School of Journalism and Mass Communications
Faculty of Economic and Political Sciences
Rebranding Places affected by immigration crisis: The case of Lesvos
Island in Greece
BY
Danica Donovic
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF DIGITAL MEDIA, COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM
Specialization: Digital Media, Culture and Communication
Supervisor: Dr. Fani Galatsopoulou
January 2020
2
Contents ABSTRACT 3
1. INTRODUCTION 4
2. LITERATURE REVIEW 5
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 9
4. ANALYSIS OF THE IMAGE OF LESVOS ISLAND 10
Branding before the crisis 10
Branding during immigration crisis 12
5. PLACE CHARACTERISTICS: LESVOS ISLAND 15
Positive characteristics 16
Negative Characteristics 17
Associations and visual symbols 20
Lesvos island in the media 22
6. REBRANDING STRATEGY FOR LESVOS ISLAND 25
Addressing the main issues 25
Promotion and brand identity 28
Implementing the rebranding strategy 32
Possible issues 34
7. CONCLUSION 34
BIBLIOGRAPHY 36
Web Reference 42
3
ABSTRACT
This research has a goal of representing the rebranding strategy of places affected by
immigration crisis, which started in 2015 and is still ongoing. The case researched is Lesvos
island, an Aegean island located in North-Eastern part of Aegean sea in Greece, the third
largest island in Greece.
The main focus of the research is finding the finding the causes as to why rebranding is
needed and ways in which rebranding can be done and which strategies should be
implemented. This island is particularly interesting due to its constant appearance in the
media since the start of the crisis. This is mostly because this island marks the first place
where many immigrants first come to European land, its proximity to Turkey, and because the
island is the host of one of the most notorious immigrant camp- the Moria camp. This camp
was, and still is the subject of many controversies and due to its reputation and is often
portrayed negatively in the worldwide media. Negative media coverage and the negative
camp’s association with the island affected the island’s image in the eyes of tourists and
casual holiday makers, while at the same time making it a prime destination for humanitarian
and NGO workers working with relief programs helping immigrants cross to Europe and
provide them with basic necessities.
4
1. INTRODUCTION
Touristic destinations are brands in a highly competitive market today. Destinations are
treated as brands and are advertised across all platforms. Today, more than ever, users are
aware of the power of a brand and advertising. Destination market is very competitive and
saturated, and brands (destinations) are more prone to refreshing and rebranding today as to
keep their relevance, and every destination aims to stand out with their unique characteristics
and offer. Some destinations became popular because of their aesthetics, some because of
good promotional campaigns and some due to phoenix tourism.
Here it is important to note that while Lesvos island is suffering a humanitarian crisis, the
scope of it does not follow under phoenix tourism as this term is related to destinations that
have suffered serious disasters such as nuclear war, natural disasters and other.
User reviews and eWOM (electronic word of mouth, interaction and communication that
happens between users online) play an incredibly important role in how a destination is
perceived, and how the brand image is further developed. Every destination and its offers in
the world are covered and well reported on in some of the most popular review websites like
TripAdvisor, Yelp and in the Reviews part of the most popular search engine-Google.
Another important factor are social networks that allow and encourage sharing and users
frequently share their travel experiences, adding the location trough a hashtag (metadata tag
on social media platforms) and geolocation. Promotional campaigns are focused on attracting
users, and today they are more often conducted on digital media platforms (namely different
social media platforms) then on traditional media (Television, Radio, Print Press). Targeting
desired audience online, in this day and age, is easier than ever using specific marketing tools.
Lesvos island is a touristic destination that has received negative media backlash since the
year of 2015 due to being the host to infamous camp Moria. The island has been under
pressure to regulate the situation on it, while the conditions were getting worse day by day.
5
Now the island is faced with declined economic influx from the hospitality sector, as well as
the continuous issues regarding to the situation in the Moria camp. Solving the problem of the
immigrants on the island would help to establish a new brand identity for the island and to
shed the negative image created by the media. The negative media coverage did not
specifically target the island as a touristic destination, but the connection of the camp to the
island contributed to users associating the situation with the whole island, questioning its
security and stability. The crisis heavily affected the inhabitants of the island, given that in
some regions depends almost solely on tourism. Some of the accommodation was filled by
NGO workers on the island, but they weren’t using other touristic offers that the island has to
offer and usually booked accommodation outside of hotels, which faced decreasing bookings
for four consecutive years. Even though NGOs brought people to the island, that was not the
target group of visitors for the island.
Correcting the current image of the island would benefit the whole island, especially the
hospitability sector as it would again establish the island as a desirable touristic destination
among Aegean islands in Greece. The size, history and the position of the island are very
beneficial for the its brand, and can be used to establish new brand image .
The first chapter of the thesis is theoretical background along with literature review. In it the
literature related to the topic of branding, rebranding, place branding and rebranding, as well
as literature covering the ongoing immigration crisis and Lesvos island as well as Greek
economic crisis.
The second chapter and the third chapters focus on branding strategies of Lesvos island, the
branding before the immigration crisis, and the branding strategy during the crisis. Here the
strategies, both online and offline, will be examined closely trough content analysis in order
to find common threads and symbols that are used for describing and promoting the island.
Also UGC (user generated content) shared across different platforms, mainly TripAdvisor,
will be analyzed as it shows how the island is perceived from the point of view of its visitors.
Chapter four gives a deeper insight into what Lesvos is as a brand, its characteristics, both
positive and negative from visitors point of view. Analyzed are also associations to the island,
which are a big part of rebranding process and it is also shown how is the island perceived in
the media (both modern and traditional).
Chapter five will showcase potential rebranding strategy for Lesvos island, based on previous
branding strategy, current issues and user experience and feedback. Addressing the main
issues is one of the most important points, as the issues are the ones driving the tourist flow
away from the island in the past five years. This does not exclude possible issues that might
appear after the current ones are dealt with, which are also pointed out in the final part of this
chapter.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Branding and rebranding are two separate terms that are used commonly in today’s society.
As Ermann and Hermanik (2018) define branding as marketing tool used to promote certain
product. That product can be anything, ranging from objects to nation and places (Eshliki and
Kaboudi, 2011). Branding a place or destination proves more challenging than branding a
company or a product, because there is no direct ownership or complete control over the
goods (i.e. place), and unlike with product branding, place branding also affects local
residents and stakeholders. Place marketing has become a strategy widely deployed by
municipalities and regional authorities in the governance of cities, towns and regions. It is
used to increase the competitiveness of places and attract target groups such as tourists, new
residents and investors (Eshuis and Jasper, 2013). The touristic market today is highly
competitive, with people from various countries having more buying power and investing
6
more in travel. But while branding may create a positive image and attract potential customers
(in this case tourists), sometimes various factors contribute to creating negative features,
“stale” image, or low visitation. Then rebranding has to be implemented to help improve the
brand image and add value to the brand (Bozzi, 2011). Rebranding involves a process where
an outdated or irrelevant brand identity is modified and re-launched with a new focus. Here it
is important to show the difference between rebranding, repositioning and refreshing a
destination. Destination rebranding focuses on changing the identity of a place (Bozzi, 2011),
while repositioning tends to change the associations a user can have with a brand (Tungsten,
2014). Destination refreshing focuses on adding new features and improving the existing ones,
without changing the core (Gotham, 2007). Haigh (2000) notes that the key steps in
rebranding include naming and registration, logo design and related visual image, market
research, internal communications, external public relations and advertisement. It is often
noted that place branding has important 3 “Rs”: Rights, Roles, Relationships and
Responsibilities (Aitken, 2009). Rebranding is done by choosing and adjusting place
characteristics and brand personality, utilizing communication tools, implementing and
promoting keywords and associations, and choosing and marketing visual symbol ( Ritchie
and Ritchie, 1998). Brand personality can be related to what the brand used to present, if that
presentation did not have negative connotation, in the case of negative connotations and
associations the brand personality should be rebranded as well. Personality is what can set the
destination apart from the others (Kadar, 2013). Urbanickova (2018) states that destination
has to keep its individuality and characteristics, at least at base level. Correcting an image of a
place has to be done in segments, and with help of different research and marketing
techniques. (Nuttavuthisit, 2006). Communication tools are of vital importance, especially
today when our communication is mainly done through one medium, the smartphone. This
gives marketers a unique chance to reach more users than ever. Vasterman (2018) notes that
social media platforms keep gaining in significance during the last years, and that different
from what the users were used to in the classical (traditional) mass media like television, radio
or print media, now the communication became more two-sided as social media permits the
user to have interaction as well as share their content digitally. Moreover, placing visual and
textual promotions via various media channels gives the campaign better coverage and
diversity. (Eshuis and Jasper, 2013). Visual promotions gave better results, especially visual
promotions on photo-oriented social media channels like Instagram, where a lot of brands use
photo and video sharing for extensive marketing (Vasterman, 2018). Briciu and Gulpe (2018)
note that a big part of building a brand is building an identifying network with potential
consumers, because the practice showed that more the users identify with the brand the higher
the chance is that they will covert to consumers of the brand. In that case a favorable image
needs to be communicated to the desired target group, the group of users that is the most
likely to relate to it (Pike, 2007). Once a brand is fully branded, the core idea and values of a
brand are set. Rebranding, however, means changing the core idea, and focus of the campaign
and destination. Rebranding does not have to focus on a destination as a whole; many
different aspects of it can be rebranded like certain areas, touristic attractions, and other
elements (Eshuis, Braun and Klijn, 2013). According to Pike (2005) the core concepts of both
branding are rebranding process are firstly establishing brand identity and core values,
secondly developing brand positioning aspects and finally brand image, the image
recognizable by the costumers. Place identity very much relates to personal identity, meaning
that one individual can connect the meaning of “self” with a specific place (Hernandez, 2007).
The purpose of having an identity is to identify and place a destination for visitors, or its
products and services (Wheeler et al. 2011). Here it is important to mention inhabitants of
certain destination as potential rebranding strongpoints. If the new brand message is
communicated well to the locals, then it is a higher chance that they will communicate the
7
brand message back to the consumers without confusion, and since they (locals) are in
constant touch with the tourists this aspect is very important (Choo et al. 2011).
Kapferer (2008) states that brands are intangible and conditional assents. The author also
states that an asset is an item that can bring benefits over a long period of time, and in order
for a destination to deliver the financial benefits it needs to work together with other services,
as the brand cannot exist without other services that can support and carry it. Ries and Trout
(1982) take on the idea of brand positioning as that brands should not try to compete with
rivals by means of ' me-too ' brands (creating the same associations), but rather seek to create
unique positions in the minds of customers through specific brand partnerships aimed at
markets they tightly relate to.
It is also important to see who is behind place branding and rebranding, who builds the place
brands and who markets it.
Kavaratzis (2015) notes that those who build place brands are institutions undertaking
branding programs in place. Those institutions can be of public, private and voluntary groups.
The author also notes that place brands can also be formed by users who provide destination-
related content and make decisions related to one specific place, the individuals who, in their
way, contribute to the place and finally, the place can be branded by the society. These
societal views explore the impact of the social and cultural context within person or group-
based beliefs and how this changes individual definitions towards a more collective viewpoint
(Kavaratzis, 2015).
It is also important to note that not every rebranding has a successful outcome.
According to Tschirhart and Mary (2005) rebranding can fail due to following reasons:
a) No ownership. On the contrary from companies and goods, destinations don’t have a direct
owner and therefore it is harder to manage it.
b) Internal adaptation. Even if the rebranding plan is perfectly thought trough, sometimes
the vision of the government does not match with how the locals envision their country or city.
This is why taking local opinion and vision into consideration is crucial in the process of
rebranding.
c) Rebranding resistance. Forced rebranding is often a product of one-sided vision and
implementation. Rebranding resistance and bad internal adaptation are often connected. To
avoid this case it is important to do a careful marketing and demographic research prior to
making a rebranding strategy.
d) Confused messaging. Without a proper slogan and image rebranding is incomplete. Good
campaign demands message that is clear and easy to remember. Sending mixed and confusing
messages can only harm the campaign. Under this category long slogans and visions
unconnected to the brand are also listed.
Bennett (2003) notes that the essential challenge associated with place rebranding is that a
brand image suitable for one stakeholder group (for example, business investors) may be
inappropriate for others (for example, pre-existing residents) and thus creating an inner issue.
Also the issue of what the local inhabitants of the place might want to showcase in the
rebranding process may arise (Bolton, 1992). Kavaratzis, Warnaby and Ashworth (2015)
point out to the main issue here being the influence of internal disputes between departments
of local authorities and external conflicts between stakeholder organizations.. They note that
such conflicts are seen as potentially harming to the development of a universal brand identity.
Kavaratzis, Warnaby and Ashwort (2015) claim that place branding is not aimed at
maximizing shareholder value, but at maximizing financial value and social welfare in favor
of local residents and other intrested parties. Here it is more notable that city rebranding
campaigns have a 86% higher chance of failure than other place marketing campaigns (North,
2014). One of the most prominent cases of unsuccessful rebranding in the last years is the
8
case of rebranding the city of Leeds, England in 2005 (Marshall, 2014). The team behind
Leeds rebranding campaign tried to put the city on the global map with a slogan “Live it Love
it”. Unfortunately the slogan was already used in a city from the United States of America.
The campaign quickly died out and their official website leedsliveitloveit.com was (and still
remains) closed.
A rebranding effort that caused uproar among the locals was the rebranding of Hamburg,
Germany in 2009. The image of the city communicated to the audience was that the city of
Hamburg is a rich city with a lot of cultural offer that could be a perfect spot for the new and
rising “creative class” (Braun et al. 2010). This “stereotype image” was not accepted well
amongst locals and particularly local artists who together wrote a manifesto to demonstrate
this rebranding campaign. The campaign has since been put on halt, but the problem
prevailed as the citizens demonstrated the government due to poor economic reality in the city
and continuous rising of real estate prices.
Kapferer (2008) states that brands are intangible and conditional assents. The author also
states that an asset is an item that can bring benefits over a long period of time, and in order
for a destination to deliver the financial benefits it needs to work together with other services,
as the brand cannot exist without other services that can support and carry it. Other services
supporting the brand could range from hospitality industry in the destination to media services.
Measuring the performance in the place branding and rebranding strategies is a difficult task,
but it is essential and with the extensive use of marketing metrics it is achievable easier
(Dinnie, 2008). Here it is important to establish different measuring scales for different place
types (Kavaratzis, Warnaby and Ashworth, 2015). The impact of place branding (and
rebranding) is measurable trough rankings (Govers, 2016). The author refers to two
measurement and rankings categories, the host or the supply side and the guest, or the demand
side. On the supply side it is important to measure marketing communication, more closely
engagement of stakeholders, accomplished through branding campaign. On the demand side
there are three important aspects, news media image, market loyalty and image on the social
media.
Rebranding can be particularly sensitive when a destination is facing or experiencing crisis
(natural or other) (Palmer, 2013). In those cases sensitive socio-demographic situation has to
be carefully addressed as to avoid potential issues. Current immigration crisis brought big
changes and issues to several European countries, with Greece being one of the most heavily
hit. Verhaeren, R. (1980) notes that immigration can have positive effects on a country under
specific conditions. However, the influx of immigrants that has been steadily arriving to
Europe since 2015 is unprecedented in modern history, with over million people fleeing the
war-hit countries, then followed by so called economic-migrants coming from
underdeveloped countries (N,Trihas and K,Tsilimpokos, 2018), especially because of constant
flow of information and digitalization of modern era . Franck (2018) notes that the quick
spread of information via digital media led to quick response from corporate actors and
individual volunteers, counting in celebrities working with various organizations. Rebranding
after a crisis or a disaster can prove difficult due to unreliable factors and the mere scale of the
disaster (Gotham, 2006). With places like Lesvos island, which heavily rely on its touristic
potential it is important to act quickly and efficiently. Gotham (2006) notes that as far as
tourism is an expression of broader social, economic, and political relationships, tourism
development in any particular city, it will show the peculiarities of the place in the making of
its urban area. It is also important to note that different areas can promote different
characteristics, but they have to be interconnected by the core brand idea (Palmer, 2013).
9
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Questions:
Research question number one:
What is the perceived image of Lesvos island?
Research question number two:
What effects did the immigration crisis have on the island?
Research question number three:
What rebranding strategies should be implemented?
In order to fully answer to questions above, the right research methodology should be
implemented. Research methodology used for this thesis is qualitative research of user
generated content provided on different online platforms and promotional material made and
developed for Lesvos island. Platforms used for content analysis of user generated content are
as follows: tripadvisor.com, lonelyplanet.com, reviews on google.com, youtube.com,
facebook.com, and mobile application Instagram. Promotional content was accessed from
visitgreece.com, material provided by GNTO via various sources and material provided by
Molyvos Touristic Organization The Other Aegean theotheraegean.com. Analyzed are also
news articled related to Lesvos island, prior and after 2015 from sources: cnn.com, bbc.com,
cnn.gr, kathimerini.gr, greekreporter.com, news.gtp.gr, dw.com,lesvosnews.com.
Given that characteristics of the place, as well as the positive and negative treats had to be
assessed, the SWOT analysis of the content had to be done. SWOT analysis, which assesses
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOTs), is the conventional way to search
for observations into how to achieve the preferred adjustment (Valentin, 2001).
Analysis was done through analyzing user generated content of over 170 articles, blog posts,
forums posts, impressions and videos. Analyzed was content published from 2005 up until
January of 2020 on before mentioned platforms. Researched were 15 different types of posts
per given year (2012-2020), but since UGC related to Lesvos island prior to 2012 is scarce
period from 2005 to 2012 only covers the range of average 5 articles per year. Keywords used
for finding and filtering the UGC are “Lesvos”, “Lesbos”, “Aegean island”, “Refugee Crisis”,
“Moria Camp”. “Lesvos summer 2013”, “Lesvos summer 2014”, “Lesvos 2015”, “Lesvos
2016”, “Lesvos 2017”, “Lesvos 2018” and “Lesvos 2019”. Terms used for filtering Greek
content were “Λέζβνο”, “Μπηηιήλε”, “Μόξηα Λέζβνπ”, “Πξνζθπγηθε θξηζε Διιαδα”,
“Διαηόιαδν Λέζβνπ”. Articles and UGC in Greek were accordingly translated to English for
the purpose of this research.
News articles analyzed for this thesis were duo lingual, in both English and Greek language.
They were accessed via official websites of news agencies and filtered using keywords
“Lesvos” ,“Lesbos”, “Refugee crisis”, “Moria camp”, “Greece”, “Mytilini”. Articles assessed
10
in English language were published from 2007 to 2020, while articles published in Greek
originated from 2004 to 2020. The number of articles researched in both languages is 160,
with the number of 10 articles analyzed per each year in the span of 2004 to 2020. The
number of articles in not equally divided between Greek and English, as more articles,
especially prior to 2015, were assessable only in Greek language and they make 70% of that
sample, with average of 7 articles in Greek compared to 3 articles in English for the span of
2004 to 2015. The latest article analyzed for this thesis was published on 15th of January 2020.
4. ANALYSIS OF THE IMAGE OF LESVOS ISLAND
Branding before the crisis
Place branding presents turning a location (city, country, or a specific place) into an consumer
asset. Place branding goes under “Urban branding”, that is branding enhances marketing of an
image of a place, city or a destination in various ways by transforming the their visual image
into a brand image (Rehan, 2013). Urban marketing has as a goal creating of reasonable,
exceptional, and shopper arranged rendition of the urban picture that can "pull in” attractive
customers and expanding purchaser spending. Here it is important to make a distinction
between terms “brand” and “branding” given that first represents overall image of perceptions
and associations while “branding” represents process of creating the said brand (Kavaratzis,
2004). Kavaratzis also notes that branding is a continuous process which have all other
marketing activities as a subject. Promoting the right image can have a big effect on
preference-based decision making. Branding can be done utilizing various channels and
techniques, trying to create a communicative way to promote an image of a place using
tangible assets such as nature, infrastructure and location. Greece, and its National Tourist
Organization had several promotional campaigns that had a goal of promoting various places
(mostly holiday destinations and the capital city of Athens) throughout the years. Greek
islands are especially interesting due to their ongoing popularity and rich history. Lesvos is an
Aegean island located in the north-eastern part of the Aegean sea. Its location and
Mediterranean climate make it a perfect spot for a holiday get-away. Prior to 2015 crisis
Lesvos was seen as a somewhat luxurious and holistic summer destination (V, Katsioni 2018).
Although not as heavily promoted as other Greek islands (Santorini, Mykonos, Crete), Lesvos
definitely maintained a well-known status among tourists and according to Molyvos Tourism
Association (MTA) the island had over 75.000 visitors in 2015 alone. The island was included
in offers of many international tour operators and was connected through either direct or
charter flights with most of the Europe. An important note is that Lesvos was a popular stop
for cruise ships, who would usually dock in the Mytilini harbor, and bring thousands of
tourists per year reaching the record of 95 cruise ships in 2011 (EKathemerini, 2015).
Tourism is an important factor of regional development, especially in Greece, the country that
heavily relies on its tourism income, with positive contribution in the country’s economic
development and social cohesion as tourism is the third most profitable industry in the
country (Rontos, Lagos, 2012). Mass media plays a very important role in branding,
especially when media represents a destination with emotional “background”, weather the
emotion is positive or negative (Moufakkir, 2014). Positive emotions relating to a destinations
11
are more desirable as they create favorable images. But sometimes even a negative emotions
(sadness, fear, despair) can bring profit to a destination. The best example of that is the city of
Pripyat, a city heavily hit by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Once deserted and
contaminated, today Pripyat is a popular destination for extreme tourism. Branding of Lesvos
online during this period island heavily relied on promotional websites and blogs, mostly
made by locals or foreign inhabitants of the island, as well as coverage in the domestic press.
One of the most prominent websites Lesvos.com describes the island as pristine destination,
which has a lot to offer.
Figure 1, Homepage of Lesvos.com, Source: https://www.lesvos.com/
Website discovergreece.com also includes Lesvos as one of the top destinations in the
country, showcasing what the island is most known for: ouzo and local olive oil. There were
also dozens of active websites promoting the island that are not accessible today. One of those
being Travel to Lesvos1 that offered information about the island in seven different languages.
User generated content is really important for branding of the island up to 2015, as it showed
Lesvos almost exclusively as a pristine holiday destination. Dozens of YouTube videos
featuring the island show that travel guides were done mostly by tourists themselves.
The data that can be gathered now in 2020 shows us that there wasn’t planned specific
branding done for the island of Lesvos on the side of Greek National Touristic Organization
during this period. One association that sticks out, related to Lesvos island is definitely how
included the island is in the LGBTQ+ vacation offers (Vidal, 2004), mostly due to the lexical
connection between the words “Lesvos/Lesbos” and the word “lesbian” used to describe the
homosexual woman. The term is derived from the songs of Sappho, a poet from Lesvos who
wrote about affection among women (Kivilo, 2010). This association to the island contributed
to its popularity, raising name awareness and by itself promoting the brand image (Govers,Go,
2009). Internally, in Greece, Lesvos is mostly associated with production of olive oil, the
capital city of the island Mytilene, and ouzo from the village of Plomari. One of the most
important landmarks of the island, however, is the petrified forest in the Sigri-Eressos-Antissa
area, and this landmark is showcased in several promotional videos made by GNTO (Greek
National Touristic Organization). Unfortunately, due to rising popularity of other Greek
islands, especially from the Aegean group of Cyclades, such as Santorini, Mykonos and Ios
(V, Katsioni 2018) Lesvos and other Northeastern Aegean Islands (such as Agios Efstratios,
Thasos, Ikaria, Limnos, Inouses, Samos, Samothrace, Chios, Psara) were outshone and were
1 Retrieved from http://www.travel-to-lesvos.com/ on24.11.2019.
12
not given as much attention and publicity. As mentioned before UGC (user generated content)
makes for majority of online promotional material for Lesvos in English during this period.
The island was also featured in guide books, most notably tourist guides written by Brian &
Eileen Anderson who published the total of four books about Lesvos. There are also
photographic albums dedicated to the island like “Sacred Water, The Mineral Springs of
Lesvos” by Maniotis, Doukakis and Hadjidimitriou from 1996. Regarding LGBTQ+
population the guide book titled “A Girl’s Guide to Lesbos” by Tzeli Hadjidimitriou in 2012.
The author also published other Lesvos-related books like Αλεμεξεύλεηε Λέζβνο (Uncharted
Lesvos) in Greek language in 2006.
Lesvos was frequently featured in the offer of different tour operators, most notably from
Scandinavia, Germany and England (Lesvosnews, 2016). Foreign tour operators played an
important role in making the island a popular touristic destination prior to 2015. They also
play an important role in promoting the destination, particularly in their domestic countries.
High number of foreign tourist led to more user generated content in their native languages
being posted online and therefore promoted the image of the island. The peak of popularity of
the island came right in 2015, little before the crisis began with over 95,000 visitors coming to
the island. Important note is that more information is available about period up to 2015 about
Lesvos (news, articles) from the Greek media, in Greek. The island had a relatively good
coverage in the Greek media, mostly focusing on current affairs and cultural events on the
island. The immigrant issue on the island was also present up to 2015, as immigrants kept
coming to the island from neighboring Turkey in smaller numbers during the years. Since this
was a minor issue at the times, the topic was not given as much attention as the current
immigration crisis. The island was a host to many notable festivals like Aegean Doc in 2013,
Beach Festival in 2014 and Graffiti festival in 2013.
Branding during immigration crisis
The beginning of 2015 marked the beginning of a years-long and still ongoing migrant
(immigration) crisis in Europe (Li, 2017). According to U.N. a migrant is a person feeling its
country due to political or war reasons. Migrants coming to Europe through Turkey, Libya
and Morocco are usually from war-hit countries like Syria and Iraq, but also from Pakistan,
Nigeria and other third-world countries marking them as “economic migrants” (Simpson,
2016). The crisis brought a variety of issues with it, mostly to the “landing” countries in the
European Union, such as Greece, Italy and Spain (Tsartas, et al., 2019). Being so close to the
Turkish mainland, Lesvos was one of the first places to welcome the immigrants to European
soil. According to UNHCR reports (2018), 2015 witnessed a total number of 856,323
refugees who arrived in Greece, by 2016 173,440 more refugees crossed to Europe, only to
that number to go down to 29,738 people in 2017. The overflowing number of people came at
the time when Greece was struggling with its own issues, financial crisis and was unprepared
to host and give support to over 800,000 people (Gkionakis, 2016). The lack of infrastructure
and pressure of constantly incoming refuges led to UNHCR describing the situation on
Lesvos as a humanitarian crisis in 2017. Given the limited resources of the islands who were
forced to accommodate unprecedented number of people in a very short period of time, the
humanitarian crisis became very evident in a short period of time (Trihas & Tsilimpokos,
2018). The islands like Lesvos, Chios and Kos needed to find a solution to the growing
number of people. On Lesvos that was opening of Moria, a former military compound that
consists of shipping containers and improvised tents (Tsartas, et al., 2019). The camps
capacity from the beginning, according to UN, was 3100. Overcrowding soon became a big
problem and people started looking for shelter outside of the camp (Ivanov & Stavrinoudis,
2018). During the summer of 2015 it became very evident that everyone on the island of
13
Lesvos was affected, from locals to tourists, and the photos of traumatized refugees started
appearing on the news and social media (CNN Greece, 2017). During this time Lesvos faced a
serious change in the eyes of public, from a sunny, holiday destination to a place of struggle
and pain (Dianeosis, 2016). Names “Lesvos” and “Moria” were often heard in the media,
almost always in a negative context, and the camp soon became the synonym for inhumane
conditions the asylum-seekers were living in (Ivanov and Stavrinoudis, 2018). Hellenic
Ministry of Finance, Infrastructure, Shipping and Tourism in September 2015 declared that
the effect of the ongoing refugee crisis are visible in tourism and economy of the islands in
North and South Aegean, and that will have an effect on other sectors as well. Big role in
promoting the positive image of Lesvos in this period had its residents, who in joined effort
did their best to help the people in need and therefore winning a nomination for the
prestigious Nobel peace prize (Tsartas, et al., 2019). All of the negative representation in the
media led to a big decrease in touristic visits from 2015 onwards. According to authorities of
North Aegean region the Lesvos island witnessed a loss of 58.92 percent of its visitors in
2016. They announced that in 2018 the situation improved, marking a 43.17 percent increase
in visits, with 11 international flights connecting the island to the rest of the Europe. Analyzes
of contemporary researches showed that migration can have positive and negative effects on
destination’s touristic development (Tsartas, et al., 2019). Migration has significant social and
economic implications, according to the World Tourism Organization (2009), by contributing
to the destination countries, by enriching their culture culturally, by developing the tourism
and by diversifying the local food and by offering new labor opportunities. They also noted
the negative effects being the plummeting of wages, social imbalance and uprisings (UN,
2009). Ivanov and Stavrinoudis (2018) note that the constant heavy flow of refugees can
cause a change in public, mostly local, view. The conclude that, even if at first the local
community is accepting and welcoming they may soon start seeing the situation negatively
due to fear of losing potential customers and negative media portrayal. Local community on
Lesvos island gave continuous support to those in need, but at the same time they were
vocally addressing the issues in the media, where they blamed bad international and
government policies for the lack of proper support and safety system, and how isolated they
felt during the peak of the crisis (GTP, 2017) .In 2017 North Aegean Region proposed a
tourism promo plan with the slogan “Exploring the North Aegean Constellation”, a Wide-
ranging marketing campaign aimed at highlighting the islands' tourism offerings. In the same
year over 10 million euros was allocated to Mytilini, in the goal of redevelopment and further
promotion of the city as the urban capital of the Northern Aegean region. (GTP, 2018). The
campaign had as a goal promoting the islands and their unique characteristics, taking away
from the current negative image in the media. Camp Moria became a story of its own, with
multiple media outlets reporting each week about “inhumane and saddening” situation at the
camp (CNN, 2017). Moria at the same time became a place attachment many people had to
Lesvos island (Tsartas, et al., 2019). Hay (1998) states that place attachment can differ
regarding what period of time the person spends on the given location. People who never
visited Lesvos and only heard negative stories from the media were left with no positive
attachments to the island, while people with some connections to Lesvos (past visits,
residence) could form a different picture (Ivanov and Stavrinoudis 2018).
Googling the term “Lesvos island” brings the “People also ask” section in which the first
question is “Is Lesvos safe to visit?”,
14
Figure 2, Google Search Results for Lesvos island, Source:
https://www.google.com/search?q=lesvos+island&oq=lesvos+island&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i59l3j35i39j69i61j6
9i60j69i61.2065j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
This serves as a showcase of what negative media portrayal did to the public image of the
island. Also an interesting point are various groups on social media site Facebook dedicated to
the island of Lesvos, refugees and humanitarian workers that visit the island. They range from
various NGO support groups to variety groups such as LGBTQ+ support for refugees.. Given
that social media is the best marketing tool in the present, the representation of Lesvos there is
very important. Their role in promoting the island became very important since they served as
unofficial public service announcement places for the island. The increased number of NGO
workers became evident in the autumn of 2015 when a lot of different private and NGO
agencies started offering disaster relief to the island. Local businesses, in addition to these
larger commercial players, taped into new markets created by the crisis by providing food,
supplies, accommodation, and services to refugees and crisis management workers (Franck,
2018). This created a new environment on the island, where holiday-goers are replaced with
crisis management workers. This created an environment where “branding” of humanitarian
places became possible. This was also very visible in some other disaster-affected areas like
Fukushima (Japan, 2011), Java (Indonesia, 2005), and Chile 2010 among others (Klein, 2012).
Social media played an important role in spreading the message and the cause, most notably
on Instagram (photo-oriented social media platform owned by the Facebook Group) where
hashtags such as #lesvossolidarity and #lesvosisland have thousands of posts. The island also
has many “fan pages” generating hundreds of thousand followers together.
15
Figure 3, Results for “Lesvos” in Groups part of Facebook.com search, Source: facebook.com
This shows that even with the negative press the island was getting the interest still exists and
continues to attract the audience. During 2016 the island was visited by Eftihis Bletsas, owner
of a popular YouTube channel and TV show “Happy traveller” focusing on travel videos and
first-hand experience in foreign countries. The video was made for Greek audience, and it
showcased the areas of the island as well as some hotels. The video was produced for SKAI
Televison and it was first aired in 2016 with occasional re-runs. The response of the audience
on YouTube is predominately positive, with many people commenting the beauty of the
island.
As the islanders were keep to build back the reputation of the island and attract tourists, the
direct response from the government and bigger organizations was missing. This prompted a
reaction form the locals themselves who started posting about the island on social media using
positive hashtags like #beautifullesvos to promote a more positive image and gradually repair
the damage done by the negative media coverage (AlJezeera, 2019).
5. PLACE CHARACTERISTICS: LESVOS ISLAND When defining a place as a brand, it is primarily important to define what the characteristic of
a place are. Ikuta, Yukawa and Hamasaki (2006) that it is not only important to define
current characteristic, but the ones the place was associated in the past, as well. They also note
that regional branding measures could be more difficult to implement as they are concerning
not only one particular area, but usually many smaller ones. Lesvos island is closely
connected to its region, the Northern Aegean region that is compiled of nine Greek and three
Turkish islands and five regional units (Regional Unit of Ikaria, Regional Unit of Lesvos,
Regional Unit of Lemnos, Regional Unit of Samos, Regional Unit of Chios). Out of that
group, Lesvos is the largest island, also being the third largest in Greece. Greek islands in the
North Aegean region, although considerably far from the most urban regions in Greece have
always been a popular destination among Greek tourists, and are becoming more and more
popular with foreign tourists as well. The islands are characterized with rich history, marking
an important trade point for many centuries due to their position.
16
Positive characteristics
First step in approaching the rebranding process of any kind is formulating the project goals
(vision, mission and objectives) which then leads to analyzing the current place brand in terms
of perceived identity, as well as in perceived and projected image (Braun, 2012). To
understand how the place identity is developed, and how it can be improved it is necessary to
identify the characteristics of a brand, in this case a place. Adjusting and properly formulating
positive characteristics and later communicating them to the audience can have a big impact
on the rebranding process. When we talk about characteristic it is important to make a
distinction between three main types of place characteristics: geographical, urban and social.
First, it is important to note positive geographical characteristics of the Lesvos island. As
mentioned before, Lesvos is an island located in the Northern part of the Aegean Sea in
Greece, in close proximity to the Turkish coast. It is often presented as a holiday destination,
given its Mediterranean climate and natural sites. The island is heavily featured on various
online platforms, from TripAdvisor where a user can find detailed information about must-see
places on the island, to various different forums where the island is discussed, to blog entries
and vlogs (video blogs, usually uploaded on the video sharing platform- YouTube) about the
island. Lesvos is relatively big island, in comparison to some other in Greece (Amulliani,
Skiathos, Limnos) and as such offers bigger variety in its offer. One particular geographical
characteristic, and a popular site on the island is the Petrified Forest. This forest is heavily
featured in blog posts and YouTube videos from the island. Users often describe it as a
“globally unique”2, it is rated 15 out of 66 “things to do in Lesvos” on TripAdvisor, marked
as a third “Top Attraction” and from over 300 reviews to date, it generated an average grade
of 4 out of 53. The issue visitors have with the site is that it has been closed for the past 3
years without a proper notification online, as many of them have noted on tripadvisor.com
and on Google Reviews. Nevertheless, the nearby museum, The Natural History Museum of
the Lesvos Petrified Forest remains open and alone generates good reviews and is one of the
island’s top destinations. The most striking geographical feature of the island, according to
user reviews and user generated content, are the beaches. Many websites generated ratings of
the “top beaches of Lesvos island”4 rating them on the scale of one to ten. Online user reviews
on tripadvisor.com and lonelyplanet.com show us that what visitors like most is the variety of
different beaches on the island. From sandy, trendy beaches, to rocky private get-aways, the
island is rich in diverse offer. The most common words used to describe the beaches are
“clean” and “safe”5 which generates a good public image for the said spots. Adjectives
“private” and “perfect” are also commonly seen in user generated content, and those
adjectives are very favorable keywords that can be used in SEO (search engine optimization)
when promoting the island. Urban characteristics are also well-represented on different
websites, primarily focusing on the size of the island compared to its population (1,630sq. km
to 90,000 residents6. Given that Lesvos is the third largest island in Greece, the island is the
host Aegean Marine Ministry, the North Aegean Region (Greek: Πεξηθέξεηα Βνξείνπ
Αηγαίνπ) and the Aegean University. The capital Mytilini contains about one third of the
whole population of the island (approximately 30,000 residents) and is the administrative
center of the region. The city alone is so well known, that sometimes its name “Mytilini” is
2 Retrieved from: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/europe-western-europe/greece/chios-or-
lesvos on 24.12.2019 3 Retrieved from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g189479-d1069860-Reviews-
Petrified_Forest_of_Lesbos-Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_Islands.html on 24.12.2019. 4 Retrieved from: greeka.com, blog.visitgreece.com, protothema.gr on 24.12.2019.
5 Retrieved from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g189479-Activities-c61-t52-Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_Islands.html on 24.12.2019. 6 Retrieved from: http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/greek_islands/lesvos on 05.09.2019.
17
used as a synonym for the whole island. The city is one of the most ancient cities in Greece
and as such a very attractive touristic spots. Lonely Planet, one of the leading travel
publishers presented top spots in Mytilini, all of which have glowing reviews across various
online platforms7. Important is also the note that many tourists who discuss and recommend
the city of Mytilini online show the tendency of returning to Lesvos in the following year, or
given the next opportunity. This tendency is of vital importance for the, firstly, economy of
the island, and secondly, it shows that creating a faithful and returning audience, with good
marketing program is possible on the island, and that the base of returning customers already
exists. The ancient history of the whole island makes a good base for museums, which are
plentiful. Website Lesvos.com lists ten of the most well-known ones8
out of which
Barbayannis Ouzo Museum has the best online reviews, especially given that ouzo is a very
popular product of Lesvos island. Social and ethno cultural characteristics (ethnicity,
language and religion) of Lesvos island are similar to national social and ethno cultural
characteristics of Greece (V, Katsioni 2018). What sets the demography of the island apart
from other regions in Greece is that the inhabitants of the island made front-page news
multiple times since 2015. Reason for this is the hospitability and sympathy they showed to
the refugees who docked ashore their island. As Verhaeren (1980) describes, the immigration
can have negative consequences on the economic scene if the scale of immigrants exceeds the
scale the area is ready to receive. In the times when the island and the situation on it were
portrayed negatively in the media (CNN, 2017), the residents were ones who showed
humanity in a difficult situation, both for them and for the immigrants. The sacrifices they
made were recognized internationally, more notably by the Nobel Prize Board Committee
which nominated two local residents from Lesvos, Stratis Valamios and Aimilia Kamvisi, for
the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 (UNHCR, 2016). Their efforts showed another face of Lesvos,
a strong community that showed compassion in the most trying times (Reuters, 2016).
Religion is one of the most prominent characteristics of the island and there are many
religious festivals during the year which have been noted by the visitors of TripAdvisor as
“admirable” and “traditional”. Festivals (weather religious, traditional or other) are plentiful
with the most notable – Women’s Festival (International Eressos Women’s Festival/Sappho
Women’s Festival) which is a two week long event “put on by women, and for women”9, and
the Festival is widely accepted by the international audience (Lonely Planet, 2018), especially
by the LGBTQ+ community who makes for a larger part of the audience (GoMag, 2019). The
festival serves not only as a female-empowerment event, but also as a good promotional event
for the island, with many of visitors coming solely for the purpose of attending it. One of the
most striking characteristics is that the island is often described as LGBTQ+ friendly by
various sources (CNN, OnlyOnce, GTP) and sites like LonelyPlanet offer travel guides for
Lesvos island made specifically for the LGBTQ+ audience, more specifically for the lesbian
audience who see the island as a “place of pilgrimage” (LonelyPlanet, 2017). With today’s
rise in popularity of LGBTQ+ friendly destinations this characteristic can be well
implemented in the rebranding strategy, and more content targeting the audience of this
profile can be made.
Negative Characteristics
Alongside positive, negative characteristics (traits or attributes) have to be fully understood
before making a rebranding plan. As Rao (2004) states, the understanding of negative or
unfavorable traits leads to better perception on how to “correct” and brand (rebrand) the
7 Retrieved from: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/greece/mytilini-town/top-things-to-do/a/poi/359492 on
05.09.2019. 8 Retrieved from: https://www.lesvos.com/museums.html on 07.09.2019.
9 Retrieved from: https://www.womensfestival.eu/ on 10.09.2019.
18
product. Overcoming negative perceptions is one of the key goals of rebranding and
repositioning. As VanAuken (2011) noted the brand experience is more often created by the
product or service experience, rather than poor marketing communication. Of course, there
were cases in which bad marketing communication led to downfall of the product, and those
examples are more common in the digital era (the recent example of “Google glasses”)
(Philiastides, 2013). Negative characteristics of a physical product (eg. a car or a smartphone)
are identifiable trough market research, content and review analysis. The same can be applied
for a place, particularly now that online platforms offer many sources of user generated
content. The first issue regarding negative perception of Lesvos island is evident after
googling term “Lesvos island”. The first question raised by Google users is the one of safety.
This might come surprising because the most of the positive reviews contain the word “safe”
when describing the island, according to TripAdvisor. So why is safety an issue? Looking into
the “News” section of Google Search it becomes evident that most of the news coming from
the island are related to the immigration crisis and the bad conditions on the island.
Figure 4, Google Search Results in News Section for Lesvos Island, Source:
https://www.google.com/search?q=lesvos+island&sxsrf=ACYBGNQaY4qau5t6jgX8j189zfCXs7tStw:15795628
82623&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwink5OkqpPnAhUQx4sKHcoIBQQQ_AUoA3oECBAQ
BQ&biw=1517&bih=694
The visitors’ concern is also visible on travel forums (TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet) where
dozens of “safety” questions are rose. User Alina K. on TripAdvisor’s forum raised a question
of begin safe while on vacation on Lesvos island10
. Even if the responses assured the user the
island is completely safe, this question was asked repeatedly in the past five years (2010-
2020). Negative image of Moria camp reflected on the islands general image and led to
dropping numbers of tourists on the island, according to GTP. Safety is an issue that many
destinations deal with, and that is a concern for many travellers. But even with “safety issues”
some destinations like London, where only 20% of the residents feel safe (Popescu, 2011),
10
Retrieved from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g189479-i1459-k11387199-Refugees_problems-Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_Islands.html on 15.10.2019.
19
continue to grow in the tourist sector and attract visitors. Negative image of the island is
further enhanced by the media, who is more often reporting about the issues on the island
regarding immigrants and the poor condition in the Moria camp, then on positive aspects of
the island. The media reports most on incoming immigrants (Greek City Times, CNN,
Ekathimerini) and humanitarian crisis on the island. That question is further worsened by the
new laws that prohibit the asylum-seekers from leaving the island and further causing
occasional riots and protests.
This led to immigrants overflowing from Moria to inhabit nearby areas, setting up
improvised camp. They are also free to roam the island on Lesvos, which was another cause
for concern for both tourists and locals, as the situation with riots and violent accidents
worsened (Ekathimerini, 2019). Here it is important to note that violent accidents did not
happen between locals or tourist on the island and immigrant, but between themselves,
usually due to differences in nationality (CNN Greece, 2019). Another negative
characteristics brought up by visitors of the island is the lack of information in English about
public transportation and ferry schedules.
This is an issue related not only to Lesvos, but to other Greek islands and areas as well
(Aditjra, 2018). Lack of information can cause confusion, and information given in the native
language of the country (in this case Modern Greek language) is shown to have negative
impact on tourists, especially ones coming from an English speaking country (Marcotte,
2006). This can create an unfavorable image of the island as “undeveloped” and “not tourist
friendly”. Next issue encountered while examining content and reviews provided by past
visitors is underwhelming scenery compared to other Greek islands11
, mostly because of its
rocky terrain and hilly scenery. This is an issue that overcomes human influence and is a
problem of general marketing of Greek islands. High popularity of some islands like Santorini,
Crete, Zakinthos and others led to creating a certain “image” of what islands in Greece should
look like. While some tourists are very pleased with what Lesvos has to offer, others describe
the island as “not particularly beautiful” and barren12
. This description goes against what
marketed image of a “typical” Greek island is, if such exists. The ongoing situation with
unresolved question of many immigrants on the island created a even bigger issue, leading
some visitors to describe the island as “ more reminiscent of a third world country”. This
image is enhanced my sights on the island as “Life-Jacket Graveyard”, a pile of life-jackets
left by immigrants that marks their journey from Turkey to Greece. Local authorities on
Lesvos have marked the site as the environmental hazard and as of 2019 are working on
removing it. The site alone was hard to miss as more than 12,000 cubic meters of life-jackets,
clothes, broken ships and other belongings were left there (Kokkinidis, 2019). Kokkinidis also
notes that most of the items are not recyclable and pose even bigger environmental threat to
the nature and wild life on the island as times goes by. This can further attract the negative
attention from environmental groups, who are already targeting the situation on the island
(BBC, 2019).
11
Retrieved from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g189479-r20757696-Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_Islands.htm on 14.11.2019. 12
Retrieved from https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g189479-r20757696-Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_Islands.html on 14.11.2019.
20
Associations and visual symbols
Brand associations are the specific features or attributes that come into the minds of your
customers whenever they think about a brand (Addams, 2018). The associations can come
from a wide range – the association can be a feeling, a celebrity image connected to your
brand, an image of a certain lifestyle or a user, or even your brand-related visual graphic
elements. Burns and Lester (2003) note that tourism is closely related to visual stimulants and
symbols, even though in that time, the field wasn’t researched fully. These associations are
an important feature, as they help in developing a desired image for the brand. To discover
what associations and visuals symbols are connected to Lesvos island it is important to
analyze content provided by:
a) Past visitors of the island and the content they shared on various online platforms
b) The representation of the island in promotional material provided by Greek National
Touristic Organization via visitgreece.com channels
From the first look it is clear that the island’s capital plays a big role in the overall image of
the island. The capital Mytilini is so influential that the island itself is sometimes referred to
as Mytilini (Mitilini) as opposed to its official name Lesbos (Lesvos). This ancient city
(founded in 11th century BC) is the capital and the administration center of the North Aegean
Region. It is described as “fun” and “culturally enlightened” by Matt Barrett of Lesvos.com.
The city is filled with history and interesting architecture, which past visitors like to refer in
their reviews. Mytilini and the island itself have an important religious association as well.
The island is a home to many Christian churches and monasteries from different periods in
history, which are often visited by religious pilgrims. The museums in the city are also well
mentioned in the user reviews (Tripadvisor, 2016) but they don’t go beyond a “place of
interest” category in terms of touristic attractions. Mytilini is also a first place that lots of
visitors see in Lesvos, given that the biggest port Mytilini Port and the airport Mytilini Airport
are in close proximity to the city. The fact that the reputation of a “capital” city is important
for overall image of the place we can see in other examples (Johansson, 2004). In the example
of Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, we can see that prolonged branding of one specific city
can have an impact on the whole country and how tourists perceive it (Wyer, 2005). The
researchers showed that the certain image promoted to tourists of Tokyo (modern meeting
traditional, new-age, revolutionizing) is how most of visitors described country as a whole
(Schmitt, 2009). This shows that branding and consumer psychology are interconnected and
that branding of one place alone can have big impact on a bigger level. Another association to
the island, according to user generated content on youtube.com, tripadvisor.com and
greeka.com is Molyvos. Molyvos is described as a “tourist central of the island” (Lesvos.com,
2013), and its striking characteristic is the Castle of Mithymna, a Byzantium fortress that sits
on the top of the hill, overlooking the city.
The castle gathered over 500 reviews on the Google Review platform, coming to the total
grade of 4.5 out of 5. Users describe it was “Beautiful”, “Historical” and “Cheap” . One of the
complains visitors had is the lack of information in English about the history of the castle,
which is a common issue for many places in Greece. The city of Molyvos esthetically
matches the castle, as the city is filled with stone houses and picturesque port of Molyvos.
Important association to the island, especially in the eyes of people from Greece who are
more familiar with the Greek products is olive oil. This might not be the first association for
the regular holiday-maker but it is evident that the island is very famous for its production of
olive oil. This oil is so valuable that it is protected by Common Agricultural Policy of
European Union. Greeknet states that the average annual olive oil production on the island
goes up to 20,000 tons, depending on the weather, and the island is the host to almost eleven
million olive trees. Olive oil production is very important to the habitants of the island given
that many small-scale farmers press the oil alongside big factories that are located on the
21
island (Greeknet, 2013). The richness of the island in olives did not go unnoted by the tourists,
who rated the The Museum of Industrial Olive-Oil Production of Lesvos among the highest
highlights of the island on TripAdvisor. The museum has over 90% of positive (four and five
star) reviews and is located in the village of Agia Paraskevi. Here it is important to note that
most of the users who reviewed the The Museum of Industrial Olive-Oil Production of Lesvos
come from the United States of America and Greece13
.
After olive oil the most striking product of the island is traditional Greek alcoholic beverage,
ouzo. As Casey (2014) describes, ouzo has a deep connection to Greece and is a strong
association to the country. Different from olive oil, the production and the popularity of ouzo
on the Lesvos island really caught on the visitors attention and is a part of many reviews.
Searching “Lesvos ouzo” on YouTube gives as a result dozens of videos, produced by various
content creators. The production and consummation of ouzo led to forming a “Ouzo Festival”
that is being held for six consecutive years on the island. Greekreporter (2019) notes that the
island of Lesvos is the creating place of beverage industry, as well as the first place that made
ouzo in Greece, after receiving recipe from Greek residents of Constantinople (Istanbul).
They also note that Ouzo was officially labeled as an exclusive Greek product only in 2006,
with the coveted designation PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) being obtained from the
Lesvos towns of Mytilene and Plomari. The island today produces over 15 varieties of the
drink (Burgi, 2018), in small and big factories alike. The island is also a host to the Greek
Ouzo Barbayanni, a heritage museum dedicated to the ouzo production. This site has glowing
reviews on Google, rating 4.7 out of 5 stars, and users’ most common keywords used to
describe Greek Ouzo Barbayanni are taste, family, and learn14
. The site is also described as
“perfect” and “must-see” all attributing to its popularity amongst visitors. The ouzo products
manufactured on Lesvos island are also a visual association to the island, especially given the
big variety of options coming from it.
Visual symbols are especially important in storytelling marketing (Taei, 2017), noting that
symbols play an important role in modern content creation. Visual symbol shouldn’t be mixed
with brand symbol, as brand symbol is one, unique symbol representing a brand (i.e. Apple
products and their logo of a bitten apple) while visual symbols serve as brand associations and
can be more than one (Butz and Yakaboylum, 2005). Visual branding is very present in urban
branding strategies, especially in today’s digital era, where most of the information we receive
come from visual sources (O’Malley, 2017). Visual symbols of Lesvos are presented in
VisitGreece’s video posted on YouTube platform on June 1st 2016. VisitGreece is the official
channel of Greek National Tourism Organization, and their slogan is “Greece – All Time
Classic”. In the span from 2010 to today the organization produced various promotional
videos showcasing the most important and unique features of regions in Greece, as well as
travel experiences and historical videos. The video featuring Lesvos island is only a minute
and five seconds long and it lists most prominent points of the island. They start the video
with shots from Molyvos and the fortress, continuing to Geras bay showcasing the beach,
followed by Mytilini and snippets of historical buildings in the city, followed by Plomari and
shots of ouzo and traditional Greek taverns, later showing Scri and Skala Sykamias, small
villages with relaxing atmosphere. The video finished with “Enjoy your stay in Lesvos”
followed by VisitGreece’s slogan and website. In this video we can six places and points of
interest on the island. The video is very striking, with saturated colors, added sound effects to
mimic the sound of seagulls and waves crashing, and extended shots of sea and coastal areas.
This representation speaks of summer, and as such targets future holiday makers. This video
was posted in 2016., in the time when immigration crisis was at its peak and when the
13 Retrieved from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g189479-d3473263-Reviews-The_Museum_of_Industrial_Olive_Oil_Production_of_Lesvos-Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_I.html on 20.12.2019. 14 Retrieved from: google.com on 20.12.2019.
22
situation on the island was extremely dissatisfactory. Unfortunately today, because of the
extended negative media coverage of Moria camp, many have this exact camp and terrifying
images of overcrowded facilities, riots and drowned immigrants are a part of visual symbols
of the island (Franck, 2018). BBC (2018) has titled Moria as “The words refugee camp on
Earth” doing both video and textual coverage of the situation describing the situation at the
camp as “appalling”, and they even note that many charities have left the camp in protest of
how bad it is.15
Moria camp and the immigrant crisis on the island left a big economic mark, especially in the
tourism sector, as the island suffered a 42% decline rate since 2015 (GNTO, 2017).
Lesvos island in the media
Media coverage means any reporting, recording, broadcasting, narrowcasting, cablecasting or
webcasting of court proceedings by the media using TV, radio, photographic, recording, or
other electronic devices. (Law Insider, 2018).
Media is an extensive term relating to means of mass communication (Kulchina, 2014).
Media coverage can be divided into two groups (Ye and Wang, 2015):
a) Placed media coverage. Placed ads, such as newspaper advertising or public service
announcements, are created by the campaign or by a professional company, e.g. a public
relations agency (PR) employed by the campaign team for that purpose.
b) Earned media coverage. Earned coverage is media coverage produced by journalists, or
freely given by the writer or a campaign, which may be accepted by the media outlet.
Here it is also important to add social and digital media channels, which are the most popular
form of media in today’s society (Wang, 2018)
Lesvos island has been featured in various media formats, with extensive coverage of crisis
related to Moria camp and continuous immigration issues on the island. The reports, on the
crisis specifically, can be found in all big news media outlets, in both text, image and video
format. Most of this coverage perceives the island in a negative way, giving it direct
association with the dreaded Moria camp. Searching for the term “Lesvos” on some of the
biggest media outlets, BBC and DW (Deutsche Welle) brings results as followed:
15 Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v-OHi3iGQI on 24.12.2019.
23
Figure 5, Search Results for Lesvos on bbc.com, Source:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=lesvos&filter=news&suggid=
Figure 6, Search Results for Lesvos on dw.com, Source:
https://www.dw.com/search/en?searchNavigationId=9097&languageCode=en&origin=gN&it
em=lesvos
The coverages featuring the island are in most cases focused on the ongoing situation, and has
been such since the outbreak of crisis in 2015. The main problem with the bad press
surrounding the camp is that the coverage was almost constant since 2015. Unfortunately, due
to worsening conditions and rise of violent actions between different groups of immigrants,
more stories broke out. Negative news media coverage has deeply affected the island, which
relies on tourism for its economic stability. Occasionally, the stories about the island’s
inhabitants and their efforts to help the ones in need have been praised in the media, but the
negative image prevailed. Due to the bad press, the island lost a lot of revenue from tourism
with some of the biggest tour operators and cruise companies leaving the island amidst the
crisis. As mentioned before, most of the tour operators on Lesvos came from North-Western
Europe and losing tourist from United Kingdom and Germany left a heavy toll on island’s
economy since in 2017 alone tourists from those countries spent 5 billion dollars with over 6
and a half million visitors (The New Athenian, 2019).
On the other hand, social media and user-generated content online had a more favorable
approach. The island is well-featured in travel blogs, travel vlogs (video blogs), online forums
and throughout different social media platforms. Dariece Swift shared a picturesque travel
blog of Lesvos island titled “Lesvos, Greece: Our 5 Day Travel Guide” on her blog
goatsontheroad.com. This blog post is a good representative of what Lesvos travel blogs are,
informative with an positive outlook on the island and its offer. This type of content is
important in the promotion of the island, since it promotes the island as a holiday destination
and offers valuable information about the main attractions to future visitors.
24
Out of the websites promoting the island, and focusing on Lesvos island specifically it is
important to note Molyvos Tourism Association’s website titled “The Other Aegean”
(theotheraegean.com). The website features information about the island, publications about
the island, events and activities. The Molyvos Tourism Association (Φνξέαο Τνπξηζκνύ
Μνιύβνπ) has also created five social media channels for The Other Aegean initiative:
YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. The Association states that direct airline
connections between Lesvos and other countries (not counting the domestic fights) are in the
number of twelve and three ferry lines from Turkey. They offer extensive information about
the transportation, fight details and ferry details. The organization also joined efforts with
Germania Airlines to promote the island 2018, under “Lesvos: After all it’s still the Aegean”
campaign.16
Another website dedicated entirely to Lesvos is Lesvos.com with the slogan “Lesvos
More Than Just Another Greek Island”, made by Matt Barrett, a travel enthusiast whose
Greek-themed websites gathered millions of visitors in the past fifteen years (Kathimerini,
2013). Matt’s website offers a slightly different approach to Lesvos, with heavily saturated
photos that showcase the life on the island. This website also offers links to charity donations
to the island, more specifically the Starfish foundation founded by the locals for helping the
people in need on the island.
In recent years it became evident that the average user switched from traditional media
(printed press, TV and radio) to digital media (Daniels, Gregory and Cottom, 2017). Most
prominent platform on a continuous rise today is YouTube, a video sharing service. On the
platform, Lesvos island is forms of vlogs, travel vlogs, documentaries and news videos. One
important notice here is that for two official names for the island “Lesvos” and “Lesbos”
different types of results are given. Searching “Lesbos” on youtube.com in the first ten search
results gives nine videos related to immigration crisis on the island, and only one video
unrelated to the crisis. The results change when searching “Lesvos” where in ten first search
results, eight are either travel vlogs or documentaries about the island and only two videos are
related to the crisis on the island. This shows an interesting “name bias” by which YouTube
algorithm sorts videos.
16
Retrieved from: https://news.gtp.gr/2018/05/21/lesvos-promoted-german-market-joint-campaign/ on 2.9.2019.
25
Figure 7, Search results for Lesvos on youtube.com, Source:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lesvos
Figure 8, Search results for Lesbos on youtube.com, source:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lesbos
Videos on the platform showcasing the crisis focus mostly on the crisis and the situation in
Moria camp, not particularly mentioning other places on the island, just like news websites do.
Travel vlogs of the island are mostly summer-themed and portray holidaymakers as they go
around the island, and thus showing some of the most interesting and most popular places.
On the most popular photo and video sharing social network of today – Instagram Lesvos has
more than fifty associated tags, with over dozen accounts dedicated only to the photos and
videos of the island, therefore promoting it across this platform.
6. REBRANDING STRATEGY FOR LESVOS ISLAND
Addressing the main issues
As seen in previous chapters, there are several reasons as to why Lesvos island needs
rebranding and serious issues contributing to the topic. More specifically, when it comes to a
brand, the branding issues can be divided into two categories by Rao (2004)
a) Inner (internal) issues
b) Outer (external) issues
Inner or internal issues deal with the issues that come from the inside of the brand, a company,
organization or a group. Outer or external issues deal with issues outside of the brand, and
they cover consumers, media and other external factors. When it comes to place branding,
these issues are hard to distinguish because, as mentioned before, there is ,in most cases, no
direct ownership and therefore the collective image depends on other factors. Kapferer (2008)
notes that brands' value comes from their ability to continually add value and yield profits
26
through corporate focus and cohesiveness. So what happens when brands stop adding value
and starts receiving negative reviews? In this case, brands opt to rebrand, refresh or
reposition. The first step of rebranding is identifying why rebranding has to be done, and what
are the core issues. During the research done for this thesis two core issues have been
identified:
1) Immigration crisis and negative media coverage
2) Lack of marketing and branding campaigns
Immigration crisis and negative media coverage are connected due to one leading to another.
The island faced no negative international media coverage prior to the crisis. Immigration
crisis is a big issue, not only for Greece, but for other border countries as well like Spain and
Italy, but unlike Greece those countries haven’t received such harsh criticism, mostly because
the criticism towards Greece is directly connected to Moria camp on Lesvos island and the
conditions in it. Negative media coverage started almost as soon as first migrants came from
Turkey, as overcrowding became evident. That issue is still not resolved completely, and the
bad media coverage continues. In the last months of 2019 newly elected Greek government
with prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis passed a , in the eyes of the media marked as a “very
controversial”, bill regarding migrants, their rights and asylum appeals (The Guardian, 2019).
On November 1st 2019, the 237-page long bill passed, and caused negative reactions from
many human rights movements and the immigrants on the island.
Prior to passing the bill, immigrant on Lesvos island protested it multiple times stating that it
will further worsen their position and demanding to be transported to the Greek mainland
(The Guardian, 2019). In November 2019, according to UNHCR, Moria camp held more than
13,400 people. This was a record number of inhabitants in the 2019 and it was four times
more people than the camp had the ability to host. Europe’s commission for human rights
urged Greece to address the issues on the island and take measures as the situation kept
worsening in 2019. In the meantime, measures taken by Greek government failed to provide
positive response from both European Union and migrants on the island. The asylum center
on the island closed, immigrants are forbidden to enter mainland Greece, thus leading to
increasing number of people on the island. People who did apply for an asylum were largely
denied, and Greece has pledged to return up to 10,000 denied asylum seekers by the end of
2020 (BBC, 2019). Currently up to 70,000 people awaits for the judgment of their asylum
requests, and Greek officials claim that it would take the system up to six years to process
every person (DW, 2019). With European Union closing its borders, the pressure of
registering and accepting asylum seekers is left on Greece alone. In December 2019 Greek
Government addressed the issues of Moria camp, by announcing that they will replace the
existing camps of Aegean islands with new ones, more restrictive of migrants’ movements
(The New York Times, 2019), also trying to detain arrivals of future immigrants.
The rise of the right-wing populism and "closing" of the European Union borders can have
potentially negative impacts on future immigrants arriving to the island. Even with new
measures implemented by the Greek government for reducing the number of the people on the
island, and discouraging the future immigrants who would try to go on a path of many before
them in crossing the Aegean, it is certain that after the closing of camp Moria they will have
no organized center on the island. Certainly the camp has a bad reputation and terrible
conditions, but it is what keeps the NGOs that help the immigrants on the island. With the
unrest in several underdeveloped counties it is expected that another "wave" of potential
immigrants might happen, and with EU - Turkey deal weakening it is almost certain that, if
that happens, the people, potential immigrants, would be facing serious consequences. At the
moment Greek officials report that the country is missing the resources and personnel to work
through asylum request faster. Current waiting time is over six months for thousands of
applicants (Kathimerini, 2019). The EU - Turkey deal that was signed in order to stop
27
immigrants from the, usually fatal, trip from Turkey to Greece showed efficiency when it was
first implemented in 2016, but since then the influx of immigrants steadily grew and Turkey
did little to keep them within their borders (DW, 2017). Already sensitive groups of
immigrants like children, women and young adults would face dangers of human trafficking
and deportation. These are the reasons why the solution to the current crisis is needed as soon
as possible.
While the strategy developed by the Greek government may help with tearing down the
infamous reputation of Moria camp and, therefore, Lesvos island, it may also provoke further
riots on the islands. The Government also plans to put additional 800 members of border
patrol on the most-hit islands (Lesvos, Chios, Samos) and tighten inspections towards Turkey.
In their article about the new bill New York Times (2019) also states that the locals on the
affected islands have also started protesting as the ongoing crisis kept affecting their business
and daily lives for almost 5 years. New legislation and shutting down the Moria camp offer a
new opportunity for Lesvos to make up the lost touristic potential and revenue, as tour
operators and cruise ships slowly start to include this island in their offers again. As
JakartaPost (2019) reports, in 2019 the island was visited by eight cruise ships, which is
significantly less than 91 reported in 2011, but more than a single cruise ship that visited the
island in 2018. Slowly rising numbers show that the situation is gradually getting better, even
though it will take time for the island to reach the former number of visitors again. As
JakartaPost (2019) quotes the local resident Vati, who actively promoted the island on social
media: “"People don't want to swim where (others) drowned," 17
This impactful sentence
shows that, as oppose to its previous image of a peaceful touristic destination, Lesvos now has
a reputation of death and suffering. These two associations are among the most negative
associations a destination can have, and solving this issue requires a big project. One of the
world’s biggest tour operators, now going through bankruptcy, Thomas Cook has returned to
the island in 2017. At the time very positive development is now cause of a lot of concert as
the collapse of Thomas Cook in 2019 left a deep mark on Greek hospitality industry.
According to AlJezeera (2019) many tour operators on Lesvos worked exclusively with
Thomas Cook, and so did some hotels and resorts. Now they are left without their only and
biggest client with incoming summer season of 2020. Negative media coverage is still
present, but not as frequent as it was in the past three years, and the media attention is shifting
to Samos island and mainland camps, which have experienced more riots and unrest in the
last months of 2019.
Negative press coverage was also accompanied by the lack of marketing and branding
campaigns for Lesvos. The marketing attempts from Greek National Tourism Organization
(GNTO) did not result in increased number of visitors to the island, especially from 2015 to
2019. In their promotional video for Lesvos island posted on YouTube Visitgreece showcased
the island as a summer holiday destination, partly using denying visual technique in their
campaign. Denying visual is a marketing technique in which only certain elements are
presented, leaving out other elements (Liu, Horsley, Yang, 2012). This can create potential
issues with the audience and visitors, as they may feel deceived over what was advertised and
what they received. This technique is especially sensitive when branding places, and the
consequences form using it may follow the destination’s reputation for years. Some of the
examples of unsuccessful using of denying visual technique can be seen in branding Egypt
and the pyramids (Liu, 2014) and branding Venice, Italy (Rizzi, 2010). In 2016, when the
video was posted, the crisis on Lesvos was reaching its peak. The media reported on it almost
daily and general public was aware about the situation on the island. The situation did not
apply to the whole island, and many places were completely unaffected but the image media 17
Retrieved from: https://www.thejakartapost.com/travel/2019/05/27/lesbos-keen-to-woo-back-tourists-after-migration-crisis.html
28
created was stronger than what Visitgreece promoted, especially because their promotion
clashed with what media was presenting. Here it is also important to mention the case of
Samos island, also an island in the North Aegean region, that in spite of immigration crisis
witnessed historical increase in numbers of visitors in 2018. While during the same year
Lesvos was visited by 62,647 visitors, Samos had a record of 140,598 visitors from 17
different countries (UK, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Israel, Norway,
Holland, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden, Serbia, Czech Republic, Finland and Cyprus)
(GTP, 2019). The island of Samos is also a host to a refugee camp, but received little negative
media coverage during this period. Another example of increased number of tourists during
the immigration crisis is the North Aegean island of Chios, that was also heavily affected by
the crisis. In 2018 Chios had an increase of 221.5 percent in visits (GTP, 2019). With the
example of other islands who managed to overcome the negative image brought by the crisis
(Samos, Chios ) it is evident that attracting the right audience is possible trough right channels.
Tour operators and their campaigns played a really important role on Samos and Chios, so
returning services of various tour operators to Lesvos should be one of the top priorities. Even
if the popularity of "self booking" services (i.e. Booking.com , AirBnB) is constantly rising,
the researchers showed that a good portion of European travellers still prefers booking longer
stays (especially in a foreign country) trough tour operators examples show that even during
this situation it is possible to conduct a good promotional campaign via tour operators, that
after leaving Lesvos became more active in these areas.
An important factor playing a role in the lack of proper promotion is the economic crisis. The
crisis started in 2009, and while the economy is improving the effect of the crisis are still
present. Frequent protests and strikes of different industries marked the first years of the crisis.
Economic and migrant crisis together led to lack of funds to launch promotional campaigns
(V, Katsioni 2018). The main problem with the lack of marketing campaign and promotion
arose when other destinations from Greece started getting more attention from the tourists and
media. This was especially connected with islands that are a part of Cyclades, Santorini and
Mikonos. The esthetically pleasing architecture of the islands led to their rise in popularity on
social media, and they still remain as top of the most-visit destinations in the world. This even
led to overcrowding on Santorini (CNN Greece, 2019), while other islands, especially ones
affected by the crisis struggled to attract visitors. It is also notable that the island of Lesvos
did not have a proper branding campaign, as many Greek islands did not as well. Lack of
promotional material is also a reason why the island is not as discussed online as other
destinations in Greece by foreign users, while at the same time did not lose popularity with
domestic tourists. It is also evident that more information about the island is available to the
Greek speakers, than to speakers of other languages.
All of these reason contributed to a declining popularity of the island, given that the island
had both inner and outer branding issues. Inner issues were the nonexistence of proper
marketing campaign for the island on the side of Greek National Tourism Organization and
outer issues are contributed to immigration crisis and negative media coverage.
Promotion and brand identity
After identifying and addressing the main issues, the next step in the rebranding process is
creating a promotional and marketing strategy for the island of Lesvos. But before going into
this, the clear brand image of the island has to be defined. So far, Lesvos has been branded in
the eyes of visitors and general public as a Greek summer destination with a humanitarian
problem and a “ground zero” of European refugee crisis. Kalantari (2008) notes that this
might be due to the case that media coverage tends to focus on dramatic events, whether they
are positive or negative. This is not a good brand image as it has a negative association, so it
has to be reversed into something favorable. In case of Lesvos, overcoming negative media
coverage is the first step in defying a new brand image. The extensive negative media
29
coverage mentioned in previous chapters has associated the island with the Moria camp which
caused big hits to the island’s economy and tourism. Liu, Horsley and Yang (2012) argued
that good government communication plays an important role in overcoming negative media
coverage. The government of Greece did, in fact, announce a plan to close the infamous camp,
and with its closing the island should be able to “shed” the negative associations related to it.
Unfortunately, this decision came after years of declining tourism on the island, and many
protests led by locals angered by lack of response from both Greece and European Union. The
government officials declared that changing the image of Lesvos is a big project that would
take more than half a million euros in investments (Ekathimerini, 2019) Dealing with the
aftermath of negative press coverage should be done by promoting the new brand identity,
and having new, clear associations to the island. Given that Lesvos island did not have a
clearly defined brand identity prior to the crisis, other than a image of a sunny Greek island,
as some of its counterparts in Greece do, steps have to be taken in order to establish a brand
new image. According to Kotler (1993) there are four main steps in establishing brand
identity, and they are as follow:
1) Identifying the key audience.
As there is no official information available from Greek National Touristic Organization as
where most of the visitors come from to Lesvos, the data from Molyvos Tourism Association
for flight and ferry numbers will be taken. Currently, Lesvos is connected to twelve countries
via direct airline connections, and to one country (Turkey) via three direct ferry lines. Turkish
Airlines also offers charter flights in the high-season but the countries connected by this mean
are not constant, and change with tour operators and their number depends on how many
booking the operators had for the destination. By direct flight lines Lesvos is connected with:
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Romania, Turkey and the United Kingdom. With the exceptions of Turkey and
Norway, all the other countries belong to European Union. Most of the countries are located
in central Europe (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland), with Belgium, Netherlands
and the United Kingdom being a part of Western Europe, Denmark, Finland and Norway are
part of Scandinavia or Northern Europe, Romania being in the Southeastern Europe and
Turkey in Southern Europe and Western Asia. Through an extensive research it is important
to determine cultural, economic and social dimensions of this audience, as well as their
impact on the local economy of the places that they visit. Since Lesvos lost a big amount of
tourists in the past few years, working on audience development is of key significance.
Audience development can be divided into three categories according to target groups:
a) Developing or increasing audience - Attracting new markets with the same socio-
demographic profile. In this case that would include before mentioned countries and markets.
b) Deepening the relations with existing audience – Encouraging existing customers to further
deepen their relationship with the brand, offering new experiences or royalty program. Re-
targeting existing tourists with new offers and special deals is a common practice in this
category.
c) Diversifying audience - Attracting people with a different socio-demographic profile, like
non-audiences, to existing audiences. This case would include expanding the market, and
promoting the destination to users that, possibly didn’t show particular interest in this
destination but are interested in similar offers (different destinations in same or similar
category).
It is also important to note that Lesvos is popular destination for Greek tourists, and that is
accessible from Athens, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Crete, Chios, Samos and Lemnos by direct
everyday fights and from Athens and Kavala by ferry. Baldacchino (2016) states that
30
researches have showed that ferry connection is important for destination development in
Greece, as ferry represents an important mean of transportations, particularly in case of the
islands. The island of Lesvos remained a popular holiday destination for Greek tourist even
though the crisis, with tourists from Greece making up more than a half of the visitors during
the first two years of the crisis (GTP, 2017). It is also important to note that the island
represents year-round destination for domestic visitors, while it is a summer destination for
foreign visitors. Lesvos is also a regional and a University center of the North Aegean Region
and as such represents an important destination for Greek visitors. The visitors from Turkey
also frequent the island, and different tour guides, news, and free press about the island can be
found online in Turkish. GTP (2018) also reports on declining number of visitors from Turkey
due to the economic instability in the country.
After identifying the audience and working on audience development, the next step is:
2) Determining critical business goals
Business goals, in both product and destination rebranding can be divided into two categories:
a) Short term goals – Something we want to achieve in the near future.
b) Long term goals – Goals we want to achieve further in the future. They usually require
more time and planning.
Given the current situation on the island, short term goals should include: Improving
awareness of the island’s touristic offer, increase user satisfaction, and promoting the island’s
new image.
Long term goals should include: increasing the number of both domestic and foreign visitors,
reducing churn, increasing positive exposure of the island in the media.
These goals can be achieved with constant working on the brand and expanding the offer on
the island in forms of new events, activities and continuous marketing campaign. Goals have
to be realistic in achievement, time, and budget and therefore they have to be well thought out.
After determining critical business goals, the next step is:
c) Define The New Brand Identity
Like in business rebranding, it is important to define the new image of the brand, the one that
should appeal to the audience, differentiate the destinations from others in the same category
and articulate the message in the form of logo and the slogan. Defining the rebranded image
should also eliminate negative connotations of the past and reshape the perception of the
brand. When a destination is a brand, first it is important to conduct a research including
previous visitors and note what were the positive key points of the place and what are they
current positive key points. Trough research done for this thesis of user online comments,
impressions and reviews of the island the results showed that the island’s tranquility
compared to other islands, historical heritage, variety of beaches, and safety were perceived as
main qualities. It is also important to note that a large number of online users claimed to be
either a returning visitor or that they planned returning to the island in the future. This point
can be used for retargeting campaign. It is also important to note what visitors did not like
and those characteristics were as follows: not a typical image of a Greek island, lack of
information, bad public transportation system on the island. Lekakou (2007) points out that
the bad public transportation on the Aegean islands led to declining efficiency of both locals
and tourists as they were not able to quickly commute without their own vehicle. Baldacchino
(2016) states that Aegean islands already have built their common brand, with some islands
growing past that brand and into their own, niche branding. Improving those negative
characteristics is achievable while at the same time promoting the positive aspects. Not seeing
Lesvos as a “typical” Greek island can be the advantage in rebranding the image of the island
because its natural sights and architecture can differentiate it and therefore make it easy to
31
distinguish for potential customer. Szondi (2007) states that the nation's branding strategy is
an attempt to embrace both historical history and present-day living culture, so that obsolete
representations do not blur the views of customers from what might be vibrant modern society.
This can be best achieved through channels like Molyvos Tourism Association whose
association “The Other Aegean” is already promoting this image for Molyvos and the
surrounding area, but this campaign should be implemented on the island as a whole. In
defining the new brand image it is important to establish the visual symbols for the destination.
Muller and Schade (2012) stated that visual are of particular importance for the production of
local stakeholder group identity in locations. In addition, symbols are viewed as essential
aspects of a sense of place (place commitment) belonging. Some of the most famous visual
symbols in place branding are I love NY logo, I Amsterdam and Incredible India. Visual
association can also be a landscape as seen in the example of Santorini, where the
characteristically blue and white architecture is a clear association to the island.
Visual symbols can be well-implemented on Lesvos, as the island has several distinctive
features like the Petrified Forest and Mylovos Fortress. Logos, on the other hand, are difficult
to produce and are often related to the slogan chosen for a destination. Lesvos does not have
an official slogan yet, the closest to slogan for the island is the above mentioned Molyvos
Tourism Association’s “The Other Aegean” but that slogan is copy written and is connected
to the association. Slogans usually contain include functional destination attributes, affective
qualities, travel motivation, market segmentation, brand leadership, focus and unfocus (Pike,
2004).
After defining the new brand image the following stage is :
d) Defining the unique selling points
Many argue that this is the most important step when both branding and rebranding a product.
There is a vast array of ways a destination can stand out, such as unique tourist experiences,
or unique natural features, such as mountains, beaches or other natural sights. When defining
the unique selling point researching competition destinations is of vital importance, to avoid
similarities and see what “works” for them (Popescu, 2009). There are different ways of
defining what unique selling points of a brand are, and the results are, in most cases, a product
of an extensive research. Content research done for this thesis showed that unique selling
points of Lesvos are: it’s relatively unexposed (as a touristic destination) compared to other
destinations in Greece, unique architecture (especially in the Molyvos region), production of
ouzo and olive oil. Sustainable tourism development strategies, which are gaining on
popularity, should also be implemented as sustainable and eco-friendly destinations are
becoming a staple in tourism and are attracting more and more visitors.
One attraction of the islands that stands out in typical summer holiday offer for Greece is
Eftalou thermal springs. Eftalou springs are in close proximity to Molyvos, featuring a 17th
century building, seven smaller pool and one main pool. The springs are locally run and are
closed from October to April, which was an issue for some TripAdvisor users who
complained that there was no information about this issue online. Eftalou thermal baths could
be a unique selling point as they can be targeted to a different audience than a typical holiday
maker, and they add to the uniqueness of the island as not many destinations have this in their
offers.
The final step in establishing a brand identity is:
e) Developing key messaging
32
Key messaging is an important part of developing a brand a communicating it to a customer.
Key messages should not only be unique and represent the destination, they should also be
aligned with the customers. Creating compelling key messaging takes in-depth research of the
market. Key messages lay in the core of communication with the audience as they carry the
influence of the brand promoted. Storytelling, especially in tourism, is an important way of
communication and it is frequently used to communicate the brand (destination) vision to the
audience. Storytelling is a good way for showing the brand personality, and can be used to
promote inclusivity. Bhattacarya (2019) states that good storytelling help brand connect more
strongly and deeply with the audience as well as it helps to create brand royalty.
Implementing the rebranding strategy
After establishing brand image marketing is implemented. Marketing has as a goal promoting
the brand image, spreading the key message and attracting the new costumers/ raising brand
awareness. Smith (2019) notes that when promoting a whole country it is more efficient to use
contextual ads, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and social media campaigns, while when
promoting a destination within a country one should also focus on testimonial services
(TripAdvisor, Yelp) as well as tourists today are more prone to checking a destination on
those services before booking the trip. When starting a marketing campaign first it is
important to target the audience, in case of Lesvos both international and domestic audiences
should be targeted with different campaigns because the focus is retrieving the lost foreign
visitors while at the same time keeping existing Greek visitors. After conducting the target
group profile marketing channels platforms for the campaign should be chosen. Those
platforms should be selected accordingly to what target audience uses and by their popularity.
Pike (2004) argues that choosing and utilizing the right slogan can already make a big impact,
regardless who our target audience and selected marketing channels are. This belief might be
challenged nowadays because it is almost impossible to transfer a message without utilizing
digital media, mostly in the sector of social media. Another marketing channel that should be
considered in influencer marketing. Brown (2013) defines social media influencers as people
with a considerable social media clout whose opinion has a direct influence on the opinion
and decisions of their audience. Influencer marketing has been heavily used in promoting
destinations in the past few years, with both stakeholders, touristic organizations and other
included parties using the influence of social media personas to promote their destinations.
Using this marketing channel proved very efficient to business as over 72% of marketers
reporting positive results from these campaigns (Ong and Ito, 2018). The authors also note
that the influence of social media in tourism keeps growing.
When doing a rebranding it is of vital importance to transfer your message clearly and
promote the new brand image without confusion. Destination marketing is in most cases done
by either a tourist board of a destination or on a national level or by a destination marketing
organization (Jojic, 2018). Rupp (2012) states that when a brand is well managed and
controlled, the difference between success and failure can be a well-defined mark, particularly
in today’s market that is highly competitive. This is because in the minds of customers the
brand forms the foundation for product differentiation. At this point unique selling points
should already be defined and developed for further promotion. Moisescu (2012) notes that
rebranding marketing plan should follow a strict set of well thought-out principles and
marketing strategies from situation analysis to planning and implementation and budget.
Before starting the rebranding campaign all stages of it should be plan in details, but given
that this is a destination rebranding it is impossible to control some of the external factors that
might appear. Those factors include politics, natural disasters and other factor out of the
control of the marketers. Pike (2005) notes that DMOs and national touristic organizations
strive for a geographically broad market and a wide range of segments, seeking to increase
33
interest in existing and inelastic goods, i.e. destinations, thus making destination rebranding
much more difficult than product branding or rebranding. Both DMOs and national
organizations are reliant on government funding, meaning that sometimes optimal budget
might not be met (Savani and Bennett, 2003). When budget is determined marketing tools
have to be implemented. Depending on budget, target audience, long term and short term
goals different marketing tools can be utilized. Popescu and Andrei (2011) state that first step
towards media campaigns is media planning and research. Without proper plan and carefully
conducted research it is difficult to set up different stages of rebranding process.
As today’s market is very competitive and ad-saturated placing a destination properly could
prove crucial for a successful rebranding campaign. Given that the main target audience are
foreigners, it would be best to use digital media tools, and a mix of traditional and digital
media tools for domestic audience. Digital media tools are: Search Engine Marketing (SEM),
Pay Per Click (PPC), Digital Media Placement (Photo, Video, Storytelling and Narrative
Content), E-Mail, Paid Social, Social Media (both paid and organic), Promotional and
Commercial Tie-Ins. Consequently, target marketing tools have a considerable influence on
the reputation of the destination. Social Media presence is, as mentioned in the previous
chapters, of essential value as the world’s population now uses social media services more
than ever (Ott and Seker, 2019). Social media campaigns, their target and reach vary from
platform to platform. It is very important to track the campaigns and their success using media
measurements and analytics. Trough those means we can also track brand awareness and lift.
Another important factor in rebranding a destination are stakeholders, according to Koneckin
and Go (2008). They further state that brand identity for a destination reflects a common
opinion of a destination they live in from various stakeholders such as business operators and
the host community. Stakeholders play a big role in promoting and communicating the brand
(destination) message. Tendency not to include big stakeholders or a destination, like tourism
operators and host business owners, while they are the first delivering the brand message by
personal interaction with the visitors (Wheeler et al. (2011). Instead of focusing on developing
relationships with the local stakeholders, there was a trend in destination branding and
rebranding only to focus on future visitors and to completely exclude stakeho lders’ interests.
As Pike (2005) notes inclusion of local tourism community in the new brand image, and their
understanding of it can make it easier for them to identify with it and, therefore spread the
new brand message better (Pike, 2005). In case of Lesvos island it is evident that local
tourism organizations and business work on promoting the island. The locals of the island
have been described as “friendly” and “welcomin” by the users of TripAdvisor and Google
Reviews, and reports speaking of generosity of people in Lesvos in the most difficult times
are positive characteristics that need to be utilized. Bringing all local stakeholders under the
same brand for the destination would be more powerful for the brand than having small
groups of unconnected promoters (Mak, 2011). Brand image that is weak and inconsistent can
create confusion and distrust among visitors. Involving stakeholders from the beginning can
be very beneficial, and the residents of Lesvos already showed the initiative to repair the
damaged image of their island and to bring the tourist and revenues back. An important mark
would be providing more official information in English (potentially other languages as well),
and working to make public transportation better across the island, as this was one of the main
concerns of previous visitos. Providing messaging in the language potential users speak
makes the user more prone to developing the interest for the brand via language-bias (Sanchez
and Vargas, 2016).
34
Possible issues
A number of challenges is related to destination rebranding. According to Pride (2015) three
main challenges are failing to create the environment and organizational structure that will
allow brand to influence potential consumers, not being able to create the effective message
that can be communicated easily, and creating the messaging that is not equally effective for
different types of audience. Also in case of Lesvos, the delay of shutting down Moria camp
could lead to issues as camp is the main negative association to the island. In case of delay or
higher influx of immigrants in the future, it is certain that these issues would collide with
rebranding efforts and possibly further delay them. Also struggling Greek economy could be
the cause of an issue, as the budget for rebranding the island and the necessity of it, compared
to other problem could be brought to question.
Unresponsiveness and unavailability of information for some touristic spots and places of
interest on the island raised concern and dissatisfaction among travelers who shared their
stories via online platforms. While researching for this thesis that lack on information,
especially in English, became very evident. In current day and age it is expected of tourist
destinations to keep up with the technological development, especially in the digital sphere. If
the businesses do not update their practice they could potentially lose customers as the
hospitality industry is very dense and competitive online.
If the brand message isn’t communicated well, like in the case of Taiwan during their 2010
rebranding campaign trough food, where the rebranding message wasn’t communicated well
to local stakeholders and that created contradictions in what both parties communicated to the
visitors, leading the visitors’ expectations not to be met (Lin et al. 2010). Avoiding confusion
and meeting the expectations of tourists should be a priority when conducting a campaign.
Also inconsistency in rebranding strategy could lead to drop of interest. Social media today is
very dynamic and providing new content constantly is of vital importance if a brand wants to
stay relevant. Good example of continuous and engaged destination marketing campaign is “I
Feel Slovenia” where the campaign is spread across different platforms, with dynamic and
engaging content. As seen so far, Greek destinations (other than destination-enthusiast or
local-run pages) are rarely engaged in active social media campaigns. They are mostly
promoted trough VisitGreece and their profiles, as well as individual tourism organizations of
Greek regions (i.e. Loutraki, Limnos, Thessaloniki).
7. CONCLUSION The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the image of Lesvos island, what are the effects
of current image of Lesvos island in the media, and what aspects should potential rebranding
focus on. Analyzed content showed that the current crisis related to immigrants inhabiting the
island had a vastly negative effect on many aspects of the island, predominantly on its
economy. Lesvos island, its economy, hospitality industry and local inhabitants have faced
many challenged in the past five years. Given that the cause of issues on the island is still not
solved and that it is an especially sensitive topic regarding more than just plain branding issue,
it should be approached with special care. Potentially, if the rebranding is simultaneously
done with the crisis it would make it more prone to negative criticism and eventual fail. With
topics this sensitive, and the scale of media coverage
Although the unfavorable image of the island in the media led to significantly lowered
number of tourists, Lesvos as a predominantly summer touristic destination in Greece, faces a
lot of domestic competition as well. Overcoming this competition and attracting tourists is a
difficult task, given that the competitors are some of the most well-know and popular
destinations in the world, namely islands of Cyclades group Santorini and Mykonos. Those
islands are heavily featured in the media, and their popularity lead to directly associating
terms “Greece” and “islands” with the visual representation of those specific places.
35
Differentiating Lesvos as a brand from the rest of Greek islands is essential for building its
brand, as the architecture of the island and history can be used to create a unique association
related to this island alone. As we have seen in this research, the island itself has a rich
cultural and historical offer that is very well received with the visitors and it also has potential
for more development in those areas. Focusing on unique selling points of the island, like its
famous ouzo production or LGBTQ+ relations due to the history of the island, could work in
favor of overcoming the current negative associations.
From the research it is also evident that the island is very popular with the domestic (Greek)
audience. Even if there is a rising number of pages that offer information in English about
Lesvos, there is still a predominant number of Greek pages that offer more content and in-
depth information about the island, the events on the island and overall offer. The destination
remained popular with the domestic audience, in spite of issues it faced. This speak of how
the island managed to create brand royalty with its visitors, and how domestic visitors should
not be neglected in favor of foreign visitors.
As concluded with regards of content analyzed suggested rebranding strategy would first have
to develop the new brand identity for Lesvos island, which would be communicated through
different channels to the audience. Developing the brand identity which would cover the
strengths and positive traits of the island, as perceived by the examined audience, is essential
for creating a favorable brand and overcoming the negative media image that is currently
prevailing. Involving stakeholders and local residents of the island is of vital importance, as
previous researches showed that their involvement produces positive incomes when the brand
image is communicated well. Creating a unique brand for the island, as seen in examples of
other Greek islands, is possible with promotion of unique characteristics. Those
characteristics should be promoted to the targeted audience using the social media channels,
as they give measurable results and provide precise targeting using adjustable parameters.
According to the Greek government as of January 2020, the year of 2020 will be crucial for
the further development of the situation on the islands heavily hit by the crisis. Until further
action from the government is taken, it is impossible to see what consequences those actions
will potentially have on the island.
With the circumstances surrounding future arrivals of immigrants to the island uncertain at
this point, it is difficult to predict how will that aspect affect the island. Local inhabitants
welcomed the new regular hoping that after their implementation the island would start
welcoming a large number of tourists again. But even with the Camp Moria closed, it is
certain that without the proper rebranding campaign the potential large number of tourists
could only be achievable in a much longer period of time.
This thesis strongly suggest that more research is needed to determine the extent of current
situation on the island and the consequences it will have. Research is also needed to determine
exact profile of the user target group and suitable methods for rebranding, depending on the
budget and means used. It is also important to make a comparison between achieved and
desired brand identity after rebranding process.
36
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ermann U., and Klaus-Jurgen Hermanik, 2018. Branding the Nation, the Place, the Product.
New York. Routledgr.
Eshliki S.A., and Kaboudi M., 2011. Community Perception of Tourism Impacts and Their
Participation in Tourism Planning: A Case Study of Ramsar, Iran. Tehran. Elsevier.
Briciu V.A., 2018. Differences Between Place Branding and Branding for Local Development
Brand Strategy Development. Brasov. Transylvania University.
Zenker S., 2017. Who’s your target? The creative class as a target group for place branding,
Hamburg, Emerald Insight, Available at: www.emeraldinsight.com/1753-8335.htm
Green, H. ,1995. Planning for sustainable tourism development. Tourism and the
environment: a sustainable relationship? London, Routledge.
Murphy, P. E. ,1988. Community driven tourism planning, Tourism Management.
Mansfeld, Y., 1992. Group-Differentiated Perceptions of Social Impacts Related to Tourism
Development. Professional Geographer.
Palmer, A., Koenig-Lewis, N. and Medi Jones, L. E. 2013. The effects of
residents' social identity and involvement on their advocacy of incoming tourism. Tourism
Management 38, pp. 142-151.
Prayag, G., 2009. Brand Image Assessment: international visitors’ perception of
Cape Town. Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science.
Nunkoo, R., and Gursoy, D., 2012. Residents' support for tourism: An identity
persective. Annals of Tourism Research 39.
Leisen, B., 2001. Image Segmentation: The Case of a Tourism Destination. Journal
of Services Marketing.
Litvin, S. W., Goldsmith, R. E., and Pan, B., 2008. Electronic word-of-mouth in
hospitality and tourism management. Tourism Management.
Brakus, J. J., Schmitt, B. H., and Zarantonello, L., 2009. Brand Experience: What is it?
How is it measured? Does it affect loyalty? Journal of Marketing.
Briciu V.A., and Gulpe A.M., 2018. Characteristics of brands and place branding on the
internet, Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov.
Dinnie, Kith., 2011. City Branding: Theory and Cases. London: Palgrave Macmillian.
Govers, Robert and Go, Frank., 2009. Place Branding: Glocal, Virtual and Physical Identities,
Constructed, Imagined and Experienced. London: Palgrave Macmillian.
Grabow, B., Hollbach-Gro¨mig, B. and Birk, F. ,2006, City marketing – current developments
an overview in Birk, F., Grabow, B. and Hollbach-Gromig, B. (Eds), Stadtmarketing – Status
Quo und Perspektiven, Deutsches Institut fur Urbanistik, Berlin
Rubinstein H., and Griffiths C., 2001. Branding Matters More on the Internet. Journal of
Branding Management 8, pp. 50-79
37
Maurya N., Upendra C., and Mishra, P., 2011. What is a brand? A Perspective on Brand
Meaning. European Journal of Business and Management
Trihas N., 2018, Refugee Crisis and Volunteer Tourism in Lesvos, Greece, Journal on
Tourism and Sustainability 3, pp. 125-143
Pappas, N. and Papatheodorou, A., 2017. Tourism and the refugee crisis in Greece:
Perceptions and decision-making of accommodation providers. Tourism Management.
Kolasa-Sikiaridi, K., 2016. Refugee Crisis Causes Drastic Drop in Tourism on Lesvos.
Available from: https://greece.greekreporter.com/2016/07/06/refugee-crisis-causes-
drasticdrop-in-tourism-on-lesvos/
Chtouris, S. and Miller, D.S., 2017. Refugee Flows and Volunteers in the Current
Humanitarian Crisis in Greece. Journal of Applied Security Research 1, pp. 69-75
Vasiliadis L., and Komninou M., 2019, Regional Tourism Promotion Policies in Greece: The
Case Of The Region Of Western Greece, Conference Paper
Young, M., 1999. The social construction of tourist places. Australian Geographer
Bennett R., and Savani S., 2003. The Rebranding of City Places: An International
Comparative Investigation, International Public Management Review 4, pp. 258-290
Warnaby, G. and Davies, B., 1997. Cities as Service Factories? Using the Servuction
System for Marketing Cities as Shopping Destinations. International Journal of Retail
and Distribution Management 25, pp. 56-59
Rontos K., Kitrinou E., Lagos D., and Dlakomihalis M., 2012. Islands and Tourism
Development: A Viewpoint of Tourism Stakeholders of Lesvos Island, Visions for Global
Tourism . Creating and Sustaining Competitive Strategies.
Verhaeren R.E., 1980. Immigration and Crisis, The International Migration Review 14, pp.
89-95
Geary D., 2008. Destination Enlightenment: Branding Buddhism and Spiritual Tourism in
Bodhgaya, Bihar, Anthropology Today 2, pp. 89-93
Philiastides M. G., Ratcliff R., 2013. Influence of Branding on Preference-Based Decision
Making, Psychological Science 24, pp. 38-46
Popescu R. I., 2009. The Branding Potential of Bucharest: Strategy and Success Factors,
Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management 4, pp. 45-58
Popescu R.I., and Corbos R.A., 2011, Vienna’s Branding Campaign – Strategic Option For
Developing Austria’s Capital In A Top Tourism Destination, Theoretical and Empirical
Researches in Urban Management 6, pp. 6-14
Parkerson, B. and Saunders, J., 2005. City branding: Can goods and services branding
models be
used to brand cities?, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 1, pp.56-75
38
Ashworth, G.J. and Voogd, H., 1990. Selling the city: marketing approaches in public sector
urban planning, London: Belhaven Press.
Ham P., 2008. Place Branding: The State of the Art, The Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science 616, pp. 95-103
Liu, B., Horsley, J., and Yang, K., 2012. Overcoming Negative Media Coverage: Does
Government Communication Matter? Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory:
J-PART, 22(3), pp. 597-621
MacCannell D., 1973. Staged Authenticity: Arrangements of Social Space in Tourist Settings,
American Journal of Sociology 79
Belias D., E. Velissariou, Vasiladis L., Kyriakoy D., Mantas C., Varsanis K., Sdrolias L.,
Koustelios A., and Thelios D., 2019. Tourism Destination Marketing in the Case of Greece,
Strategic Innovative Marketing. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics.
Franck A., 2018. The Lesvos Refugee Crisis as Disaster Capitalism, A Journal of Social
Justice, Roudledge.
Kapferer J.N., 2008. New strategic brand management : creating and sustaining brand equity
long term. Jean-Noël Kapferer. 4th edition.
Laurent, G and Kapferer, J-N., 1985. Measuring consumer involvement profiles, Journal of
Marketing Research.
Kotler, P and Gertner, D., 2002. Country as a brand, product and beyond, Journal of Brand
Management,, pp 249–61.
Keller, K L., 1992. Conceptualizing, measuring and managing customer based brand equity,
Journal of Marketing
Kapferer, J-N and Laurent, G., 1988. Consumers’ brand sensitivity: a new concept for brand
management, in Defining, Measuring and Managing Brand Equity, Marketing Science
Institute: A conference summary, Report pp. 88–104, MSI, Cambridge, MA
Kapferer, J-N and Laurent, G., 2002. Identifying Brand Prototypes, HEC Research Report
Zavattaro, S. M., 2012. Place marketing and phases of the image: A conceptual
framework. Journal of Place Management and Development, 5(3), pp. 212–222.
Hankinson, G., 2004. The brand images of tourism destinations: A study of the saliency of
organic images. Journal of Product & Brand Management
Fan, Y., 2006. Branding the nation: What is being branded? Journal
of Vacation Marketing
Blain, C., Levy, S. E., and Ritchie, J. R. B., 2005. Destination branding:
Insights and practices for destination management organizations. Journal of Travel Research.
39
Velissariou E., Belias D., and Rossidis I., 2019. Tourism Education in Greece and Its Role in
Managing tourism Development, Technological Educational Institute of Thessaly, Greece.
Govers R., and Go F., 2009. Place Branding, Glocal, Virtual and Physical Identities,
Constructed, Imagined and Experienced, London, Palgrave Macmillan.
Govers, R. and Go, F. M., 2003. Deconstructing Destination Image in the Information Age,
Information Technology & Tourism
Govers, R., Go, F. M. and Kumar, K., 2007. Virtual Destination Image: A New Measurement
Approach, Annals of Tourism Research.
Hankinson, G., 2007. The Management of Destination Brands: Five Guiding Principles
Based on Recent Developments in Corporate Branding Theory, Brand Management
Ekinci,Y. and Hosany, S., 2006. Destination Personality: An Application of Brand
Personality to Tourism Destinations, Journal of Travel Research 47
Roese, V., 2018. You won’t believe how co-dependent they are: Or: Media hype and the
interaction of news media, social media, and the user. In Vasterman P. (Ed.), From Media
Hype to Twitter Storm (pp. 313-332). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
doi:10.2307/j.ctt21215m0.19
Echtner, C. M. and Ritchie, J. R. B., 1991. The Meaning and Measurement of Destination
Image, Journal of Tourism Studies
Dann, G. M. S., 1996. Tourists Images of a Destination:An Alternative Analysis, Journal of
Travel and Tourism Marketing
Dietvorst, A. G. J. and Ashworth, G. J., 1995. Tourism Transformation: An Introduction, in G.
J. Ashworth and A. G. J. Dietvorst (eds) Tourism and Spatial Transformations,Wallingford:
CAB International
Ashworth, G. J., 1991. Heritage Planning: Conservation as the Management of Urban
Change, Groningen, Netherlands: Geo Pers.
Ashworth, G. J., 2007. Heritage,Tourism and the Tourist: On Bridging the Gaps in the Uses
of Pasts, Paper presented at the International Symposium on Heritage, Tourism, Planning and
Design Practices (Visiting the Past, Discovering the Limes), Utrecht.
Anholt, S., 2007. Competitive Identity: The New Brand Management for Nations, Cities and
Regions, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tsartas P., Kyriakaki, A., Stavrinoudis T., Despotaki G., Doumi M., Sarantakou E., and
Tsilimpokos K., (2019): Refugees and tourism: a case study from the islands of Chios and
Lesvos, Greece, Current Issues in Tourism.
Tomazos, K., and Cooper, W., 2012. Volunteer tourism: At the crossroads of
commercialization and service? Current Issues in Tourism.
40
UNHCR., 2015. The sea route to Europe: Mediterranean passage in the age of refugees.
Retrieved from https://goo.gl/8URK97
UNHCR., 2017. Situation on Greek islands still grim despite speeded transfers. Retrieved
from http://www.refworld.org/docid/5a3cec6b4.html
Simpson, J. J., Simpson, P. M., and Cruz-Milán, O.,2016. Attitude towards immigrants and
security: Effects on destination loyal tourists. Tourism Management
Kyriakaki, A., Maroudas, L., Iakovaki, H., and Charitopoulou, G., 2018. The impact of the
refugees’ presence on the choice of destination and image thereof. An empirical analysis.
Proceedings of the TOURMAN, international conference in search of excellence in tourism,
travel & hospitality.
Pappas, N., and Papatheodorou, A., 2017. Tourism and the refugee crisis in Greece:
Perceptions and decision-making of accommodation providers. Tourism Management.
Ong Y.X., Ito N., 2019. I Want to Go There Too! Evaluating Social Media Influencer
Marketing Effectiveness: A Case Study of Hokkaido’s DMO. In: Pesonen J., Neidhardt J. (eds)
Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2019. Springer, Cham.
Jenkin, M., 2015. Does voluntourism do more harm than good? The Guardian. Retrieved
from https://goo.gl/VePL6j
Cortes, K. E., 2004. Are refugees different from economic immigrants? Some empirical
evidence on the heterogeneity of immigrant groups in the United States. Review of
Economics and Statistics.
Banulescu-Bogdan, N., and Fratzke, S., 2015. Europe’s migration crisis in context: Why now
and what next? The Online Journal of the Migration Policy Institute. Migration Information
Source
Tsartas P., & Kyriakaki A., Stavrinoudis, Theodoros D., Doumi G., Sarantakou E., and
Tsilimpokos K., 2019. Refugees and tourism: a case study from the islands of Chios and
Lesvos, Greece. Current Issues in Tourism, pp. 1-17.
Trihas, N., and Tsilimpokos, K., 2018. Refugee Crisis And Volunteer Tourism In Lesvos,
Greece. Journal On Tourism & Sustainability, 2(1), 42-56. Retrieved from
http://www.ontourism.online/index.php/jots/article/view/43
European Commission., 2015. Greece: Assessing the refugee crisis from the first country of
reception perspective. Brussels: European Commission.
Hernandeza B., M. Hidalgob C., Salazar-Laplacea E. and Hess, 2007. Place attachment and
place identity in natives and non-natives, Departamento de Psicobiologı´a y Metodologı´a de
las CC del Comportamiento, Universidad de La Laguna, Campus de Guajara,s/n 38205 La
Laguna
Bonaiuto, M., Aiello, A., Perugini, M., Bonnes, M., & Ercolani, A. P., 1999.
Multidimensional perception of residential environment quality and neighborhood attachment
in the urban environment. Journal of Environmental Psychology.
Lalli, M., 1992. Urban related identity: Theory, measurement and empirical findings. Journal
of Environmental Psychology.
41
Nuttavuthisit K., 2006. Branding Thailand: Correcting the negative image of sex tourism,
Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 3
Kavaratzis M., Warnaby G., and Ashworth G., 2015. Rethinking Place Branding
Comprehensive Brand Development for Cities and Regions
Aaker DA,. 1991. Managing brand equity. Capitalizing on the value of a brand name. The
Free Press, New York
Baker MJ, Cameron E., 2008. Critical success factors in destination marketing. Tour Hosp
Res 8
Konecnik M, Gartner WC., 2007. Customer-based brand equity for destination.
Keller KL., 1998. Strategic brand management: building, measuring and managing brand
equity. Prentice-Hall International, Hemel Hempstead.
Ward SV., 1998. Selling places: the marketing and promotion of towns and cities 1850–2000.
E. & F. N. Spon,
Sadler D., 1993. Place marketing, competitive places and the construction of hegemony in
Britain in the 1980s. In: Kearns G, Philo C Selling places: the city as cultural capital past and
present. Pergamon Press, Oxford
Kavaratzis M., Ashworth GJ., 2005. City branding: an effective assertion of identity or a
transitory marketing trick? Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie
Kavaratzis M ., 2005. Place branding: a review of trends and conceptual models. Mark Rev
Braun E., 2012. Putting City Branding into Practice. Journal of Brand Management. 19. 257-
267.
Yusof F., and Ismail H.I., 2015. Destination Branding Identity from the Stakeholder
Perspective, Faculty of Business and Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Built Environment,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK)
Pike, S. 2007. Consumer-Based Brand Equity for Destinations Consumer Based Brand Equity
for Destinations : Practical DMO Performance Measures
Pike, S., 2012. Destination positioning opportunities using personal values: Elicited through
the Repertory Test with Laddering Analysis. Tourism Management
Ikuta, T., Yukawa, K. and Hamasaki, H., 2007. Regional branding measures in Japan —
Efforts in 12 major prefectural and city governments, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy 3
Tasci, a. D. a., and Gartner, W. C., 2007. Destination Image and Its Functional
Relationships. Journal of Travel Research.
Papadopoulos, N., 2004. Place branding: Evolution, meaning and implications, Place
Branding 1
42
Konecnik, M., and Go, F., 2008. Tourism destination brand identity: The case of
Slovenia. Journal of Brand Management
García, J. a., Gómez, M., and Molina, A., 2012. A destination-branding model:
An empirical analysis based on stakeholders. Tourism Management
Dinnie, K., 2004. Place branding: Overview of an emerging literature, Place Branding
Web Reference
Phoenix tourism within dark tourism: Rebirth, rebuilding and rebranding of tourist
destinations following disasters
Retrived from: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/WHATT-08-2016-
0040/full/html
North Aegean Region Lays Out Tourism Promo Plan
Retrived from: https://news.gtp.gr/2017/04/21/north-aegean-region-tourism-promo-plan/
Place branding in rural Japan: Cultural commodities as local brands
Retrived from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/pb.2008.2
Greece's tourism sector reeling from Thomas Cook collapse
Retrived from: http://www.thenewathenian.com/2019/09/greeces-tourism-industry-left-
reeling.html
Overcoming Negative Brand Perceptions
Retrived from: https://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/overcoming-negative-brand-
perceptions/#.XiUvVshKjIV
Κνπή πίηαο ηνπ Γήκνπ Μπηηιήλεο κε κήλπκα ελόηεηαο γηα ην κεηαλαζηεπηηθό....
(θσηνγξαθίεο)
Retrived from: https://www.lesvosnews.net/articles/news-categories/politiki/kopi-pitas-toy-
dimoy-mytilinis-me-minyma-enotitas-gia
Θέινπκε πίζσ ηα λεζηά καο... ζέινπκε πίζσ ηε δσή καο!!!
Retrived from: https://www.lesvosnews.net/articles/news-categories/politiki/theloyme-piso-
ta-nisia-mas-theloyme-piso-ti-zoi-mas
Lesbos keen to woo back tourists after migration crisis
Retrived from: https://www.thejakartapost.com/travel/2019/05/27/lesbos-keen-to-woo-back-
tourists-after-migration-crisis.html
Lesvos: More Than Just Another Greek Island
Retrived from: https://www.lesvos.com/index.html
Chios or Lesvos?
Retrived from: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/europe-western-
europe/greece/chios-or-lesvos
43
Petrified Forest of Lesbos
Retrived from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g189479-d1069860-
Reviews-Petrified_Forest_of_Lesbos-Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_Islands.html
eaches in esbos
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g189479-Activities-c61-t52-
Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_Islands.html
Visit Greece, Lesvos
Retrived from: http://www.visitgreece.gr/en/greek_islands/lesvos
Top things to do in Mytilini Town
Retrived from: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/greece/mytilini-town/top-things-to-
do/a/poi/359492
Eressos Women’s Festival
Retrived from: https://www.womensfestival.eu/
Refugees problems?
Retrived from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g189479-i1459-k11387199-
Refugees_problems-Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_Islands.html
One of the loveliest Greek Islands
Retrived from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g189479-r20757696-
Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_Islands.html
The Museum of Industrial Olive-Oil Production of Lesvos
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g189479-d3473263-Reviews-
The_Museum_of_Industrial_Olive_Oil_Production_of_Lesvos-
Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_I.html
Definition of Media coverage Share Cite Open Split View
Retrived from: https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/media-coverage
How to Measure Place Branding Impact Through Rankings and Indices
Retrived from: https://placebrandobserver.com/measure-place-branding-impact-rankings-
indices/
Healing Springs of Lesvos: Eftalou
Retrived from: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1191869-d2602308-
Reviews-Healing_Springs_of_Lesvos_Eftalou-
Eftalou_Lesbos_Northeast_Aegean_Islands.html#REVIEWS
Foreign travel advice Greece
Retrived from: https://web.archive.org/web/20161013091913/https://www.gov.uk/foreign-
travel-advice/greece/safety-and-security
What is Influencer Marketing: An in Depth Look at Marketing’s Next ig Thing
Retrived from: https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-influencer-marketing/
The Other Aegean
44
Retrived from: http://www.theotheraegean.com/
A crisis within a crisis: Refugees in Lesbos
Retrived from: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/05/crisis-crisis-refugees-
lesbos-170502080931359.html
Σηόρνο ε θαιύηεξε δηαρείξηζε κέζσ ηνπ ππνπξγείνπ Μεηαλάζηεπζεο
Retrived from: https://www.kathimerini.gr/1060416/article/epikairothta/politikh/stoxos-h-
kalyterh-diaxeirish-mesw-toy-ypoyrgeioy-metanasteyshs
Μλήκεο 2015 ρζεο ζηε Μπηηιήλε: Πάλσ από 500 κεηαλάζηεο έθηαζαλ από Τνπξθία κε 13
θνπζθσηέο ιέκβνπο
Retrived from: https://www.cnn.gr/news/ellada/story/189014/mnimes-2015-xthes-sti-
mytilini-pano-apo-500-metanastes-eftasan-apo-toyrkia-me-13-foyskotes-lemvoys
Βίηζαο: Μείσζε ησλ κεηαλαζηεπηηθώλ/πξνζθπγηθώλ ξνώλ ζηνλ Έβξν
Retrived from: https://www.cnn.gr/news/politiki/story/129546/vitsas-meiosi-ton-
metanasteytikon-prosfygikon-roon-ston-evro
Πξνζθπγηθό: ΜΚΟ έρεη αλαιάβεη ηελ απνηξνπή δηαζπνξάο ςεπδώλ εηδήζεσλ
Retrived from: https://www.cnn.gr/news/kosmos/story/26095/prosfygiko-mko-exei-analavei-
tin-apotropi-diasporas-pseydon-eidiseon
Σπλερίδνληαη νη πξνζθπγηθέο ξνέο ζηα λεζηά - Αληηδξάζεηο γηα ηα θιεηζηά θέληξα
Retrived from: https://www.kathimerini.gr/1052760/article/epikairothta/ellada/synexizontai-
oi-prosfygikes-roes-sta-nhsia---antidraseis-gia-ta-kleista-kentra
Ξεπέξαζαλ ηνπο 9.800 νη αηηνύληεο άζπιν ζηα λεζηά ηνπ Β. Αηγαίνπ
Retrived from: https://www.kathimerini.gr/918420/article/epikairothta/ellada/3eperasan-toys-
9800-oi-aitoyntes-asylo-sta-nhsia-toy-v-aigaioy
Τα απνιηζσκέλα δάζε βξίζθνπλ ζηέγε
Retrived from: https://www.kathimerini.gr/102806/article/epikairothta/ellada/ta-
apoli8wmena-dash-vriskoyn-stegh
Η Λέζβνο, νη άλζξσπνη, ηα ιηόδεληξα θαη ε ηζηνξία ηεο
Retrived from: https://www.kathimerini.gr/99174/article/politismos/arxeio-politismoy/h-
lesvos-oi-an8rwpoi-ta-liodentra-kai-h-istoria-ths
Ξέλνη ηνπξίζηεο θαηαθιύδνπλ ηα μελνδνρεία ζηνπο δεκνθηιείο ειιεληθνύο πξννξηζκνύο
Retrived from: https://www.kathimerini.gr/46595/article/epikairothta/ellada/3enoi-toyristes-
kataklyzoyn-ta-3enodoxeia-stoys-dhmofileis-ellhnikoys-proorismoys
Death threats, despair and deportations: Three years on the front lines of Europe's migration
crisis
Retrived from: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/20/europe/world-refugee-day-volunteers-
europe-intl/index.html
45
Lessons from Lesbos: Can tourism survive amid migrant crisis?
Retrived from: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/01/europe/lesbos-greece-migrant-crisis-
syria/index.html
Why do most city branding campaigns fail?
Retrived from: https://www.citymetric.com/business/why-do-most-city-branding-campaigns-
fail
Με απεπζείαο αλαζέζεηο κέρξη ηνλ Ινύλην νη λέεο δνκέο θαη ε δηαρείξηζε ηνπ
κεηαλαζηεπηηθνύ! Χνξόο εθαηνκκπξίσλ
Retrived from: https://www.lesvosnews.net/articles/news-categories/politiki/me-apeytheias-
anatheseis-mehri-ton-ioynio-oi-nees-domes-kai-i
Greece’s tourism industry left reeling from Thomas Cook collapse
Retrived from: http://www.thenewathenian.com/2019/09/greeces-tourism-industry-left-
reeling.html
6 Things These Brand Identities Can Teach Us About Visual Brand Association
Retrived from: https://www.zilliondesigns.com/blog/brand-identities-teach-visual-brand-
association/
Law Insider, Media Coverage Definition
Retrieved from: https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/media-coverage GTP, Lesvos in Drive to Restore Reputation Ahead of Summer 2018 Retrieved from: https://news.gtp.gr/2018/02/13/lesvos-drive-restore-reputation-ahead-summer-2018/
Top Related