Reimagining urban destinations: Adaptive and transformative city brand attributes and values in the pandemic crisis

This paper contributes to the post-Covid urban tourism debate. It focuses on how cities respond to the pandemic asking how and to what extent urban destination brands are leverged by city marketers for coping with the Covid-19 crisis. It explores city brand values and attributes change as a component of the urban approach to facing the current crisis. Content analysis is carried out on pre- and post-pandemic brand communication of four Italian iconic cultural destinations (Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan) on Instagram. Findings suggest adaptive and transformative brand responses to the pandemic crisis, projecting the cities into future development scenarios. This research contributes to the recovery versus reform debate on post-Covid urban contexts and opens research on the pandemic effects on values, images and tourism stakeholders' mindsets and brand experimentation on social media platforms.

Automated summary

This paper examines the response of cities to the Covid-19 pandemic and how urban destination brands are utilized by city marketers in dealing with the crisis. The findings suggest that cities have made adaptive and transformative brand responses to the pandemic, projecting them into future development scenarios. The paper also discusses the effects of the pandemic on values, images, and tourism stakeholders' mindsets, as well as brand experimentation on social media platforms.