlstad in the city area Våxnäs. As spatial segregation is connected to specific geographical places and city areas, and how it differs from other parts of a city in terms of socio-economic status or ethnic diversity, the investigation of this thesis stems from the concept of place. The foundation of this thesis was based on the notion of place as a subjective and interpretive concept, and therefore it could be analyzed as such.  Våxnäs was chosen as a research interest due to how it is, per definition, considered to be a segregated area. Further, the area as of now in 2022, is prioritized in terms of physical renovation projects, and therefore the area was analyzed through interviews with stakeholder that work towards or within the area. Through interviews the thesis investigated how stakeholder perceive their work is contributing to preventing segregation and furthering social inclusion. In addition to the interviews an on-site study was done and Våxnäs was analyzed through photos, maps and documents related to the Våxnäs area.  The result of the study was narrowed down to three themes of interest: The Våxnäs label, Inclusive places and Safety. Despite the themes, the findings of the investigation revolved around how the physical are an enabler to improve the area in terms of segregation prevention and social inclusion. The place analysis shows how renovation and physical changes to the area are perceived to be the starting point for decreasing issues of social isolation, a negative place image, and increasing safety.

Nowadays, many cities try to turn their historic city centers into centers of attraction both for inhabitants and visitors by reorganizing and revitalizing them. These reorganization and revitalization processes change the users of the place as well as its physical structure. Thus, this change also creates deep impacts on human-place relationship. Traces of these impacts can be observed via &lsquo / sense of place&rsquo / and &lsquo / place image&rsquo / concepts. Studying these concepts is difficult due to their subjectivity / however, it is necessary to understand the change of place in all dimensions. It is possible to observe a similar process in Kalei&ccedil / i, the historic city center of Antalya. This research examines the process of change in Kalei&ccedil / i over the last five decades regarding the impacts on the &lsquo / sense of place&rsquo / and &lsquo / place image&rsquo / . It identifies &lsquo / physical setting&rsquo / , &lsquo / activity&rsquo / and &lsquo / meaning&rsquo / as observable components of these concepts / and it examines the change in these components through the in-depth interviews with three different user groups (i.e., users before 1980, those after 1980 and present users) and cognitive maps. The research considers that the first conservation practices in Kalei&ccedil / i started in 1980s, thus, it examines the change in &lsquo / sense of place&rsquo / under the headings of before 1980, after 1980 and present time. This research shows that the &lsquo / sense of place&rsquo / and &lsquo / place image&rsquo / between these user groups vary significantly. It indicates that the sense of place of the first user group is generated mostly regarding &lsquo / meaning&rsquo / component shaped by experiences / whereas the sense of place of the second and third category users mostly relates with physical environment and historical identity of the place. Besides, this research comes to a conclusion that there is a direct link between the change in sense of place and the efforts of turning the area into a center of attraction for tourism.