The role of destination branding in the tourism stakeholders system. The Campi Flegrei case

The aim of the paper is to analyze the place branding strategies finalized to growth the competitive of the tourist destinations. Therefore, the following main issues are developed: 1. the role of branding management in tourism industry, analyzing the place branding literature review on marketing theory and the main destination brand models existing in tourism and vacation marketing academic area; 2. configuring a proposal model of destination branding, with the identification of the main brand value driver as key dimensions to define the brand identity and the brand knowledge in the tourists perspective. 3. validating this model of destination branding, verifying - through an empirical research - the descriptive capacity of this framework to explicate the destination branding process in a specific geographical context, the area of Campi Flegrei. Campi Flegrei is a tourist destination located in the west side of Naples city and its province (southern Italy). This is a destination with high intensity of cultural and landscape resources.