ABSTRACT
City branding, in fact, is just one in a long list of concepts that has been translated and adapted from business studies, including urban benchmarking, urban auditing, strategic planning, urban competitiveness and urban smartness. In tracing the history of place branding, it has to be said that the expression 'branding' is rather, because most of the literature before the 2000s privileged the expression 'place marketing'. But, as anticipated, tourism destination brands involve relationships and networks not only between the stakeholders involved in the tourism industry on the side of the offer, but also those in the sphere of the consumers such as tourists. Discourses concerning culture, and particularly local culture, are seen as ways to generate narratives that help cities avoid the perception of standardisation, and to characterise cities as unique urban spaces. The 1990 edition in particular, which designated Glasgow, attracted the attention of policy-makers and urban scholars, spurring lively debates over culture and urban development.
