Tourism Destination Branding as a Marketing Factor: A Short Literature Review with a Focus on Northern Cyprus

This research aims to evaluate the effects of "branding" on client satisfaction and loyalty within the framework of marketing management studies. As a result, brand image and destination brand loyalty were used as two mediators to examine customer happiness and loyalty. The premise is that the success of the lodging industry (i.e., four- and five-star hotels) significantly impacts a destination's profitable tourism sector. However, the lodging industry can succeed if there is a base of devoted and contented clients. A significant role in mediating this result is branding. Contextually, the study used the Northern Cyprus as a case to investigate and examine the elements that establish the island's "brand" description and how much branding may be used as a marketing tool. The results show that customers' contributions to the delivery and use of destination services do not have a beneficial impact on the brand image of the destination, nor does brand image serve as a mediator between customers' contributions and destination brand loyalty. Regarding the clients' willingness to get service with no input, this can be explained. Moreover, customer satisfaction is acknowledged as having a favorable impact on the perception of a location. The relationship between service quality and loyalty is consistent with earlier research. Service quality positively impacts customer satisfaction, albeit the findings were lower than anticipated.