The tourism industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Destinationcompetitiveness emphasizes the need to link competitiveness to a destination's ability to delivergoods and services better than other destinations on those parts of the tourism experience regardedas being important by tourists. The phenomenon of using events to strategically build andstrengthen a destination's brand identity has received very little attention. This study aims to investigate how the Destination Management Organisations in Helsinki arebuilding a brand identity, and how events may be used strategically in this process. Interviews havebeen undertaken with few organisations of various sizes and characteristics. Two distinct divisionsformed the base of the thesis; the first with a clear focus on how the DMO is working to create abrand identity, while the latter concentrated on the same topic from a focused perspective; how thebrand identity may be created with the use of events. After this, the research phase is entered, whichinvolves gathering the necessary data required for determining the current identity of thedestination. Once the research phase was completed, the process moved into a phase of shaping thebrand identity. Through the interviews the writer was able to get better perceptions of how the cityis merged with views and objectives of where the city wants to be, or where they desire to be in the future.

Being one of the fastest growing industries, tourism has a trend to offer more innovative products and services. New opportunities and challenges have come for entrepreneurs and SMEs. Heritage tourism is one type of experience-based tourism where people can get historical or cultural experience. The potential of heritage tourism has attracted many entrepreneurs. It has been recognised activities are motivated by attitude within an entrepreneurial setting, however how the destination brand identity impacts the relationship from a supplier’s perspective is not clear. This thesis investigates the influence of destination brand on the entrepreneurs in a heritage tourism. A qualitative research design was constructed and the research strategy of a case study of the Swedish World Heritage site of Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland (Hälsingegårdar) was chosen. There are only seven farmhouses to represent the UNESCO site and also 34 non-listed farmhouses open to the public. After examining both groups, it could be concluded that the destination brand of a World Heritage Site will motivate the entrepreneurs to look for opportunities, which will strengthen their attitudes. However, the relationship between attitude and activity is weak due to the effect of other external factors.

During the spring semester of 2018 the authors of this bachelor thesis, in tourism sciences, have studied the subject of destination brand identity. In order to study the matter, two highly competitve island destinations in Thailand (Koh Tao & Phi Phi) were identified as subjects for further research. Contributing factors in the context of brand identity were then applied and studied separately on both destinations, in order to identify the factors of importance.  The aim of this study is to identify competitive island destinations in the competitive tourism region of Thailand and, from a visitor perspective, determine what factors in destination branding that are important to differentiate and create an identity on the market. To conduct the study several methodological approaches were carefully chosen to collect empirical data. The collected data were then analyzed based on a theoretical framework. The primary method used in this study has it’s origins in a quantitative approach, where most of the data got collected from two surveys. Purpose of this study suggests it derives from a visitor perspective, thus respondents of the surveys have all visited the chosen subject(s) and/or at least one other island destination in Thailand. Results of the study highlights Koh Tao and Phi Phi as competitive island destinations in a busy tourism region and that factors, within the concept of destination brand identity, is necessary to differentiate destinations and their unique characteristics. The results have also contributed to increased understanding of visitors and their views on the destinations seperate brand identities.